Triple-Band Single-Layer Rectenna for Outdoor RF Energy Harvesting Applications.

Achilles D Boursianis,Paolo Rocca,Stavros Koulouridis,Sotirios K Goudos,Maria S Papadopoulou,Apostolos Georgiadis,Manos M Tentzeris

doi:10.3390/s21103460

Abstract

A triple-band single-layer rectenna for outdoor RF energy applications is introduced in this paper. The proposed rectenna operates in the frequency bands of LoRa, GSM-1800, and UMTS-2100 networks. To obtain a triple-band operation, a modified E-shaped patch antenna is used. The receiving module (antenna) of the rectenna system is optimized in terms of its reflection coefficient to match the RF-to-DC rectifier. The final geometry of the proposed antenna is derived by the application of the Moth Search Algorithm and a commercial electromagnetic solver. The impedance matching network of the proposed system is obtained based on a three-step process, including the minimization of the reflection coefficient versus frequency, as well as the minimization of the reflection coefficient variations and the maximization of the DC output voltage versus RF input power. The proposed RF-to-DC rectifier is designed based on the Greinacher topology. The designed rectenna is fabricated on a single layer of FR-4 substrate. Measured results show that our proposed rectenna can harvest RF energy from outdoor (ambient and dedicated) sources with an efficiency of greater than 52%.

Highlights

At present, wireless sensor network devices that use modern technology, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) [1], require less and less power for their operation [2,3]
From the presented graph we can derive that the receiving module of the proposed rectenna exhibits a triple-band operation
We can conclude that the S11 bandwidth (−10 dB limit) of the proposed antenna is about 35 MHz (LoRa: 845–880 MHz, GSM-1800: 1825–1860 MHz, UMTS-2100: 1932.5–1967.5 MHz) for each of the aforementioned frequency bands of interest

Summary

Introduction

Wireless sensor network devices that use modern technology, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) [1], require less and less power for their operation [2,3]. The microstrip patch antenna has been widely used as an RF energy harvester in various applications and for different frequency bands of operation [6,7,8,9]. It exhibits several comparative advantages, such as ease of fabrication, relatively low cost, small physical size compared to the wavelength of the operating frequency, and medium complexity [10,11,12]

Methods

Results

Conclusion