Printable Antennas Scavenge Energy From The Air

Manos Tentzeris and his team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created an inkjet-printed antenna device that can capture energy from the air and convert it into DC power. Tentzeris said:

There is a large amount of electromagnetic energy all around us, but nobody has been able to tap into it. We are using an ultra-wideband antenna that lets us exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges, giving us greatly increased power-gathering capability.

The team believes that self-powered, wireless, paper-based sensors could soon be widely available at a low cost. These could have a number of applications including sensors that detect threats to airport security, temperature and humidity monitors that provide energy savings, sensors that check the structural integrity of buildings, quality monitoring of food and other perishable material, and wearable bio-monitoring devices that observe medical issues.

Georgia Tech Research News