Rahul UNNIKRISHNAN

Mr. Rahul UNNIKRISHNAN


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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1 March 2025 in Technologies
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Fanuel EliasFanuel Elias
Fanuel Elias
Sunday Cookey EkpoSunday Cookey Ekpo
Sunday Cookey Ekpo
PAPopoola Stephen Alabi
Popoola Stephen Alabi
MUMfonobong Uko
Mfonobong Uko
Sunday EnahoroSunday Enahoro
Sunday Enahoro
NONurudeen Kolawole Olasunkanmi
Nurudeen Kolawole Olasunkanmi
Energy harvesting technology allows Internet of Things (IoT) devices to be powered continuously without needing battery charging or replacement. In addressing existing and emerging massive IoT energy supply challenges, this paper presents the design of multi-sourced multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) multiband hybrid wireless RF-perovskite photovoltaic energy harvesting subsystems for IoT application. The research findings evaluate the efficiency and power output of different RF configurations (1 to 16 antennas) within MIMO RF subsystems. A Delon quadruple rectifier in the RF energy harvesting system demonstrates a system-level power conversion efficiency of 51%. The research also explores the I-V and P-V characteristics of the adopted perovskite tandem cell. This results in an impressive array capable of producing 6.4 V and generating a maximum power of 650 mW. For the first time, the combined mathematical modelling of the system architecture is presented. The achieved efficiency of the combined system is 90% (for 8 MIMO) and 98% (for 16 MIMO) at 0 dBm input RF power. This novel study holds great promise for next-generation 5G/6G smart IoT passive electronics. Additionally, it establishes the hybrid RF-perovskite energy harvester as a promising, compact, and eco-friendly solution for efficiently powering IoT devices in smart cities. This work contributes to the development of sustainable, scalable, and smart energy solutions for IoT integration into smart city infrastructures.

23 July 2025 in Sensors
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Sunday EnahoroSunday Enahoro
Sunday Enahoro
Sunday Cookey EkpoSunday Cookey Ekpo
Sunday Cookey Ekpo
MUMfonobong Uko
Mfonobong Uko
Fanuel EliasFanuel Elias
Fanuel Elias
RURahul UNNIKRISHNAN
Rahul UNNIKRISHNAN
NONurudeen Kolawole Olasunkanmi
Nurudeen Kolawole Olasunkanmi
Terahertz (THz) communications and simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) hold the potential to energize battery-less Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices while enabling multi-gigabit data transmission. However, severe path loss, blockages, and rectifier nonlinearity significantly hinder both throughput and harvested energy. Additionally, high-power THz beams pose safety concerns by potentially exceeding specific absorption rate (SAR) limits. We propose a sensing-adaptive power-focusing (APF) framework in which a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) embeds low-rate THz sensors. Real-time backscatter measurements construct a spatial map used for the joint optimisation of (i) RIS phase configurations, (ii) multi-tone SWIPT waveforms, and (iii) nonlinear power-splitting ratios. A weighted MMSE inner loop maximizes the data rate, while an outer alternating optimisation applies semidefinite relaxation to enforce passive-element constraints and SAR compliance. Full-stack simulations at 0.3 THz with 20 GHz bandwidth and up to 256 RIS elements show that APF (i) improves the rate–energy Pareto frontier by 30–75% over recent adaptive baselines; (ii) achieves a 150% gain in harvested energy and a 440 Mbps peak per-user rate; (iii) reduces energy-efficiency variance by half while maintaining a Jain fairness index of 0.999;; and (iv) caps SAR at 1.6 W/kg, which is 20% below the IEEE C95.1 safety threshold. The algorithm converges in seven iterations and executes within <3 ms on a Cortex-A78 processor, ensuring compliance with real-time 6G control budgets. The proposed architecture supports sustainable THz-powered networks for smart factories, digital-twin logistics, wire-free extended reality (XR), and low-maintenance structural health monitors, combining high-capacity communication, safe wireless power transfer, and carbon-aware operation for future 6G cyber–physical systems.

12 June 2025 in Technologies
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Sunday EnahoroSunday Enahoro
Sunday Enahoro
Sunday Cookey EkpoSunday Cookey Ekpo
Sunday Cookey Ekpo
Yasir Al-YasirYasir Al-Yasir
Yasir Al-Yasir
MUMfonobong Uko
Mfonobong Uko
Fanuel EliasFanuel Elias
Fanuel Elias
PAPopoola Stephen Alabi
Popoola Stephen Alabi
The increasing demand for high-capacity, energy-efficient wireless networks poses significant challenges in maintaining spectral efficiency, minimizing interference, and ensuring sustainability. Traditional direct-link communication suffers from signal degradation due to path loss, multipath fading, and interference, limiting overall performance. To mitigate these challenges, this paper proposes a unified RIS framework that integrates passive and active Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) for enhanced communication and ambient RF energy harvesting. Our methodology optimizes RIS-assisted beamforming using successive convex approximation (SCA) and adaptive phase shift tuning, maximizing desired signal reception while reducing interference. Passive RIS efficiently reflects signals without external power, whereas active RIS employs amplification-assisted reflection for superior performance. Evaluations using realistic urban macrocell and mmWave channel models reveal that, compared to direct links, passive RIS boosts SNR from 3.0 dB to 7.1 dB, and throughput from 2.6 Gbps to 4.6 Gbps, while active RIS further enhances the SNR to 10.0 dB and throughput to 6.8 Gbps. Energy efficiency increases from 0.44 to 0.67 (passive) and 0.82 (active), with latency reduced from 80 ms to 35 ms. These performance metrics validate the proposed approach and highlight its potential applications in urban 5G networks, IoT systems, high-mobility scenarios, and other next-generation wireless environments.

22 March 2025 in Technologies
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
MUMfonobong Uko
Mfonobong Uko
Sunday Cookey EkpoSunday Cookey Ekpo
Sunday Cookey Ekpo
Sunday EnahoroSunday Enahoro
Sunday Enahoro
Fanuel EliasFanuel Elias
Fanuel Elias
RURahul UNNIKRISHNAN
Rahul UNNIKRISHNAN
Yasir Al-YasirYasir Al-Yasir
Yasir Al-Yasir
The deployment of fifth-generation (5G) and beyond-5G wireless communication systems necessitates advanced transceiver architectures to support high data rates, spectrum efficiency, and energy-efficient designs. This paper presents a highly adaptive reconfigurable receiver front-end (HARRF) designed for 5G and satellite applications, integrating a switchable low noise amplifier (LNA) and a single pole double throw (SPDT) switch. The HARRF architecture supports both X-band (8–12 GHz) and K/Ka-band (23–28 GHz) operations, enabling seamless adaptation between radar, satellite communication, and millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G applications. The proposed receiver front-end employs a 0.15 μm pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) process, optimised through a three-stage cascaded LNA topology. A switched-tuned matching network is utilised to achieve reconfigurability between X-band and K/Ka-band. Performance evaluations indicate that the X-band LNA achieves a gain of 23–27 dB with a noise figure below 7 dB, whereas the K/Ka-band LNA provides 23–27 dB gain with a noise figure ranging from 2.3–2.6 dB. The SPDT switch exhibits low insertion loss and high isolation, ensuring minimal signal degradation across operational bands. Network analysis and scattering parameter extractions were conducted using advanced design system (ADS) simulations, demonstrating superior return loss, power efficiency, and impedance matching. Comparative analysis with state-of-the-art designs shows that the proposed HARRF outperforms existing solutions in terms of reconfigurability, stability, and wideband operation. The results validate the feasibility of the proposed reconfigurable RF front-end in enabling efficient spectrum utilisation and energy-efficient transceiver systems for next-generation communication networks.

24 June 2025 in Preprints.org
Verified
Preprint
Open access
PDF file
Sunday EnahoroSunday Enahoro
Sunday Enahoro
Sunday Cookey EkpoSunday Cookey Ekpo
Sunday Cookey Ekpo
MUMfonobong Uko
Mfonobong Uko
Fanuel EliasFanuel Elias
Fanuel Elias
RURahul UNNIKRISHNAN
Rahul UNNIKRISHNAN
NONurudeen Kolawole Olasunkanmi
Nurudeen Kolawole Olasunkanmi
Terahertz (THz) simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) holds the potential to energize battery-less Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices while enabling multi-gigabit data transmission. However, severe path loss, blockages, and rectifier non-linearity significantly hinder both throughput and harvested energy. Additionally, high-power THz beams pose safety concerns by potentially exceeding specific absorption rate (SAR) limits. We propose a sensing-adaptive power-focusing (APF) framework, in which a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) embeds low-rate THz sensors. Real-time backscatter measurements construct a spatial map used for the joint optimisation of (i) RIS phase configurations, (ii) multi-tone SWIPT waveforms, and (iii) non-linear power-splitting ratios. A weighted-MMSE inner loop maximizes data rate, while an outer alternating optimisation applies semidefinite relaxation to enforce passive-element constraints and SAR compliance. Full-stack simulations at 0.3 THz with 20 GHz bandwidth and up to 256 RIS elements show that APF: (i) improves the rate–energy Pareto frontier by 25–70 % over recent adaptive baselines, (ii) achieves a 125 % gain in harvested energy and a 350 Mbps peak per-user rate, (iii) reduces energy-efficiency variance by half while maintaining a Jain fairness index of 0.96, and (iv) caps SAR at 1.6 W/kg, 20 % below the IEEE C95.1 safety threshold. The algorithm converges in seven iterations and executes within <3 ms on a Cortex-A78 processor, ensuring compliance with real-time 6G control budgets. The proposed architecture supports sustainable THz-powered networks for smart factories, digital-twin logistics, wire-free extended reality (XR), and low-maintenance structural health monitors—combining high-capacity communication, safe wireless power transfer, and carbon-aware operation for future 6G cyber–physical systems.