Technology has been progressing everyday. Scientists have made a new breakthrough invention that allows them to convert the radio signals in to power. The new discovery will allow phones and other devices that do not use batteries to be powered by Wi Fi and will also lead to new ways of using smart technologies. The device has been developed by scientists in the US and is known as rectenna from a semiconductor which is just a few atoms thick.
The Wi Fi signals are captivated with the help of an integrated antenna and is transformed in to a DC current that is suitable for electronic circuits. The device can be used to give battery-less power for smartphones, medical devices, laptops and also wearable technology. Due to its flexibility, it can also be fabricated to cover large areas. The scientists say that this has major implications for the future of electronic intelligence.
The director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Microsystems Technologies Laboratories Centre for Graphene Devices and 2D systems said, “What if we could develop electronic systems that we wrap around a bridge or cover an entire highway, or the walls of our office and bring electronic intelligence to everything around us? How do you provide energy for those electronics?” Palacios added that they have come up with a new way to power the electronics systems of the future by harvesting Wi Fi energy in a way that is easily integrated in the big areas so as to bring intelligence to all the objects around us.
During the experiments, the rectenna had generated 40 microwatts of power when exposed to typical Wi Fi signals of around 150 microwatts. This electricity is more than enough to light up a simple mobile display or active silicon chips. The research has been published in the latest online issue of the journal Nature. Professor Jesus Grajal, a Spanish author from the Technical University of Madrid said that the main application could be in the field of medical implants and pills that can stream health data after it is swallowed by the patients. He added that ideally they don’t want to use batteries to power such systems as if they leak lithium, the patient can also die.
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