Leveraging RF power for flexible-hybrid electronics

Power provisioning is a critical need for flexible-hybrid electronics (FHE) systems. Flexible thin-film battery technology has improved significantly in recent years. Yet the small form factors required by many FHE applications necessitate limited capacity. With the extremely low power consumption and advanced power management architectures of emerging electronic components, energy harvesting and remote power delivery have become feasible. Electromagnetic radiation in the form of radio-frequency (RF) waves is one means of delivering power to FHE systems. PARC has developed roll-to-roll printable antennas and rectifiers for RF energy harvesting. Current work includes the development of a system for using steered directed RF energy to power peel-and-stick battery-less sensor tags.