Harvesting ambient radio frequency electromagnetic energy for powering wireless electronic devices, sensors and sensor networks and applications thereof

A system comprising:

• an ambient radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic (EM) energy source;
• a sensor reader operatively connected to said ambient RF EM energy source;
• and
• a sensor in communication with said sensor reader, said sensor comprising:
• a control module comprising an energy harvesting controller;
• a tag module controlled by said control module;
• a sensor module controlled by said control module;
• an energy harvesting module controlled by said energy harvesting controller and adapted to wirelessly collect said ambient RF EM energy;
• and
• a power module adapted to provide a power supply for said control module, said power supply being generated by the collected ambient RF EM energy,
• wherein said energy harvesting controller is adapted to (i) assess power requirements of each of the tag and sensor modules, (ii) transfer power from said energy harvesting module to any of said tag and sensor modules, and (iii) charge a local energy storage device.

A device comprising:

• a control module comprising:
• an energy harvesting controller;
• a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag controller operatively connected to said energy harvesting controller;
• and
• a sensor processing controller operatively connected to said RFID tag controller;
• a tag module controlled by said control module;
• a sensor module controlled by said control module;
• and
• an energy harvesting module directly connected to said control module and controlled by said energy harvesting controller, wherein said energy harvesting module is adapted to wirelessly collect, process, and store ambient radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic (EM) energy,
• wherein said energy harvesting controller is adapted to (i) assess power requirements of each of the tag and sensor modules, (ii) transfer power from said energy harvesting module to any of said tag and sensor modules, and (iii) charge a local energy storage device, and
• wherein power for operation of said control module, said tag module, said sensor module, and said energy harvesting module is generated only by the collected ambient RF EM energy.