Detection Schemes for Integrated SWIPT Receivers with Non-Linear Energy Harvesting

Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is an emerging technology to connect and energize devices wirelessly, in the future Internet of Things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSN). In this paper, we investigate two coherent detection schemes for integrated SWIPT receivers. At first, we examine a single input multiple output (SIMO) topology, with multiple rectennas at the receiver’s side, i.e. MRCA scheme. Targeting to reduce the decoding complexity, we further investigate a single input single output (SISO) topology, with one receive antenna connected to multiple rectifiers, i.e. MRCE scheme. A non-linear energy harvesting (EH) model, is considered for both schemes, by taking into account the sensitivity and saturation effects of rectifiers. With the use of maximum likelihood (ML) and soft decoding, energy detection is succeeded. An asymptotic analysis is conducted for both schemes, providing upper and lower bounds for EH and information decoding, respectively. Simulation and experimental results along with theoretical analysis, validate the enhanced performance of the proposed schemes.