Engineers Garage

  • Projects and Tutorials
    • Electronic Projects
      • 8051
      • Arduino
      • ARM
      • AVR
      • PIC
      • Raspberry pi
      • STM32
    • Tutorials
    • Circuit Design
    • Project Videos
    • Components
  • Articles
    • Tech Articles
    • Insight
    • Invention Stories
    • How to
    • What Is
  • News
    • Electronic Products News
    • DIY Reviews
    • Guest Post
  • Forums
    • EDABoard.com
    • Electro-Tech-Online
    • EG Forum Archive
  • Digi-Key Store
    • Cables, Wires
    • Connectors, Interconnect
    • Discrete
    • Electromechanical
    • Embedded Computers
    • Enclosures, Hardware, Office
    • Integrated Circuits (ICs)
    • Isolators
    • LED/Optoelectronics
    • Passive
    • Power, Circuit Protection
    • Programmers
    • RF, Wireless
    • Semiconductors
    • Sensors, Transducers
    • Test Products
    • Tools
  • EE Resources
    • DesignFast
    • LEAP Awards
    • Oscilloscope Product Finder
    • White Papers
    • Webinars
  • EE Learning Center
  • Women in Engineering

First Battery-Free Cellphone that Operates by Harvesting Ambient Energy

By Neha Rastogi

A group of researchers from the University of Washington has invented the battery-free cell phone that is believed to be a major step in moving beyond chargers and cords. The phone requires just a few microwatts of power to operate which is harvested either from ambient radio signals or ambient light. 
 
The team demonstrated the working of the phone by making audio as well as Skype calls. It showed how the prototype made of commercial, off-the-shelf components could receive and transmit speech and communication with a base station. The details of this technology have already been published in a paper on July 1. 
 
This team including computers scientists and electrical engineers succeeded in eliminating a power-hungry step in the most modern cellular transmissions i.e. converting analog signals into digital data such that it can be understood by the phone. The conversion takes so much of energy that it’s almost impossible to design a phone that can rely on ambient power sources.
 
In order to counter this issue, the battery-free cell phone makes use of tiny vibrations in a phone’s microphone or speaker while the user is talking on a phone or listening to the caller on the other side.
 
There’s an antenna that converts this motion into changes in standard analog radio signal emitted by a cellular base station. This step encodes speech patterns in reflected radio signals in a way that uses a negligible amount of power. 
 
First Battery-Free Cellphone that Operates by Harvesting Ambient Energy
A group of researchers from the University of Washington Invented the battery-free cell phone
(Image Courtesy: washington.edu)
 
In the procedure of speech transmission, the phone uses vibrations from the device’s microphone to encode speech patterns in the reflected signals. To receive speech, the encoded radio signals are converted into sound vibrations that are picked up by the phone’s speaker. In the prototype device, the user presses a button to switch between the “transmitting” and “listening” modes.
 
The prototype has been built by using off-the-shelf components on a PCB and it can perform a lot of functions like:
 
• Transmitting speech and data 
• Receiving user input via buttons
• Receive incoming calls on Skype
• Dial out and put callers on hold
 
Talking about the power requirements of the battery-free phone, the prototype needs 3.5 microwatts. The team demonstrated to harvest this energy from 2 different sources:
 
 Ambient radio signals transmitted by a base station up to 31 feet away
 Ambient light with a tiny solar cell to communicate with a base station located 50 feet away
 
The research team is planning to improve the battery-free phone’s operating range and encrypting conversations to make them secure. They are also working on streaming video over a battery-free cell phone and add a visual display feature to the phone in the form of low-power E-ink screens.

Filed Under: News
Tagged With: Rsearch
 

Questions related to this article?
👉Ask and discuss on EDAboard.com and Electro-Tech-Online.com forums.



Tell Us What You Think!! Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

HAVE A QUESTION?

Have a technical question about an article or other engineering questions? Check out our engineering forums EDABoard.com and Electro-Tech-Online.com where you can get those questions asked and answered by your peers!


Featured Tutorials

  • Designing Gate Driver Circuit and Switching Mechanism for Modified Sine Wave Inverter – (Part 9/17)
  • Completing Modified Sine Wave Inverter Design with Full Bridge Circuit and Step Up Transformer – (Part 10/17)
  • Designing an Offline UPS – Part (12 /17)
  • How to reduce Switching Time of a Relay – (Part 15/17)
  • Testing MOSFET – (Part 16/17)
  • Driving High Side MOSFET using Bootstrap Circuitry – (Part 17/17)

Stay Up To Date

Newsletter Signup

Sign up and receive our weekly newsletter for latest Tech articles, Electronics Projects, Tutorial series and other insightful tech content.

EE Training Center Classrooms

EE Classrooms

Recent Articles

  • Infineon offers DC-DC controller for full LED headlamps without a microcontroller
  • Vishay launches new high-precision, thin-film wraparound chip resistor
  • STMicroelectronics’ common-mode filters ensure signal integrity in serial interfaces
  • Renesas’ RA Family microcontrollers earn CAVP certification for cryptographic algorithms
  • MicroPython: Serial data communication in ESP8266 and ESP32 using UART

Most Popular

5G 555 timer circuit 8051 ai Arduino atmega16 automotive avr dc motor display Electronic Part Electronic Parts Fujitsu ic infineontechnologies integratedcircuit Intel IoT ir lcd ldr led maximintegratedproducts microchip microchiptechnology Microchip Technology microcontroller microcontrollers mosfet motor powermanagement Raspberry Pi remote renesaselectronics Research robot samsung semiconductor sensor software STMicroelectronics switch Technology vishayintertechnology wireless

RSS EDABOARD.com Discussions

  • Voltage reference level - how to choose?
  • Switching frequency data not available
  • Simulating a waveguide-coax transition in HFSS
  • Simulation of resonator in HFSS
  • IRF450 MoSFET

RSS Electro-Tech-Online.com Discussions

  • Adding Current Limit Feature to a Buck Converter
  • Background of Members Here
  • Passthrough charging-simple but impossible to achieve?
  • Opamp ciruit
  • DIY Mini 12v Router UPS malfunction
Engineers Garage
  • Analog IC TIps
  • Connector Tips
  • DesignFast
  • EDABoard Forums
  • EE World Online
  • Electro-Tech-Online Forums
  • Microcontroller Tips
  • Power Electronic Tips
  • Sensor Tips
  • Test and Measurement Tips
  • 5G Technology World
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Engineers Garage

  • Projects and Tutorials
    • Electronic Projects
      • 8051
      • Arduino
      • ARM
      • AVR
      • PIC
      • Raspberry pi
      • STM32
    • Tutorials
    • Circuit Design
    • Project Videos
    • Components
  • Articles
    • Tech Articles
    • Insight
    • Invention Stories
    • How to
    • What Is
  • News
    • Electronic Products News
    • DIY Reviews
    • Guest Post
  • Forums
    • EDABoard.com
    • Electro-Tech-Online
    • EG Forum Archive
  • Digi-Key Store
    • Cables, Wires
    • Connectors, Interconnect
    • Discrete
    • Electromechanical
    • Embedded Computers
    • Enclosures, Hardware, Office
    • Integrated Circuits (ICs)
    • Isolators
    • LED/Optoelectronics
    • Passive
    • Power, Circuit Protection
    • Programmers
    • RF, Wireless
    • Semiconductors
    • Sensors, Transducers
    • Test Products
    • Tools
  • EE Resources
    • DesignFast
    • LEAP Awards
    • Oscilloscope Product Finder
    • White Papers
    • Webinars
  • EE Learning Center
  • Women in Engineering