Computer Sciences and Information Technology
Title : | Design and development of a dual-band RF Energy Harvester for Wireless Sensor Networks using Aerosol Jetting Technology |
Area of research : | Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Engineering Sciences |
Focus area : | Development of Energy Harvester |
Principal Investigator : | Dr Karthikeyan Sholampettai Subramanian, Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Tiruchirappalli |
Timeline Start Year : | 2019 |
Contact info : | sskarthikeyan@nitt.edu |
Details
Executive Summary : | Additive manufacturing or 3D printing of electronic circuits is a new and fast-growing field with the potential to allow electronic devices to become more compact, lightweight and available on-demand. 3D printed electronics exist at the confluence of additive manufacturing and precision-dispensed conductors. Traditional printed electronics involve interconnects silkscreened onto a flexible substrate such as polyimide. This technique is now being used to pattern interconnects directly into 3D printed parts with no need for a printed circuit board (PCB) or mounting hardware. This concept can save weight and assembly time and also opening the door for on-demand manufacturing of objects without geometrical constraints. This proposal aims to meet the current demands of next-generation wireless sensor networks (WSN) towards the Internet of things (IoT) paradigm, which requires RF and microwave circuits/components with special features in terms of flexibility, lightweight and environmental compliance. The deployment of a large number of WSN for IoT applications requires a suitable manufacturing process and efficient integration technology. Replacement of batteries are the main concern while designing WSN operated in remote areas. Harvesting energy from the available RF spectrum attracted many researchers’ attention. To showcase the latest capabilities in this research area, a fully 3D printed dual-band RF energy harvester circuit for wireless sensor networks is proposed in this proposal. Printing sensors and electronics over conformal shape are an area of significant interest due to low-cost fabrication and the possibility of obtaining multifunctional electronics over large areas. The potential and applicability of these methods for fabricating high-frequency electronics circuits for many applications remain largely unearthed. A number of limitations need to be resolved before advanced microwave components and systems can be printed in a 3D fashion. Among them, the design of antennas and RF circuits, with well-defined electrical properties within the frequency band of operation and the challenges in integrating high quality conducting materials are some of the main issues This proposed research will explore several novel ideas to address these outstanding issues of additive manufacturing for high-frequency applications and targeting one complete design of fully 3D manufactured (Aerosol Jetting) RF energy harvester for WSN. |
Total Budget (INR): | 53,06,224 |
Organizations involved