R.F. energy collection circuit for wireless devices

Abstract

An R.F. energy collection circuit, provides a low-loss R.F. front end tuned to minimize lost power in R.F. bands commonly used for communications for passing substantially coherent R.F. signals received therefrom, a rectifier circuit coupled to receive coherent R.F. energy from the front end, and an energy storage circuit coupled to receive energy from the rectifier circuit.

Claims

1. An RF energy collection circuit used to harvest ambient energy for a wireless device or appliance, comprising a low-loss RF front-end containing one or more RF filtering stages formed from a broadband dipole antenna embedded in amorphous silica glass ceramic; wherein the one or more RF filtering stages have one or more selective-frequency pass bands formed by folding the anus of the dipole antenna to insert: capacitive loads in series or in parallel at locations where the arms of the dipole antenna are folded to align current vectors in anti-parallel directions, and, inductive loads in series or in parallel where the arms of the dipole antenna are folded to align current vectors in parallel directions, such that, the one or more selective-frequency pass bands of the one or more RF filtering stages are resonant at primary frequency bands used for global civilian communications.

2. The RF energy collection circuit of claim 1, wherein the primary frequency bands are at the 450 MHz cellular band, the 900 MHz band used for American Mobile Phone System (AMPS) band, the 1600 MHz global positioning satellite (GPS) band, the 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz global system mobile (GSM) band, and the 2.5 GHz WiFi bands.

3. The RF energy collection circuit of claim 1, wherein the ambient energy harvested by the broadband dipole antenna is fed through a rectification circuit.

4. The energy collection circuit of claim 3, wherein the rectification circuit supplies a storage circuit that is capable of supplying harvested ambient energy to augment the power of a signal transmitted by the wireless device or appliance.

5. The low-loss RF front-end of claim 1, wherein the broadband dipole antenna is configured on a thermally stable miniaturized artificial magnetic conducting (AMC) ground plane.

6. The low-loss RF front-end of claim 5, wherein additional circuit elements are laminated on the backside of the artificial magnetic conducting (AMC) ground plane.

7. The low-loss front-end of claim 6, wherein the additional circuit elements laminated on the backside of the artificial magnetic conducting (AMC) ground plane include transformers, inductors, capacitors and resistors.

8. The low-loss RE front-end of claim 6, wherein the additional circuit elements laminated on the backside of the artificial magnetic conducting (AMC) ground plane include power transistors or diodes.

9. The low-loss RF front-end of claim 1, wherein the broadband dipole antenna is embedded in a composite dielectric comprising amorphous silica that has an effective permittivity that varies 510.sup.2 C.

10. The low-loss RF front end of claim 1, wherein the broadband dipole antenna is embedded in a composite dielectric comprising amorphous silica that has an effective permittivity that varies 910.sup.3 C.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) For a better understanding of the present invention, together with other and further aspects thereof, reference is made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures of the drawing, wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an extended range passive RFID architecture that harvests energy from the RF environment to power the signal sent to the remote interrogator;

(3) FIG. 2 depicts the return loss of a broadband antenna element that is tuned to selectively absorb energy from signals commonly found in the modern RF environment;

(4) FIGS. 3A and 3B depict the return loss and reflection coefficients, respectively, of narrow conductance band antenna that eliminates the need for additional RF filtering stages in the RFID tag or the read head;

(5) FIG. 4 depicts a physical design of a planar RFID device; and

(6) FIG. 5. shows TABLE 1, which compares the power losses in a conventional RF front-end used in code-division multiple access (CDMA) to the power losses in an RF front-end that contains a narrow conductance band antenna.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(7) The read range of an RFID device, passive or otherwise, is determined by the residual power detectable in dBWatts (dBW) at the remote read head, P.sub.r, which is determined by:
P.sub.r=P.sub.tL.sub.p+G.sub.t+G.sub.rL.sub.tL.sub.r,(1)
where P.sub.t is the radio frequency (RF) power transmitted by the RFID tag, L.sub.p is the signal path loss, G.sub.t and G.sub.r, are the antenna gain of the RIM tag (t) and the remote read head (r) respectively, L.sub.t and L.sub.r represent the transmission line losses between the transmitter circuit and the tag antenna and the read antenna and the read head receiver circuitry, with all values reported in dBW except for the antenna gains which are reported in dBi. The free space signal path loss is determined by:
L.sub.p=36.6+20 log([MHz])+20 log(d[miles]),(2)
where is the signal frequency in megahertz units (MHz) and d is the distance in units of miles. Therefore, at a distance of 10 miles the free space path loss for a 900 MHz signal is significant (116 dBW). Signal loss due to scattering and attenuation caused by features in the landscape and buildings can easily drive path loss values up to 140-160 dBW, which makes the task of remotely detecting the RFID tag quite challenging.

(8) In order to extend the range of remote RFID devices it therefore is essential to increase the transmitted power at the RIFD tag (P.sub.t), increase the gain of the tag and read head antennas (G.sub.t) and (G.sub.r), respectively, and minimize the transmission line losses in the interconnects placing the transmission circuitry in electrical communication with the tag antenna (L.sub.t), and the receiver circuitry in electrical communication with the receive antenna (L.sub.r). As described in the background, the present invention provides a means to minimize transmission line losses (L.sub.t and L.sub.r) by embedding low resistivity alloys or noble metals (copper, silver or gold) in amorphous silica glass ceramic, which is used in optical fiber applications for its ultra-low dielectric loss (tan 210.sup.5).

(9) A limitation to state-of-the-art passive RFID tags is that the interrogator signal is used to activate and power the chirp signal. At a distance of 10 miles, the power of a 900 MHz interrogator signal is already reduced by 116 dBW (in free space). If it requires 15 dBW to 18 dBW to activate the transmitted read signal, the total loss (assuming no transmission line losses i.e., L.sub.t and L.sub.r=0) for the round trip is 247 dBW to 250 dBW. This level of loss makes it extremely difficult to operate a passive RFID system, particularly if the interrogator signal powers the chirp signal. This limitation is overcome by the current invention.

(10) Reference is now made to FIGS. 1 & 2 which depict features of the present invention. The extended range passive RFID 101, shown in FIG. 1, uses a selective-frequency broadband antenna system 103 to harvest ambient power from the RF environment. The antenna system is a dipole antenna folded in such a way that current vectors along the dipole arms form capacitive loads (when aligned in anti-parallel directions) and inductive loads (when aligned in parallel directions). By properly folding the arms one can construct one or more RF filtering stages by inserting capacitive and inductive load elements in series or in parallel to create frequency selective pass bands. Further details of this method and technology are described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/355,755, filed Jun. 17, 2010 and entitled FREQUENCY SELECTIVE DIPOLE ANTENNAS, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

(11) FIG. 2 shows the selective frequency response of a folded dipole that is designed to be resonant at the primary frequencies for civilian communications and navigation, with resonant frequencies at the 450 MHz cellular band 151, the 900 MHz bands used for the American Mobile Phone System (AMPS) bands 153, the 1600 MHz global positioning satellite (GPS) bands 155, the 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz global system mobile (GSM) bands 157, and the 2.5 GHz (2500 MHz) WiFi bands 159. This selective-frequency broadband antenna system 103 allows the passive RFID system 101 to harvest energy from the RE environment that is readily available from the civilian wireless communications infrastructure. The selective-frequency broadband antenna need not be tuned to these frequencies, and can be tuned to an arbitrary set of frequencies that could readily harvest power from any given RF environment. These bands are cited here because they are widely used in the global civilian communications infrastructure and can readily supply RF power to the passive tag in most locations around the world.

(12) The RE power harvested by selective-frequency broadband antenna element 103 is then fed through a rectification circuit 105, which may either be a diode bridge or a center-feed transformer 107 as shown in FIG. 1, which stores the energy in a lumped circuit (LC) storage tank 109. The LC storage tank 109 may comprise one or more inductor coils, capacitor and/or resistor elements, or may comprise any device that is capable of storing the harvested RF power for later use. This energy harvested from the RF environment is now available to augment the power of the transmitted signal P.sub.t from the passive RFID tag, which is needed to extend its read range.

(13) Alternatively to the RFID circuit shown in fig one, the energy collection and storage circuitry described thus far in components 103, 105, 107 and 109 may be used for providing power to any sort of wireless device or appliance. This includes, but is not limited to cell phones, computing devices, GPS devices, pagers, radios, etc. For this purpose, it may be desirable to include a rechargeable battery 108 and diode 110, connected in phantom, to store power either from storage tank 109 or directly from rectifier 105.

(14) As referenced above and in the background, conventional passive RFID systems rely on the interrogator signal to both activate and supply the power for the transmitted chirp signal. At long distances, such as 10 miles or more, the interrogator power is already diminished by signal path losses, so a 15 dBW to 18 dBW loss associated with activating the chirp signal is highly undesirable. It is therefore a desirable embodiment of the present invention to utilize a weak interrogator signal to activate a switch 111 that dumps the harvested and stored RF power into the transmit circuitry of the extended range passive RFID system 101. Reference is now made to FIGS. 1, 3A, 3B and Table 1 of FIG. 5 to illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention to maximize performance in this regard. The tag's interrogator-receive antenna 113 registers the interrogator signal, which it then passes through a rectifier circuit 115. Rectifier circuit 115 is representational in FIG. 1 and may be a center-feed transformer or a rectifying diode bridge. The interrogator-receive circuitry may additionally contain command circuitry (not shown) that may receive digitally encoded instructions to alter the modulation encoding (also not shown) in the RFID system's 101 transmit circuitry 117 to communicate information about the asset, such as maximum exposed temperatures, applied g-forces, or evidence of tampering. The weak interrogator is then used as a base current for a power transistor that functions as the switch 111. The LC storage tank 109 supplies both the collector voltage V.sub.c and the collector I.sub.c for the switch 111, while the rectified weak interrogator signal provides base current for the switch 111. Since gain for the switch 111 is a function of the base current derived from the weak interrogator signal, it may be desirable for the interrogator-receive circuit to also contain a power management or collection system 119 that allows the base current supplied to the switch 111 to obtain a threshold value that maximizes the transmitted power P.sub.t from the extended range passive RFID system. The emitter current and voltage emerging from the switch 111 is then used to power the transmit circuitry 117 that may optionally include an oscillator, a power amplifier, and modulation circuitry that encodes specific information about the asset's status for transmission back to the remote read head.

(15) As alternatively referred to above, the representational transmit circuitry 117 may also be embodied by any form of wireless device or appliance such as cell phones, computing devices, GPS devices, pagers, radios, etc. while components 103, 105, 107 and 109 work as a recharging and power supply.

(16) As noted above, it is desirable to minimize transmission line losses in the tag and the read head. This may also include RF front-end losses from filters that are used to improve overall signal integrity in the system. To this end, it is a preferred embodiment of this invention to utilize antenna elements that have been tuned to have narrow conductance band frequency selectivity as shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B using the current vector alignment methods described above. In this instance, the RF filtering stages built in to the folded dipole antenna limit the resonant band of the interrogator-receive antenna 113 and the transmit antenna 121 to a narrow communications band 201 of signal frequencies. Since this antenna tuning provides a voltage standing wave ratios (VSWR) frequency 203 bandwidth that is much wider than the conductance bandwidth 201, this antenna tuning both filters spurious noise from the interrogator-receive antenna 113 and eliminates undesirable emissions from the transmit antenna 121.

(17) Table 1 provides an analysis of the power that is wasted in an RF front-end designed for code division multiple access (CDMA) communications using conventional filters to an RF front-end that uses a narrow conductance band antenna. Not only is there a 60% reduction in the power wasted through the front-end circuit, the resultant power savings additionally allow a power amplifier (PA) contained in the transmit circuitry 117 to operated at lower back-off voltage, which allows it to operate at much higher efficiency. It is therefore a preferred embodiment of the present invention to use narrow conductance band frequency-selective antenna tuning not just for the interrogator-receive and tag transmit circuits, but also for the read-head antenna system.

(18) Signal path loss can be reduced by using a lower signaling frequency. For instance, 10-30 MHz signaling frequencies reduce the free space path loss from the tag to the receive head from 116 dBW to 74-80 dBW. Lower signaling frequencies consequently require antennas that are much larger in size to achieve higher efficiencies and high gain. This proportionally makes the device much larger in overall size. For the purpose of concealment, it is therefore advantageous to have a smaller device that operates at lower frequency and also has high gain and excellent power efficiency characteristics. It is therefore a preferred embodiment of the invention to use meta-material dielectrics that apply the aforementioned antenna turnings to electrically small antennas embedded within the meta-material dielectric.

(19) Finally, it is desirable that the present invention be easily concealable within a planar surface of the asset or its container. Reference is now made to FIG. 4 to describe a preferred embodiment of the invention in which the antenna systems 251 are configured on a thermally stable miniaturized artificial magnetic conducting (AMC) ground plane 253 that comprises high-energy ceramic meta-material dielectric. To improve system planarity it is also desirable to have all the additional circuit elements, such as the power transistors, diodes, passive components (transformers, inductors, capacitors, resistors)(not shown in FIG. 4)laminated on the backside 255 of said AMC ground plane 253 adjacent to any active semiconductor chip components that may be needed to complete the circuit.

(20) All of the electronic components shown and represented in FIG. 1 may be optimally constructed using the techniques described in the patents and patent applications incorporated herein by reference.

(21) Although the invention has been described with respect to various embodiments, it should be realized this invention is also capable of a wide variety of further and other embodiments within the spirit and scope of the present invention.