A comparative evaluation of IoT electronic solutions for energy harvesting

Abstract

This review synthesizes the current scenario of Internet of Things (IoT) electronic solutions for energy harvesting, presenting an extensive analysis of existing technologies, trends, and emerging paradigms. The study examines various energy harvesting methods, including solar, vibration, and thermal technologies, and evaluates their efficiency, scalability, and applicability to indoor IoT applications. Special emphasis is placed on the integration of power storage systems, with a comparative assessment of traditional batteries, supercapacitors, and hybrid configurations. In addition to exploring energy sources, the review investigates strategies to optimize IoT device power consumption. This encompasses an examination of low-power design techniques such as impedance matching circuits, rectifiers, voltage multipliers, and DC-DC or AC-DC converters, along with an exploration of sleep modes and wake-up mechanisms. Communication protocols within the IoT domain are scrutinized for their energy efficiency, analyzing the trade-offs between data transmission overhead and power consumption. The study further explores techniques for aggregating energy from multiple sources within energy harvesting systems. This comprehensive investigation significantly contributes to existing knowledge by providing insights into the intricacies of energy-harvesting devices.