Fast and Accurate Approach to RF-DC Conversion Efficiency Estimation for Multi-Tone Signals

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Electromagnetics
• Circuit Theory

Background:

• Multi-tone signals offer higher RF-DC power conversion efficiency (PCE) for energy harvesting at lower power levels compared to sine waves.
• Efficient PCE calculation is crucial for optimizing energy harvesting converter circuits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a computationally efficient and accurate numerical method for evaluating RF-DC PCE under multi-tone periodic envelope signals.
• To validate the proposed method experimentally and compare its performance against existing techniques.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel two-frequency harmonic balance (2F-HB) method.
• Comparative analysis of 2F-HB against transient analysis (TA), harmonic balance (HB), and multidimensional harmonic balance (MHB).
• Experimental validation using a voltage doubler-based RF-DC converter for energy harvesting and wireless power transfer (WPT).

Main Results:

• The 2F-HB method demonstrates superior computational efficiency and accuracy compared to TA, HB, MHB, and commercial simulators (Keysight ADS).
• The proposed method shows excellent agreement with experimental measurements, with PCE estimation errors as low as 0.37%.
• The method is adaptable to various RF-DC converter circuits and frequency bands with minor modifications for integration into simulation software.

Conclusions:

• The 2F-HB method provides a fast and reliable approach for PCE estimation in RF-DC energy harvesting circuits.
• The developed method can significantly expedite the optimization process for energy harvesting converters utilizing multi-tone signals.
• The approach is broadly applicable and validated by experimental results, confirming its practical utility.