Antenna on a wireless untethered device such as a chip or printed circuit board for harvesting energy from space

• US 20050030181A1
• Filed: 10/05/2004
• Published: 02/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Christopher C. Capelli, Harold Swift, Marlin H. Mickle
• Original Assignee: Christopher C. Capelli, Harold Swift, Marlin H. Mickle
• Inventors: Mickle, Marlin H., Capelli, Christopher C., Swift, Harold
• Granted Patent: US 7,057,514 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.700
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2225 used in active tags, i.e. provided with its own power source or in passive tags, i.e. deriving power from RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2283 mounted in or on the surface of a semiconductor substrate as a chip-type antenna or integrated with other components into an IC package
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 23/00 Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/00 Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop

Abstract

A wireless untethered device which may be an integrated circuit chip or printed circuit board having at least one integrated antenna and circuitry operatively associated with the antenna for receipt of energy harvested from space by the antenna. The antenna has an effective area greater than its physical area. A system which receives power from the harvested energy after the energy is processed by the circuitry may also be provided with mismatched impedance between the antenna and a circuit resistance.

Claims

1. A wireless untethered device having at least one antenna and circuitry operatively associated with said antenna for receipt of energy harvested by said antenna from space and said antenna having an effective area greater than its physical area.

2. The wireless untethered device of claim 1 including

said wireless untethered device being selected from the group consisting of an integrated circuit chip and a printed circuit board.

3. The wireless untethered device of claim 2 including

said at least one antenna being an integrated antenna.

4. The wireless untethered device of claim 1 including

said wireless untethered device being an integrated circuit chip.

5. The integrated circuit chip of claim 4 including

said antenna being integrally formed on said chip.

6. The integrated circuit chip of claim 5 including

said antenna structured to receive RF energy and deliver it to said circuitry.

7. The integrated circuit chip of claim 6 including

said circuitry being structured to convert said RF energy to direct current for energizing electronics.

8. The integrated circuit chip of claim 6 including

a second integral antenna for transmitting data.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 6 including

said antenna being a spiral antenna.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 6 including

said spiral antenna being a square spiral.

11. The integrated circuit of claim 4 including

said circuitry having a tank circuit for establishing an antenna effective area greater than its physical area.

12. The integrated circuit of claim 9 including

said antenna having a length of about ¼

wavelength of said RF energy.

13. The integrated circuit of claim 4 including

a micro-strip feed line connected to said antenna.

14. The integrated circuit of claim 4 including

a system on said chip structured to be energized by the DC power from said circuitry.

15. The integrated circuit of claim 4 including

said circuitry having a non zero resistance which results in retransmission of some of said energy to thereby interfere with the transmitted energy and increase the effective area of said antenna.

16. The integrated circuit of claim 14 including

said system having an impedance mismatch with respect to said antenna.