Internet of Things (IoT) is a new emerging paradigm which requires billions of wirelessly connected devices that communicate with each other in a complex radio-frequency (RF) environment. Considering the huge number of devices, recharging batteries or replacing them becomes impractical in real life. Therefore, harvesting ambient RF energy for powering IoT devices can be a practical solution to achieve self-charging operation. The antenna for the RF energy harvesting application must work on multiple frequency bands (multiband or wideband) to capture as much power as possible from ambient; it should be compact and small in size so that it can be integrated with IoT devices; and it should be low cost, considering the huge number of devices. This thesis presents a fully printed 3D cube Cantor fractal RF energy harvesting unit, which meets the above-mentioned criteria. The multiband Cantor fractal antenna has been designed and implemented on a package of rectifying circuits using additive manufacturing (combination of 3D inkjet printing of plastic substrate and 2D metallic screen printing of silver paste) for the first time for RF energy harvesting application. The antenna, which is in a Cantor fractal shape, is folded on five faces of a 3D cube where the bottom face accommodates rectifying circuit with matching network. The rectenna (rectifying antenna) harvests RF power from GSM900, GSM1800, and 3G at 2100 MHz frequency. Indoor and outdoor field tests of the RF energy harvester have been conducted in the IMPACT lab and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) campus territory, and 252.4 mV of maximum output voltage is harvested.

L’Internet-of-Things désigne un développement en plein essor d’objets interconnectés et qui sont susceptibles de modifier nombre de services au sein de l’industrie comme pour la personne. Les développements actuels buttent sur plusieurs verrous dont celui de l’autonomie énergétique des objets ou encore des procédés de fabrication économiquement acceptables et respectueux de la planète. Dans ce contexte, la récupération d'énergie est une thématique largement répandue faisant appel à des sources très variées (mécanique, thermique, électromagnétique...). Cette thèse est notamment orientée vers la récupération d'énergie électromagnétique ambiante. Le second point caractéristique de cette thèse est de s'intéresser à des substrats souples et si possible recyclables. Le défi consiste à récupérer l’énergie provenant d’un champ électromagnétique ambiant extrêmement faible : ceci concerne l’antenne, qui doit par ailleurs répondre à une exigence de flexibilité pour son intégration future à un objet souple et déformable, et l’électronique de traitement de l’énergie.Le travail de thèse est articulé autour de trois phases principales :Dans la première phase, il s’agissait de l’étude des structures d’antennes compatibles en fréquence et en puissance reçue avec l’application de récupération d’énergie et une réalisation physique sur base souple (papier, tissu...). Cette phase a permis de présenter les différentes approches pour combiner les sources RF.Dans la deuxième phase, il s’agit de l’étude sur le rôle de circuits redresseurs dans le système de récupérer d’énergie. Les méthodes d'extraction des paramètres sont discutées en dissociant chaque élément et leurs rôles. De nombreuses mesures ont été réalisées afin de comparer différents modèles de la diode utilisée pour le redressement, en tenant compte également de l'impact réel du processus de fabrication et du processus de mesure.Une troisième phase permet l’optimisation de l’ensemble antenne et électronique (rectenna) pour divers scenarii et le suivi de la variabilité pour maintenir les pertes du système a minima. La réalisation de démonstrateurs pertinents, testés et caractérisés est présentée. / Internet-of-Things means a growing development of interconnected objects that are likely to change many services within the industry as well as for the individual. Several barriers, including the energy autonomy of objects or production processes that are economically acceptable and respectful of the planet, hamper current developments. In this context, energy recovery is a widespread theme using a wide range of sources (mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, etc.). This thesis is oriented towards the recovery of ambient electromagnetic energy. The second characteristic point of this thesis is to focus on flexible and, if possible, recyclable substrates. The challenge is to recover energy from an extremely low ambient electromagnetic field: this concerns the antenna, which must also meet a requirement for flexibility for its future integration with a flexible and deformable object, and the electronics of energy processing.The work of this thesis conducted in three phases.In the first phase, it was the study of the antenna structures compatible with frequency and power received with the energy harvesting application and a physical realization on flexible base (paper, textile, etc.). This phase allowed presenting the different approaches to combining the RF sources.In the second phase, the study on the role of rectifying circuit in the system of recovering wireless energy was presented. Methods for extracting parameters were discussed by separating each element and its roles. Numerous measurements have been conducted to compare different models of the diode, taking into account also the actual impact of the manufacturing process and the measurement process.A third phase allows the optimization of the antenna and electronic assembly (rectenna) for various scenarios and the monitoring of variability to keep the losses of the system at minima. The production of relevant demonstrators, test and characterization were presented.

Nowadays, as aging population increasing yearly, the health care technologies for elder people who commonly have high blood pressure or Glaucoma issues have attracted much attention. In order to care of those people, implantable integrated circuits (ICs) in human body are the direct solution to have 24/7 days monitoring with real-time data for diagnosis by patients themselves or doctors. However, due to the small size requirement for the implanted ICs located in human organs, it's quite challenging to integrate with transmitting and receiving antenna in a single chip, especially operating in 5.8-GHz ISM band. This research proposes a new idea to solve the issue of integrating an on-chip antenna with implanted ICs. By adding an additional dielectric substrate upon the layer of silicon oxide in CMOS technology, utilizing the metal-6, it can form an extremely compact 3D-structure on-chip antenna which is able to be placed in human eye, heart or even in a few mm-diameter vessels. The proposed 3D on-chip antenna is only 1x1x2.8 mm3 with -10 dB gain and 10% efficiency, which has capability to communicate at least within 5 cm distance. The entire implanted battery-less wireless system has also been developed in this research. A designed 30% efficiency Native NMOS rectifier could generate 1 V and 1 mA to supply the designed low power transmitter including voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and power amplifier (PA). The entire system performance is well evaluated by link budget analysis and the simulation result demonstrates the possibility and feasibility of future on-demand easy-to-design implantable SoC.

Implantable biomedical wireless sensors provide monitoring of vital health signs such as oxygen, temperature and intraocular pressure and may help to analyse and detect diseases in humans and animals. However, one of the design challenges of implantable devices is providing a safe and reliable energy source. Replaceable batteries are one of the most common methods for powering up implantable devices and have been used in e.g.cardiac pacemakers for decades. However, the need for a regular battery replacement may require surgical incisions. Multiple studies have been done on energy harvesting from ambient energy sources to provide the required power for the operation of the implantable sensor and thus reducing the need for battery replacement. In this work, a circuit-level radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting system has been designed and simulated in 65 nm CMOS process technology. The system consists of an AC-DC converter, a DC-DC converter, a Ring oscillator, a Buffer, and a Voltage sensor with comparators, dividers and a reference generator. The rectifier operates at a frequency of 900 MHz and offers a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 71%. The doubler works at 50 MHz with a voltage conversion efficiency (VCE) of 98%. Additionally, the Voltage sensor monitors the voltage level of the energy-storing unit, that in this project is intended to be an mm-size rechargeable battery. If the voltage level is equal to or higher than a threshold value, Vref, the harvesting system will be in discharging mode. Similarly, if the voltage level is below Vref, then the system will be in charging mode.

No description available.

L'amélioration de l'autonomie énergétique des systèmes communicants constitue aujourd'hui une des préoccupations majeures pour leur déploiement massif dans notre environnement. On souhaite rendre complètement autonome ces dispositifs électroniques (on pense entre autres aux capteurs et réseaux de capteurs) en s'affranchissant des sources d'énergie embarquées qui nécessitent des opérations de remplacement ou de recharge périodiques. Parmi les sources d'énergie disponibles qui peuvent être exploitées, on trouve les ondes électromagnétiques. Le dispositif qui permet de capter cette énergie et la convertir en puissance continue utile est dénommé Rectenna (Rectifying antenna) qui associe une antenne de captation à un circuit de rectification à base de diodes. Les rectennae ont fait l'objet d'un nombre important de communications dans la littérature ces dernières années avec pour fil conducteur, la recherche de performances optimales compte tenu de l'atténuation des ondes électromagnétiques et des faibles niveaux de champ récupérés. C'est dans ce contexte que s'est déroulé ce travail de thèse dont le financement a été assuré par un contrat ANR (REC-EM).Dans ce travail, on s'est attaché à développer, à concevoir et à caractériser expérimentalement des structures planaires qui présentent des propriétés intéressantes :- En terme de polarisations orthogonales, ceci de façon à s'affranchir de l'orientation arbitraire de l'onde incidente à la rectenna. Une rectenna à double polarisation circulaire à 2.45 GHz et à double accès sera réalisée pour, de plus, s'affranchir de la perte de 3 dB lorsque l'onde récupérée est à polarisation linéaire à orientation arbitraire.- En termes de résonances multiples, ceci pour augmenter le niveau de puissance récupérée par l'antenne et optimiser la puissance continue convertie. Une rectenna à double fréquence (1.8 et 2.45 GHz) et à accès unique sera conçue ainsi qu'une rectenna constituée d'un réseau de deux antennes double fréquence.- En terme de réduction de taille en s'affranchissant de l'utilisation du filtre HF entre l'antenne et le circuit de conversion ceci pour l'ensemble des structures rectennae développées dans ce travail. Dans tous les cas, il sera nécessaire de développer le circuit de rectification le plus adapté à la topologie de l'antenne de captation et évaluer la technique de recombinaison optimale coté DC pour s'affranchir au mieux des déséquilibres qui peuvent apparaître entre les voies d'accès de l'antenne. Pour contenir les dimensions de la structure globale, des circuits mono diode seront dimensionnés et réalisés pour chacune des structures. Enfin, on exploitera l'antenne à double polarisation circulaire double accès, dont on cherchera à diminuer les dimensions, pour alimenter un capteur de température à affichage LCD. Pour augmenter le niveau de tension nécessaire au fonctionnement du capteur, nous associerons entre la rectenna et le capteur un convertisseur DC-DC. Il s'agit, dans ce cas, d'un dispositif de gestion d'énergie adapté pour les faibles puissances. Deux convertisseurs seront employés dont celui développé par les laboratoires Ampère de l'Ecole Centrale de Lyon et SATIE à l'ENS Cachan. Ce convertisseur a fait l'objet d'une thèse également financée par l'ANR dans le cadre de ce contrat REC-EM / Improving energy autonomy of communication systems constitutes one of the major concerns for their massive deployment in our environment. We want to make these electronic devices (sensors and sensor networks) completely autonomous, avoiding the embedded energy sources that require replacement operations or periodic charging. Among the available energy sources that can be harvested, there are electromagnetic waves. The device that can capture this energy and convert it into useful DC power is called Rectenna (Rectifying antenna), combining antenna with diode-based rectifier. In recent few years, rectennas have reached a significant number of papers in the literature. The main challenge consists in improving performances in term of efficiency, in an attempt to overcome the electromagnetic wave attenuation and the low available field level. According to this context, this PhD work supported by the ANR project REC-EM has taken place. In this study, we have developed, designed and characterized planar structures that have interesting properties:- In term of orthogonal polarizations, so energy harvesting becomes feasable regardless the arbitrary orientation of the incident wave on the rectenna. A dual-circularly polarized rectenna at 2.45 GHz with dual-access will be set up to overcome the 3 dB power loss in the case of linearly-polarized incident wave with unknown orientation.- In term of multiple resonances, so the amount of total RF power collected by the antenna can be increased and consequently the converted DC power level can also be improved. A dual-frequency rectenna (1.8 and 2.45 GHz) with single access will be designed, as well as a rectenna based upon a dual-frequency antenna array.- In term of size compactness by avoiding the use of the HF filter between the antenna and the rectifier for all developed rectenna structures during this work. In all cases, it will be necessary to define the most suitable rectifier topology to each antenna and select, if it is appropriated, the optimum DC recombination technique to overcome the effects of RF power imbalance that may occur between the different antenna accesses. Besides, single-diode circuits will be designed and fulfilled for each structure. Finally, we will miniaturize the dual-circularly polarized dual-access antenna, and exploit it to power a LCD display temperature sensor. To enhance the DC voltage level required to activate the sensor, a DC-DC converter is inserted between the rectenna and the sensor. Such energy management device should be able to operate under low delivered DC power. Two converters will be used. The first one is developed by Ampere Lab at Ecole Centrale de Lyon and SATIE Lab at ENS Cachan. This converter was the subject of another dissertation also supported by the ANR under the REC-EM project

Cílem této práce je popsat současný stav v oblasti mikrovlnných komponent na bázi textilu a poté také autorův příspěvek k výzkumu. V tomto studijním oboru je třeba řešit mnoho problémů, a proto jsou stanoveny velmi konkrétní cíle, které by měly tvořit kompletní komunikační systém, který by byl snadno integrovatelný do čalounění uvnitř letadla nebo jiného vozidla. První kapitola je zaměřena na použití relativně nízkofrekvenčních obvodů v pásmu UHF a vysokofrekvenční sklízení energie. Po simulacích následují praktická měření. Další kapitola charakterizuje nové 3D pletené textilie a jejich vysokofrekveční vlastnosti a modelování na velmi vysokých frekvencích, které jsou žádoucí pro užití jako komunikační kanály. S prakticky ověřeným a numericky popsaným textilním substrátem pro použití v pásmu SHF je představena nový vlnovod integrovaný do textilu na bázi tisknutelného umělého magnetického vodiče s praktickou metodikou návrhu. Po ověření byl vlnovod použit pro základní dělič výkonu, dvě různé antény a dva typy senzorů. Všechny návrhy byly vyrobeny a testovány s uspokojivými výsledky.

This thesis explores the viability of various energy harvesting technologies for powering micro-scale IoT devices in outdoor environments, specifically for products developed by Thule Sweden AB. Through a comprehensive literature review and experimental testing, we evaluated the performance of solar panels and piezoelectric systems to identify sustainable power solutions that could replace or reduce dependence on traditional battery power. Our methodology involved controlled laboratory tests and real-world applications on car roof boxes and bike trailers to assess the technologies under practical conditions. The experiments aimed to achieve a minimum daily energy output of 20 Joules. This target was chosen with reference to the energy consumption data of a specific IoT device used by Thule. The results demonstrated that while both solar and piezoelectric technologies have their possibilities and limitations, they hold promise for integration into IoT applications, offering a step towards more sustainable product designs. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of energy harvesting’s potential to reduce environmental impact and enhance the self-sufficiency of energy production in outdoor IoT applications. / Denna avhandling undersöker genomförbarheten av olika teknologier för energiutvinning för att driva mikroskaliga IoT-enheter i utomhusmiljöer, specifikt för produkter utvecklade av Thule Sweden AB. Genom en omfattande litteraturöversikt och experimentella tester utvärderade vi prestandan hos solpaneler och piezoelektriska system i syfte att identifiera hållbara energilösningar som kunde ersätta eller minska beroendet av traditionella batterier. Vår metodik inkluderade både kontrollerade laboratorietester och praktiska tillämpningar på takboxar och cykelkärror för att bedöma teknologierna under praktiska förhållanden. Experimenten syftade till att uppnå en minsta daglig energiproduktion på 20 joule. Detta mål baseras på energiförbrukningsdata från en specifik IoT-enhet som används av Thule. Resultaten visade att även om både sol- och piezoelektriska teknologier har sina fördelar och begränsningar, har de potential för integration i IoT-applikationer, vilket erbjuder ett steg mot mer hållbara produktdesigner. Dessa fynd bidrar till en bredare förståelse för energiutvinningens potential att minska miljöpåverkan och förbättra självförsörjningen av energiproduktion för IoT-applikationer utomhus.

The absence of a relevant legal basis between huge commercial partners such as the EU as a single entity and the Russian Federation promoted the emergence of a legal vacuum. The long term cooperation between Russia and the EU has only one bilateral agreement - the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation signed in 1994, which is however obsolete, and does not meet the contemporary needs. The adequate legal basis for Russia-EU cooperation in the gas sector is still missing. The protection of investments in the gas sector is being realized by bilateral agreements between Russia and EU member states, soft law and general international agreements, without any specifications for those two partners. The only international instrument covering the energy relations of these two partners - Energy Charter Treaty cannot be considered as a reliable mechanism, as Russia withdrew from it more than 8 years ago. The reasons of the withdrawal and the Yukos case as an illustrative example are discussed in this paper. In order to avoid uncertainty in such strategic area as gas investment relations and unpredictable decisions between the states represented by the commercial entities, there is a need to design a substantive legal basis, and a need to consider on the adequate dispute resolution body. In this thesis, key...