Abstract
This paper presents a novel cylindrical shaped dual-band flexible rectenna capable of harvesting RF energy from number of RF sources available in the entire azimuth plane. The proposed configuration is an array of four identical dual-band rectenna subsystems, printed on the lightweight flexible substrate. Here, each rectenna subsystem comprises of a dual-ring shaped dual-band monopole antenna and a dual-band rectifying circuit. The designed topology is good for popular bands of LTE 1.8 GHz and Wi-Fi 2.45 GHz. The robustness of the designed antenna in the proposed cylindrical shaped rectenna is also verified by testing it for different bending angles in the H-plane by simulation as well as measurement. The bending performance is tested for the antenna using S11 and farfield radiation pattern. Further, for extracting maximum RF signals in the entire azimuth plane, these four identical antennas are backed by a wide-band artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) placed in the inner region of the cylinder. The fabricated single rectenna unit is capable of converting power with 40% efficiency at very low input RF power −12 dBm. Finally, the overall rectenna array is fabricated and validated through measurements using two different test antennas as a RF sources in the real environment of lab. The proposed light weight, rectenna printed on a flexible substrate can extract RF signals from a number of randomly distributed RF sources simultaneously, while maintaining the overall compact configuration.
Highlights
The increasing demand of light-weight and compact harvesting systems have fostered researchers to develop the rectenna on a flexible substrate
DUAL-RING SHAPED MONOPOLE ANTENNA WITH artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) SURFACE The dual-ring shaped monopole antenna is basically comprised of two circular rings each is responsible for different frequency bands
The proposed configuration is an array of four identical dual-band rectenna units printed on the lightweight flexible substrate
Summary
The increasing demand of light-weight and compact harvesting systems have fostered researchers to develop the rectenna on a flexible substrate. The major challenge of designing the flexible rectenna system is the performance variation with the bending effect specially for the antenna. The bending effect on a patch antenna in terms of matching and radiation pattern has been analyzed in detail [1]. A rectangular single band patch antenna on a textile substrate using Silver-copper-nickel plating with 4.4 dBi gain was reported [2]. In order to enhance the gain of antenna on any flexible substrate material, the array of antennas with the AMC backed structure was proposed in [3]. A Foam-backed paper was used as a substrate, on which
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