This research aims to develop a Hybrid Solar and Waste Heat Thermal Energy Harvesting System that integrates Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) with a solar PV system. The main focus is given to the development of the hybrid solar and waste heat released from the solar panel by using the TEG system. This hybrid system consists of photovoltaic (PV) cells to absorb the solar energy and the TEG attached to the back of the panel to absorb heat waste and convert it into usable electricity. The PV cell and the TEG are integrated with each other in order to obtain maximum energy and increased system efficiency. The experimental results show that the maximum output voltage produced from the solar PV is 20.37V and the maximum output current generated is 203.72mA. The maximum output voltage obtained from the TEG is 18.92V and the maximum current produced is 189.265mA. This experimental result shows that the maximum voltage and current produced from solar and waste thermal heat from PV panels can be used to charge and to power up portable electronic devices. More efficiency is accomplished by combining the TEG to absorb waste heat loss from the PV cell, thus improving the performance of the PV panel system.

Photovoltaic (PV) arrays are used in many terrestrial applications. It exhibits a non-linear i-v characteristic which electrical energy production is depending on typical conditions such as solar irradiance and temperature. For best utilizations, the PV arrays must be operated at their maximum power point (MPP) via good implementation of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm technique. It is important to be aware that the MPP varies with respect to the characteristic of PV arrays in various conditions as mentioned above. Thereby, a detailed simulation model of PV array by employing the most popular MPPT algorithm of Perturb & Observe (P&O) has been developed in MATLAB. This model allows characterizing the PV array in terms of different temperature and irradiance as variable parameters. The parameters' variations under Malaysian conditions are also being considered. The outputs of the model are i-v and p-v characteristics as well as the voltage, current and power at MPP of the PV array are simulated from MATLAB script file. The simulation results will be presented and analyzed in this paper.

The growth innovation and versatility in wireless energy harvester have attracted an attention on the development of antennas. This paper presents microstrip patch antenna design of a dual-band radio frequency (RF) energy harvester system for self-powered devices. The antenna is designed using a slot-coupled structure to realize for dual microwave bands operation. By using an optimization parameter of 50Ω feed point on microstrip line, the proposed patch antenna has achieved good impedance matching. Parameter design of the feed point with the optimal extension length, ΔL improves the performance at targeted resonating frequencies. COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 electromagnetic package is utilized for the simulation and analysis process. The proposed antenna provides good performance parameter in terms of radiation pattern and return loss. The simulated results indicate satisfactory return loss performance of -31.867 dB and -24.437 dB in the dual narrowband resonance frequencies at 1.9GHz and 2.45GHz respectively. This property of results can be employed in rectifier of RF energy harvester system.

This paper investigates micromachined antenna performance operating at 5 GHz for radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting applications by comparing different substrate materials and fabrication modes. The research aims to discover appropriate antenna designs that can be integrated with the rectifier circuit and fabricated in a CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)-compatible process approach. Therefore, the investigation involves the comparison of three different micromachined antenna substrate materials, including micromachined Si surface, micromachined Si bulk with air gaps, and micromachined glass-surface antenna, as well as conventional RT/Duroid-5880 (Rogers Corp., Chandler, AZ, USA)-based antenna as the reference. The characteristics of the antennas have been analysed using CST-MWS (CST MICROWAVE STUDIO^®—High Frequency EM Simulation Tool). The results show that the Si-surface micromachined antenna does not meet the parameter requirement for RF antenna specification. However, by creating an air gap on the Si substrate using a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) process, the antenna performance could be improved. On the other hand, the glass-based antenna presents a good S₁₁ parameter, wide bandwidth, VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio) ≤ 2, omnidirectional radiation pattern and acceptable maximum gain of >5 dB. The measurement results on the fabricated glass-based antenna show good agreement with the simulation results. The study on the alternative antenna substrates and structures is especially useful for the development of integrated patch antennas for RF energy harvesting systems.