Abstract
RF power is broadly available in both urban and semi-urban areas and thus exhibits as a promising candidate for ambient energy scavenging sources. In this research, a high-efficiency quad-band rectenna is designed for ambient RF wireless energy scavenging over the frequency range from 0.8 to 2.5 GHz. Firstly, the detailed characteristics (i.e., available frequency bands and associated power density levels) of the ambient RF power are studied and analyzed. The data (i.e., RF survey results) are then applied to aid the design of a new quad-band RF harvester. A newly designed impedance matching network (IMN) with an additional L-network in a third-branch of dual-port rectifier circuit is familiarized to increase the performance and RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of the harvester with comparatively very low input RF power density levels. A dual-polarized multi-frequency bow-tie antenna is designed, which has a wide bandwidth (BW) and is miniature in size. The dual cross planer structure internal triangular shape and co-axial feeding are used to decrease the size and enhance the antenna performance. Consequently, the suggested RF harvester is designed to cover all available frequency bands, including part of most mobile phone and wireless local area network (WLAN) bands in Malaysia, while the optimum resistance value for maximum dc rectification efficiency (up to 48%) is from 1 to 10 kΩ. The measurement result in the ambient environment (i.e., both indoor and outdoor) depicts that the new harvester is able to harvest dc voltage of 124.3 and 191.0 mV, respectively, which can be used for low power sensors and wireless applications.
Highlights
Researchers have tried to investigate various renewable energy sources for different applications over the years
We propose a novel RF energy harvesting multi-band rectenna that works well from 1.8 to 2.5 GHz
RF power density level from the available frequency bands received by the proposed anpower density level from the available frequency bands received by the proposed antenna tenna was fluctuating between −25 and −10 dBm as a function of time
Summary
Researchers have tried to investigate various renewable energy sources for different applications over the years. A planar dual-band monopole antenna was presented in [5] for energy harvesting in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) bands In their case, the peak gains are very low (1.97 and 3.05 dBi) for the two operating bands. The critical problem of wireless energy harvesting at present is how to increase the performance of power conversion over a large frequency band at low-input power levels. We propose a novel RF energy harvesting multi-band rectenna that works well from 1.8 to 2.5 GHz. As we noticed in our measurement campaign, the rectenna is built and optimized for relatively low input powers (−35 to −10 dBm). A newly designed dual-band impedance matching network with an additional L-network in the third-branch rectifier circuit is intended to enhance the harvester’s output and RF-to-DC conversion efficiency at relatively very low input levels of RF power density.
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