Experimental Demonstration of Wireless Energy Harvesting for ZigBee Wireless Communication

The development of a robust and independent wireless sensor node becomes a demand for modern wireless communication. The current study proposes wireless power transfer over a long distance to feed a ZigBee wireless module, which is connected to various environmental sensors. The rectenna design is based on a compact Vivaldi antenna integrated with a multilevel RF-DC rectifier. The antenna provides end-fire radiation with a realized gain of 1-2 dBi at 920 MHz. The RF-DC rectifier is stacked to boost output voltage to higher levels sufficient for supplying the ZigBee module. The demonstration was conducted at a long distance of 9-10 m; the received output power is enough to start-up the communication and keep sustainable data transmission. The data is taken and processed at a remote PC. The measurements were visualized and introduced to illustrate the proposed real application clearly.