Patent 11482888 was granted and assigned to Medtronic on October, 2022 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The disclosure describes techniques to provide antennae configured to harvest radio-frequency (RF) energy from the nearby environment to provide electrical energy to an electrically powered device. Antennae may be configured in different shapes, lengths, locations, and materials to efficiently collect RF energy to be converted to electrical power. In some examples, RF energy may be harvested from existing sources, such as FM radio transmissions, communication transmissions such as Wi-Fi and BLUETOOTH, and similar existing sources. In other examples, antennae may be configured to collect energy from a source specifically designated to recharge the device. In some examples, the harvested RF energy may be sufficient to power the device. In other examples, the harvested RF energy may provide enough power to reduce the amount of recharging required by other means, such as by inductive recharging.