Integrated System with Enhanced Performances to Recover Energy from Microstrip Circuits

This paper proposes a solution to recover part of the energy dissipated into heat in microstrip circuits, into useful DC energy. For that purpose, a multilayer system integrated by an embedded microstrip circuit and a thermo-electrical generator (TEG) subsystem is proposed. The aim of the paper is to enhance the amount of generated heat going towards the TEG subsystem to increase, in this way, the efficiency of the system, and consequently, the recovered power. Air channels, acting as thermal insulators, are inserted in the stackup configuration to guide the heat towards the TEG. For validation purposes, a proof-of-concept device is implemented consisting of a bandpass filter working at WiMAX band. Noticeable levels of DC power have been recovered and supplied to an electrical load for some of the case scenarios, in which a 2 W-CW RF in-band signal is applied.