Date of Graduation
5-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Electrical Engineering
Advisor/Mentor
Saunders, Robert
Abstract
A device was required that could harvest the electromagnetic energy present in ambient radio frequency (RF) signals. A part of this device must convert the AC RF signal received by the antenna into a DC signal that can be used in an embedded application. Since the RF signal amplitude is small, it must first be amplified and rectified to become a usable signal. The Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier is a subsystem of the design which ideally converts a 100 mV AC signal coming from the antenna to a 350 mV DC signal. The output of the voltage multiplier is used to power another subsystem. At 10 MHz, the Cockcroft-Walton multiplier was able to output a DC voltage of 350 mV given an AC input signal of 140 mV. The results of the testing show verifiable proof-of-concept that the Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier has the potential to be used for low power RF energy harvesting applications.
Keywords
Power Electronics, AC-DC Converter, Passive, Service learning
Citation
Langdon, T. (2019). Very Low Power Cockcroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier for RF Energy Harvesting Applications. Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/eleguht/69