Conducted Electromagnetic Interference Energy Harvesting for Green Communication of IoT Sensors

A new energy harvesting technology is proposed to harvest energy from conducted electromagnetic interference of a fluorescent light on a ceiling. An electronic ballast circuit composing a fluorescent light generates a conducted leakage current on a metal structure, such as a lampshade and reflector. Such a conducted current is used as a harvesting source in the proposed technology. To show the feasibility of the proposed technology, a conducted current was measured for a fluorescent light and its power was analyzed. The measurement results showed that the harvesting energy reaches up as high as 15.7 dBm. The proposed technology can be used for the Internet of Things sensors located on a ceiling. Energy harvesting enables the sensors to be operated without any power supply, so green communication is achieved for the sensors.