Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6860419 | International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems | 2014 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
We report the fabrication of a supercapacitor on a plastic substrate with mass-production-compatible methods and its characterisation using galvanostatic and voltammetric methods. The supercapacitor is prepared in ambient conditions using activated carbon and an aqueous, non-acidic electrolyte. The obtained capacitances are 0.45Â F and 0.21Â F for device sizes of 4Â cm2 and 2Â cm2, respectively. Additionally, we demonstrate the utilisation of the supercapacitor in an autonomous energy harvesting and storage system. The RF energy harvester comprises a printed loop antenna and a half-wave organic diode rectifier operating at 13.56Â MHz frequency. The harvested energy is stored in two supercapacitors connected in series to increase the maximum operating voltage. In order to power a device such as a sensor or a small indicator display, voltage regulation is needed. A voltage regulator, implemented as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), was designed for this purpose, and fabricated commercially. We demonstrate the ability of the harvester storage unit to power the regulator for hours with a constant regulator output voltage and power. The effect of supercapacitor charging time on the actual supercapacitor charging state is also discussed, as a slower charging rate is found to have a significant effect on the output of the supercapacitor.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence
Authors
Suvi Lehtimäki, Miao Li, Jarno Salomaa, Juho Pörhönen, Antti Kalanti, Sampo Tuukkanen, Petri Heljo, Kari Halonen, Donald Lupo,