Energy harvesting (EH) nodes, which harvest energy from the environment in order to communicate over a wireless link, promise perpetual operation of wireless networks. The primary focus of the communication system design shifts from being as energy conservative as possible to judiciously handling the randomness in the energy harvesting process in order to enhance the system performance. This engenders a significant redesign of the physical and multiple access layers of communication. In this thesis, we address the problem of maximizing the throughput of a system that consists of rate-adaptive EH nodes that transmit data to a common sink node. We consider the practical case of discrete rate adaptation in which a node selects its transmission power from a set of finitely many rates and adjusts its transmit power to meet a bit error rate (BER) constraint. When there is only one EH node in the network, the problem involves determining the rate and power at which the node should transmit as a function of its channel gain and battery state. For the system with multiple EH nodes, which node should be selected also needs to be determined. We first prove that the energy neutrality constraint, which governs the operation of an EH node, is tighter than the average power constraint. We then propose a simple rate and power adaptation scheme for a system with a single EH node and prove that its throughput approaches the optimal throughput arbitrarily closely. We then arrive at the optimal selection and rate adaptation rules for a multi-EH node system that opportunistically selects at most one node to transmit at any time. The optimal scheme is shown to significantly outperform other ad hoc selection and transmission schemes. The effect of energy overheads, such as battery storage inefficiencies and the energy required for sensing and processing, on the transmission scheme and its overall throughput is also analytically characterized. Further, we show how the time and energy overheads incurred by the opportunistic selection process itself affect the adaptation and selection rules and the overall system throughput. Insights into the scaling behavior of the average system throughput in the asymptotic regime, in which the number of nodes tend to infinity, are also obtained. We also optimize the maximum time allotted for selection, so as to maximize the overall system throughput. For systems with EH nodes or non-EH nodes, which are subject to an average power constraint, the optimal rate and power adaptation depends on a power control parameter, which hitherto has been calculated numerically. We derive novel asymptotically tight bounds and approximations for the same, when the average rate of energy harvesting is large. These new expressions are analytically insightful, computationally useful, and are also quite accurate even in the non-asymptotic regime when average rate of energy harvesting is relatively small. In summary, this work develops several useful insights into the design of selection and transmission schemes for a wireless network with rate-adaptive EH nodes.

The work described in this paper aims to test whether or not it is possible to power a system on energy harvested from vibrations and use that energy to measure how much it vibrates. The goal has been to produce a prototype system that uses that technique to discover damages on drones in an early stage. The reader will get to experience everything from design to testing of the system. The reader will also get an insight in which problems occurred during the project, how they have been handled and which conclusions have been made.The system could be applied in a variety of different situations to detect damages and which could prevent the damages from leading to severe problems. / Arbetet som beskrivs i denna rapport ämnar testa huruvida det är möjligt att driva ett system med alstrad energi från vibrationer och använda den energi för att mäta hur mycket det vibrerar. Målet har varit att ta fram ett prototypsystem som använder sig av tekniken för att upptäcka skador på drönare i ett tidigt stadie. Läsaren får uppleva allt från design av system till aktiva tester och får en inblick i vilka problem som uppstått under arbetet, hur de har bearbetats och vilka slutsatser som dragits.Systemet skulle kunna appliceras i många olika situationer för att upptäcka skador och skulle kunna förhindra att skadorna leder till allvarligare problem.

This thesis is dealing with creation of computation model of energy harvestors. Harvestors based on translational motion and planar motion were modeled. These models were created in MSC Adams. Proposed harvestors are tranforming mechanical vibrations into electrical energy by electromagnetical induction. To achieve better electrical output, harvestors were tuned to natural frequency suitable for chosen aplication. First proposed harvestor is meant for railway track. For validation of its usability in intended application, model of railway track section is also proposed. Force generated by passing train is used for excitation of the track model. Second harvestor is nonlinear electromechanical oscilator proposed for use on unanchored sea buoy (drifter). After retuning previously proposed concept of energy harvestor to natural frequency 1.6 Hz, computation model for simulation purposes was created. After the simulation of sinusoidal excitation, the excitation based on real sea data was simulated. When excited by regular sea, the peak electric power 9 W was achieved. When excited by irregular sea the peak electrical power of the generator was 7.5 mW.

Chaos is a complex dynamics with exponential sensitivity to the initial conditions. Since the study of three-body problem by Henri Poincare, chaos has been extensively studied in many systems, ranging from electronics to fluids, brains and more recently photonics. Chaos is a ubiquitous phenomenon in Nature, from the gigantic oceanic waves to the disordered scales of white beetles at nanoscale. The presence of chaos is often unwanted in applications, as it introduces unpredictability,which makes it difficult to predict or explain experimental results. Inspired by how chaos permeates the natural world, this thesis investigates on how the interaction between light and chaotic structure can enhance the performance of photonics devices. With a proper design of the lighter-mater interaction in chaotic resonators, I illustrate how chaos can be used to enhance the ability of an optical cavity to store electromagnetic energy, realize a blackbody system composed of gold nanoparticles, localize light beyond the diffraction limit and control the phase transition of super-radiance.

Metal Insulator Metal (MIM) diodes that work on fast mechanism of tunneling have been used in a number of very high frequency applications such as (Infra-Red) IR detectors and optical Rectennas for energy harvesting. Their ability to operate under zero bias condition as well as the possibility of realizing them through printing makes them attractive for (Radio Frequency) RF applications. However, MIM diodes have not been explored much for RF applications. One reason preventing their widespread RF use is the requirement of a very thin oxide layer essential for the tunneling operation that requires sophisticated nano-fabrication processes. Another issue is that the reliability and stable performance of MIM diodes is highly dependent on the surface roughness of the metallic electrodes. Finally, comprehensive RF characterization has not been performed for MIM diodes reported in the literature, particularly from the perspective of their integration with antennas as well as their rectification abilities. In this thesis, various metal deposition methods such as sputtering, electron beam evaporation, and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) are compared in pursuit of achieving low surface roughness. It is worth mentioning here that MIM diodes realized through ALD method have been presented for the first time in this thesis. Amorphous metal alloy have also been investigated in terms of their low surface roughness. Zinc-oxide has been investigated for its suitability as a thin dielectric layer for MIM diodes. Finally, comprehensive RF characterization of MIM diodes has been performed in two ways: 1) by standard S-parameter methods, and 2) by investigating their rectification ability under zero bias operation. It is concluded from the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging that surface roughness as low as sub 1 nm can be achieved reliably from crystalline metals such as copper and platinum. This value is comparable to surface roughness achieved from amorphous alloys, which are non-crystalline structures and have orders of magnitude lower conductivities. Relatively lower resistances of the order of 1 k ohm with a sensitivity of 1.5 V-1 have been obtained through DC testing of these devices. Finally, RF characterization reveals that input impedances in the range of 300 Ω to 25 Ω can be achieved in the low GHz frequencies (from 1-10 GHz). From the rectification measurements at zero bias, a DC voltage of 4.7 mV has been obtained from an incoming RF signal of 0.4 W at 2.45 GHz, which indicates the suitability of these diodes for RF rectenna devices without providing any bias. It is believed that with further optimization, these devices can play an important role in RF energy harvesting without the need to bias them.

Compact, autonomous computing systems with integrated transducers are imperative to deliver advances in healthcare, navigation, livestock monitoring, point of care diagnostics, remote sensing, internet-of-things applications, smart cities etc. Reflecting this need, there has been sustained growth in the market for transducers. Polymer based transducers, which meld highly desirable properties such as low cost, light weight, high manufacturability, biocompatibility and flexibility, are quite attractive. Doping polymers with magnetic materials results in the formation of magnetic composite polymers, enhancing the attractive traits of polymer transducers with magnetic properties. This dissertation is dedicated to the development of magnetic polymer transducers, which are suitable for energy harvesting and saline fluid transduction. The first-ever magnetic composite energy harvester capable of converting vibrations from the practically relevant low-frequency range into electrical energy was fabricated and tested. The harvester was realized by fabricating an array of PDMS-iron nanowire nanocomposite cilia on a planar coil array and exhibits a linear frequency response. This energy harvester design was further improved by increasing the doping concentration of the composite, adding a composite proof mass and improving the microfabricated coil. These changes manifest in an energy harvester that not only increases the power density by 4 orders of magnitude over the previous design but also possesses large operational bandwidth. The composite structure, comprising of the cilia and the proof mass has a frequency response comprised of two closely spaced resonant peaks facilitating the desirable broadband behavior at low frequency.A polymer-based magneto hydrodynamic pump prototype capable of actuating saline fluids was developed. The benefit of this pumping concept to operate without any moving parts is combined with simple and cheap fabrication methods and a magnetic composite material, enabling a high level of integration together with the advantages of mechanical flexibility. The pump electrodes are created by laser printing of graphene on polyimide, while the permanent magnet is molded from an NdFeB powder - polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite. These materials were leveraged to fabricate an integrated, low profile magneto hydrodynamic pump, suitable for deployment in lab on chip systems.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / With the growing popularity and use of devices under the great umbrella that is the Internet of Things (IoT), the need for devices that are smaller, faster, cheaper and require less power is at an all time high with no intentions of slowing down. This is why many current research efforts are very focused on energy harvesting. Energy harvesting is the process of storing energy from external and ambient sources and delivering a small amount of power to low power IoT devices such as wireless sensors or wearable electronics. A charge pumps is a circuit used to convert a power supply to a higher or lower voltage depending on the specific application. Charge pumps are generally seen in memory design as a verity of power supplies are required for the newer memory technologies. Charge pumps can be also be designed for low voltage operation and can convert a smaller energy harvesting voltage level output to one that may be needed for the IoT device to operate. In this work, an integrated FinFET (Field Effect Transistor) charge pump for low power energy harvesting applications is proposed. The design and analysis of this system was conducted using Cadence Virtuoso Schematic L-Editing, Analog Design Environment and Spectre Circuit Simulator tools using the 7nm FinFETs from the ASAP7 7nm PDK. The research conducted here takes advantage of some inherent characteristics that are present in FinFET technologies, including low body effects, and faster switching speeds, lower threshold voltage and lower power consumption. The lower threshold voltage of the FinFET is key to get great performance at lower supply voltages. The charge pump in this work is designed to pump a 150mV power supply, generated from an energy harvester, to a regulated 650mV, while supplying 1uA of load current, with a 20mV voltage ripple in steady state (SS) operation. At these conditions, the systems power consumption is 4.85uW and is 31.76% efficient. Under no loading conditions, the charge pump reaches SS operation in 50us, giving it the fastest rise time of the compared state of the art efforts mentioned in this work. The minimum power supply voltage for the system to function is 93mV where it gives a regulated output voltage of $25mV. FinFET technology continues to be a very popular design choice and even though it has been in production since Intel's Ivy-Bridge processor in 2012, it seems that very few efforts have been made to use the advantages of FinFETs for charge pump design. This work shows though simulation that FinFET charge pumps can match the performance of charge pumps implemented in other technologies and should be considered for low power designs such as energy harvesting.

Yes / Concrete with smart and functional properties (e.g., self-sensing, self-healing, and energy-harvesting) represents a transformative direction in the field of construction materials. Energy-harvesting concrete has the capability to store or convert the ambient energy (e.g., light, thermal, and mechanical energy) for feasible uses, alleviating global energy and pollution problems as well as reducing carbon footprint. The employment of energy-harvesting concrete can endow infrastructures (e.g., buildings, railways, and highways) with energy self-sufficiency, effectively promoting sustainable infrastructure development. This paper provides a systematic overview on the principles, fabrication, properties, and applications of energy-harvesting concrete (including light-emitting, thermal-storing, thermoelectric, pyroelectric, and piezoelectric concretes). The paper concludes with an outline of some future challenges and opportunities in the application of energy-harvesting concrete in sustainable infrastructures.

Fabrication process of capacitors and Schottky diodes with nanogap electrodes is explained in this Thesis. The Schottky diode is made with IGZO in the nanogap, whereas the capacitor is made with ZrO2 in the nanogap which acts as the dielectric. Moreover, the electric characterization of both the diode and capacitor was obtained for different frequencies and different diameters. The end result showed that as the frequency increases the diode performance increases, but the capacitance of the capacitors decreases. Also, the barrier height and concentration were obtained using the Mott-Schottky plot for different frequencies. The 10MHz had the highest carrier concentration (5.9E+18cm-3) and barrier height (1V).

In this research work, we propose a novel energy harvester which converts solar electromagnetic radiation into DC energy at infrared regime. The proposed device consists of a dual polarized nanoantenna loaded with an anisotropic material at its gap. The dual polarized nanoantenna focuses the randomly polarized radiation into its gap resulting in high electric field. This high local electric field at the gap interacts with the anisotropic material. In our proposed design, the anisotropic material possesses nonlinear electrical conductivity and converts the dual polarizations at the gap into a DC voltage difference across the terminals of the nanoantenna. The novelty of our proposed design is in the rectification of the electromagnetic radiation without utilizing a diode. The theory of the energy harvester depends on the utilization of the dual polarized nanoantennas at high frequency regime. Therefore, we carry out a parametric study to investigate the resonance characteristic of the dual polarized nanoantenna. In addition, we investigate the effect of the geometrical parameters on the local field enhancement at the gap of the dual polarized nanoantenna. Also, another parametric study is carried out to determine the effect of the governing parameters of the anisotropic material on the generated DC voltage across the harvester. Our approach is illustrated through electromagnetic simulations. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)