A technology to generate power from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio waves flying through space is developed, a step towards realizing devices that can run permanently without batteries
A research team including Tohoku University has developed a technology that can generate electricity from the weak communication radio waves used in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other communication technologies, to generate enough power to run electronic devices.
Nanoscale spin rectifiers for harvesting ambient radiofrequency energy | Nature Electronics
Spintronics enables energy harvesting from weak radio waves for wireless communication | AIMR
https://www.wpi-aimr.tohoku.ac.jp/jp/achievements/press/2024/20240805_001835.html
We are surrounded by countless radio waves for communication such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and it is hoped that by harnessing the energy of these radio waves to generate power, we can realize 'electronic devices that can operate continuously without batteries or power sources. However, the strength of typical communication radio waves is extremely weak, at -20
Now, an international research team including Professor Fukami Shunsuke of the Tohoku University Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Professor Ohno Hideo of the Center for Advanced
The developed spin rectifier consists of a magnetic tunnel junction made of a compound of cobalt, iron, and boron and magnesium oxide. According to the research team, the shape and magnetic anisotropy of the magnetic tunnel junction, the characteristics of the tunnel barrier, etc. were taken into consideration to design the device in order to improve the efficiency of conversion from communication radio waves to direct current voltage.
In experiments using a single spin rectifier element, they succeeded in extracting DC voltage with an efficiency of about 10,000 mV/mW from an input of communication radio waves of -62 dBm to -20 dBm. In addition, when 10 spin rectifier elements were connected in series, they succeeded in converting an input of -50 dBm to DC voltage with an efficiency of 34,500 mV/mW.
Furthermore, in an experiment in which 10 spin rectifier elements were connected in series, they were able to generate enough power to drive a commercially available temperature sensor from a weak radio wave of -27 dBm.
The research team compared the experimental results with numerical calculations and concluded that the characteristics obtained this time are due to 'self-parametric excitation' via the phenomenon in which magnetic anisotropy changes with voltage. According to Tohoku University, parametric excitation is a phenomenon in which the vibration and response of a system are amplified by changing the parameters of the system over time.
As for future developments, the research team has stated that they plan to work on improving the conversion efficiency at the individual element level, integrating it with an on-chip antenna, and increasing output power by combining series and parallel connections of elements. The research team stated, 'We hope that these studies will open up more concrete prospects for the social implementation of this technology.'
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