volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

This paper presents dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) as efficient energy harvesters in the microwaves regime. A single DRA and 1×3 array were used to build foundation profiles for DRAs as energy harvesters. The proposed structures were designed and fabricated to resonate around 5.5 GHz. The study examined different factors that affect the harvester power efficiency. The size of ground plane and coupling between dielectric resonator (DR) elements in an array were studied, highlighting their effects on the overall efficiency of the harvester for different incident polarizations. A 5×5 array was built based on the studied factors and tested numerically and experimentally. Measurements showed that energy absorption eciency as high as 67% can be achieved using an array of DR antennas.

1. Harb, A., "Energy harvesting: State-of-the-art," Renewable Energy, Vol. 36, No. 10, 2641-2654, Oct. 2011.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2010.06.014

2. Paradiso, J. and T. Starner, "Energy scavenging for mobile and wireless electronics," IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 4, No. 1, 18-27, Jan. 2005.
doi:10.1109/MPRV.2005.9

3. Ukkonen, L., L. Sydanheimo, and M. Kivikoski, "Effects of metallic plate size on the performance of microstrip patch-type tag antennas for passive RFID," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 4, 410-413, Dec. 2005.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2005.860212

4. Jan, J.-Y. and L.-C. Tseng, "Small planar monopole antenna with a shorted parasitic inverted-l wire for wireless communications in the 2.4-, 5.2-, and 5.8-GHz bands," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 52, No. 7, 1903-1905, Jul. 2004.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2004.831370

5. Lai, Q., G. Almpanis, C. Fumeaux, H. Benedickter, and R. Vahldieck, "Comparison of the radiation efficiency for the dielectric resonator antenna and the microstrip antenna at Ka band," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 56, No. 11, 3589-3592, Nov. 2008.

6. Jabbar, H., Y. Song, and T. Jeong, "RF energy harvesting system and circuits for charging of mobile devices," IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 56, No. 1, 247-253, Feb. 2010.
doi:10.1109/TCE.2010.5439152

7. Ramahi, O. M., T. S. Almoneef, M. Alshareef, and M. S. Boybay, "Metamaterial particles for electromagnetic energy harvesting," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, No. 17, 173 903-173 903-5, Oct. 2012.
doi:10.1063/1.4764054

8. Alavikia, B., T. S. Almoneef, and O. M. Ramahi, "Electromagnetic energy harvesting using complementary split-ring resonators," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, No. 16, 163 903-163 903-4, Oct. 2014.
doi:10.1063/1.4873587

9. AlShareef, M. and O. M. Ramahi, "Electrically small particles combining even- and odd-mode currents for microwave energy harvesting," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, 253 906-253 906-4, 2014.
doi:10.1063/1.4885776

10. Leung, K.-W., E. H. Lim, and X. S. Fang, "Dielectric resonator antennas: From the basic to the aesthetic," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 100, No. 7, 2181-2193, Jul. 2012.
doi:10.1109/JPROC.2012.2187872

11. Luk, K. M. K. and K. W. K. Leung, "Dielectric Resonator Antennas," Research Studies Press, 2003.

12. Petosa, A., A. Ittipiboon, Y. Antar, D. Roscoe, and M. Cuhaci, "Recent advances in dielectric-resonator antenna technology," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 3, 35-48, Jun. 1998.
doi:10.1109/74.706069

13. Petosa, A., Dielectric Resonator Antenna Handbook, Artech House, 2007.

14. Chen, Y.-C., S.-M. Tsao, C.-S. Lin, S.-C. Wang, and Y.-H. Chien, "Microwave dielectric properties of 0.95mgtio(3)-0.05catio(3) for application in dielectric resonator antenna," Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Vol. 471, No. 1-2, 347-351, Mar. 2009.
doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2008.03.118

15. Akyildiz, I., W. Su, Y. Sankarasubramaniam, and E. Cayirci, "A survey on sensor networks," IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 8, 102-114, Aug. 2002.
doi:10.1109/MCOM.2002.1024422

16. Kingsley, J. W., R. Thomas, and S. Williams, "Attaching antenna structures to electrical feed structures,", US Patent 7,183,975, Feb. 2007.

17. Roy, L., N. Berthereau, N. Hojjat, K. Kautio, and H. Panesaar, "Dielectric resonator antenna with microstrip-waveguide transition in LTCC," Electronics Letters, Vol. 42, No. 19, 1078-1079, Sep. 2006.
doi:10.1049/el:20061501

18. Zbitou, J., M. Latrach, and S. Toutain, "Hybrid rectenna and monolithic integrated zero-bias microwave rectifier," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 54, No. 1, 147-152, Jan. 2006.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2005.860509

19. Hagerty, J., F. Helmbrecht, W. McCalpin, R. Zane, and Z. Popovic, "Recycling ambient microwave energy with broad-band rectenna arrays," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 52, No. 3, 1014-1024, Mar. 2004.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2004.823585

20. McSpadden, J., L. Fan, and K. Chang, "Design and experiments of a high-conversion-efficiency 5.8-ghz rectenna," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 46, No. 12, 2053-2060, Dec. 1998.
doi:10.1109/22.739282

21. Harouni, Z., L. Cirio, L. Osman, A. Gharsallah, and O. Picon, "A dual circularly polarized 2.45-GHz rectenna for wireless power transmission," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 10, 306-309, Apr. 2011.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2011.2141973

22. Ramahi, O. M. and A. Ashoor, "Dielectric resonator antennas and arrays for electromagnetic energy harvesting,", US Provisional Patent Application No. 62035265, Aug. 8, 2014.

23. Kumar Mongia, R. and A. Ittipiboon, "Theoretical and experimental investigations on rectangular dielectric resonator antennas," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 45, No. 9, 1348-1356, Sep. 1997.
doi:10.1109/8.623123

24. ANSYS HFSS Version 15.0.0, Ansys Inc., http://www.ansys.com.

25. Balanis, C. A., Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 3rd Ed., John Wiley, 2005.

26. Petosa, A., R. Mongia, A. Ittipiboon, and J. Wright, "Design of microstrip-fed series array of dielectric resonator antennas," Electronics Letters, Vol. 31, No. 16, 1306-1307, Aug. 1995.
doi:10.1049/el:19950898

27. Junker, G., A. Kishk, A. Glisson, and D. Kajfez, "Effect of an air gap around the coaxial probe exciting a cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna," Electronics Letters, Vol. 30, No. 3, 177-178, Feb. 1994.
doi:10.1049/el:19940191

28. Almoneef, T. S. and O. M. Ramahi, "Metamaterial electromagnetic energy harvester with near unity efficiency," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, No. 15, 153902, 2015.
doi:10.1063/1.4916232

Dr. Ahmed Z. Ashoor

Professor Omar M. Ramahi