volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

In this article, a novel dual-band multi-port compact rectenna design for RF energy harvesting is proposed. An E-shaped coaxial fed microstrip antenna combined with an inverted L-shaped structure is used to achieve a dual-band operation at 0.9 GHz (GSM900) and 2.4 GHz (WiFi) frequency bands with gains of 0.8 dBi and 4.4 dBi, respectively. A shorting post is incorporated in the design, which restricts the antenna size to 50 mm x 47 mm, making the overall rectenna compatible with any sensor nodes. Further, a compact rectifier circuit covering both the frequency bands is designed to obtain a conversion efficiency up to 50% for an input power as low as -20 dBm. The matching circuit ensures that the nonlinear impedance of the rectifier matches with that of the antenna under varying operating conditions. Finally, the rectennas designed are combined and arranged together to form a cubical structure to produce an output voltage as large as 0.5 V for an input power of -20 dBm. With 360˚ coverage and orthogonal polarization reception, the cubical antenna arrangement ensures improved harvesting efficiency making the proposed design suitable for powering low power IoT devices.

1., https://www.idtechex.com/events/presentations/energyharvesting devices-replace-batteries-in-iot-sensors-005771.asp. Accessed 14 September, 2019.
doi:10.1109/MCAS.2015.2510198

2. Soyatta, T., L. Copeland, and W. Heinzalman, "RF energy harvesting for embedded systems: A survey of trade-offs and methodology," IEEE Circuits Systems Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 1, 22-57, 2016.
doi:10.1109/COMST.2014.2368999

3. Lu, X., P .Wang, D. Niyato, D. I. Kim, and Z. Han, "Wireless networks with RF energy harvesting: A contemporary survey," IEEE Communications Survey & Tutorials, Vol. 17, No. 2, 757-789, 2014.

4. Brown, W. C., "The microwave powered helicopter," Journal of Microwave Power and Electromagnetic Energy, 1-20, 1966.

5. Kraus, J. D., et al., "Antennas and Wave Propagation," Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2006.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2006.871362

6. Ren, Y. J. and K. Chang, "5.8-GHz circularly polarized dual-diode rectenna and rectenna array for microwave power transmission," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techniques, Vol. 54, No. 4, 1495-1502, 2006.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2003.810137

7. Strassner, B. and K. Chang, "5.8-GHz circularly polarized dual-rhombic loop traveling-wave rectifying antenna for low power-density wireless power transmission applications," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techniques, Vol. 51, No. 5, 1548-1553, 2003.
doi:10.1109/22.739282

8. McSpadden, J. O., F. Lu, and K. Chang, "Design and experiments of a high-conversion-efficiency 5.8-GHz rectenna," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techniques, Vol. 46, No. 12, 2053-2060, 1998.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2003.812252

9. Strassner, B. and K. Chang, "Highly efficient C-band circularly polarized rectifying antenna array for wireless microwave power transmission," IEEE Transactions Antennas and Propag., Vol. 51, No. 6, 1347-1356, 2003.
doi:10.1049/iet-map.2016.0300

10. Mimis, K., D. R. Gibbins, S. Dumanli, and G. T. Watkins, "The ant and the elephant: ambient RF harvesting from the uplink," IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, Vol. 11, No. 3, 386-393, 2017.

11. Visser, H. J., A. C. F. Reniers, and J. A. C. Theeuwes, "Ambient RF energy scavenging: GSM and WLAN power density measurements," 38th European Microwave Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2008.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2014.2364830

12. Niotaki, K., A. Georgiadis, A. Collado, and J. S. Vardakas, "Dualband resistance compression networks for improved rectifier performance," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techniques, Vol. 62, No. 12, 3512-3521, 2014.

13. Arrawatia, M., M. S. Baghini, and G. Kumar, "RF energy harvesting system from cell towers in 900 MHz band," IEEE National Conference on Communications (NCC), Bangalore, India, 2011.

14. Sun, H., Y. X. Guo, M. He, and Z. Zhong, "Design of a highefficiency 2.45-GHz rectenna for low-input-power energy harvesting," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 11, 929-932, 2012.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2015.2399939

15. Arrawatia, M., M. S. Baghini, and G. Kumar, "Differential microstrip antenna for RF energy harvesting," IEEE Trans. on Antennas & Propagation, Vol. 63, No. 4, 1581-1588, 2015.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2019.2906598

16. Shen, S., Y. Zhang, C. Y. Chiu, and R. D. Murch, "An ambient RF energy harvesting system where the number of antenna ports is dependent on frequency," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 67, No. 9, 3821-3832, 2019.

17. Bahal, I. J. and P. Bhartia, Microstrip Antennas, Artech House, Massachusetts, 1980.

18. Shen, S., C. Y. Chiu, and R. D. Murch, "A broadband L-probe microstrip patch rectenna for ambient RF energy harvesting," IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation USNC/URSI, 2017.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2004.823585

19. Hagerty, J. A., F. B. Helmbrecht, W. H. McCalpin, R. Zane, and Z. B. Popovic, "Recycling ambient microwave energy with broad-band rectenna arrays," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 52, No. 3, 1014-1024, 2004.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2017.2786320

20. Shen, S., C. Y. Chiu, and D. Murch, "Multiport pixel rectenna for ambient RF energy harvesting," IEEE Trans. on Antennas & Propagn., Vol. 66, No. 2, 644-656, 2018.

21. Pozar, D. M., Microwave Engineering, 3rd Ed., Wiley International, USA, 2011.

22., https: ==en:wikipedia:org=wiki=Stub (electronics).

23. Divakaran, S. K., D. D. Krishna, and Nasimuddin, "RF energy harvesting systems: An overview and design issues," International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer Aided Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 1, 1-9, 2018.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2015.2416233

24. Kuhn, V., C. Lahuec, F. Seguin, and C. Person, "A multi-band stacked RF energy harvester with RF-to-DC efficiency up to 84%," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory Techniques, Vol. 63, No. 5, 1768-1778, May 2015.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2013.2272873

25. Sun, H., Y. X. Guo, M. He, and Z. Zhong, "A dual-band rectenna using broadband Yagi antenna array for ambient RF power harvesting," IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 12, 918-921, 2013.

26. Munir, S. W., O. Amjad, E. Zeydan, and A. O. Ercan, "Optimization and analysis of WLAN RF energy harvesting system architecture," International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems (ISWCS), Poznam, 2016.

27. Zhu, L., J. Zhang, W. Han, L. Xu, and X. Bai, "A novel RF energy harvesting cube based on air dielectric antenna arrays," International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer Aided Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2018.

Mrs. Sleebi Divakaran

Dr. Deepti Krishna

Dr. Nasimuddin

Dr. Jobin K. Antony