Rectenna structure analysis for ambient RF Energy Harvesting

Abstract

The paper proposes an efficient structure of RF Energy Harvesting (RFEH) system that can improve efficiency of the system. The paper analysis and indicate relationships between characteristics of the RFEH system such as: center frequency, bandwidth, Q factor, passive gain, and number of rectifier stages. After that, paper proposes design steps to design the RFEH system in which high enough Q and wide bandwidth are guaranteed. The RFEH system is designed and tested to proved the effectiveness of the proposed method. Mesurement results show that a sensitivity of 1V output DC voltage reaches at -20 dBm input power of 950 MHz signal. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the system is 57% at -10 dBm input level. The system can generate 3.58 output power when input power of the LTE signal is -19.4 dBm.