5G networks are highly focused radio technology, but some of the energy is not all used, but wasted. A group of scientists has broken through the technical bottleneck and invented an antenna that collects electromagnetic wave energy from 5G networks and converts it into electricity to power wearable devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), which is expected to gradually replace batteries.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Institute) have developed a rectenna system based on a Rotman lens that successfully converts 5G millimeter waves at 28 GHz into electrical current for the first time. The research was published in the January 12 issue of Scientific Reports.
Rothman lenses are commonly used in radar monitoring systems, allowing the system to observe multiple directions simultaneously without having to constantly reorient the antenna. Larger antennas are needed to collect enough energy to support small devices at a distance from the signal tower.
“We solved the problem of only being able to collect signals from one direction, and this system has a larger coverage area.” said Aline Eid of Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, one of the principal investigators of this study.
5G networks have much greater signal density than previous generations and use high-frequency bands, leaving a lot of energy to be wasted outside of its use as communication. “With this innovative technology, we use a large antenna that works at high frequencies and can receive energy from all directions.”
“Previous researchers have tried to harvest energy in the 24 or 35 GHz band,” said Eddy, “but these antennas have to be aimed directly at the 5G transmitter source to work, whereas our technology can receive multiple directions with wide coverage.”
The researchers showed off their antenna, which looks like a thin sheet of material with some circuit diagram-like pattern printed on it.
The study said that the “spider” like layout is the antenna printed on it with 3-D printing technology, one side is the antenna, the other is the energy collection to the rectifier beam channel.
Test results show that, compared with other technologies that have the same breadth of signal coverage, this technology collects 21 times the energy of other technologies.
The researchers said the technology will provide power for 5G radio frequency identification devices (RFID), and devices within the Internet of Things. “5G will soon be widespread, especially in urban areas. This technology can replace the batteries of millions and hundreds of millions of wireless sensors and has a wide range of uses in smart cities and smart agriculture that will be built in the future.” Emmanouil M Tentzeris, professor of flexible electronics, said.
Tentzeris expects that future cell phone providers will provide voice calling services, data services, but also electricity services, and that electricity services will become a major business – just as data services have now overtaken calling services.
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) approval of the use of more energetic and dense high-frequency bands for 5G networks is the basis for the utility of this technology. I’ve been working in this area of energy harvesting research for at least six years and have not been able to find the key to where this technology can actually be useful because the FCC previously limited the power and concentration of the signals being transmitted,” said Jimmy Hester, technical director of Georgia Tech-affiliated technology company working on the development of 5G RFI technology. ”
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