SSRG International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering ( SSRG - IJECE ) - Special Issue ICRTCRET Mar 2019

DESIGN OF LOW COST RECTENNA FOR WIRELESS ENERGY

HARVESTING
S. Jeya chitra1, M. Poornalakshmi2, S. Jeya lakshmi3,T. Pavithra 4
PG Scholar1,3,4, Department of ECE, Sri Vidya College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar, India.

Associate Professor2, Department of ECE, Sri Vidya College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar, India.

ABSTRACT: in Hot Water ,Almost 90 precent of a washing

machine’s energy is useless heating water. You can
In the wireless world, wireless power move is one of hack energy use in half by switching from hot to
the emerging technologies. Energy harvesting is the warm water, and reduce it even further by using cold
reason behind the success of wireless sensor water. This Problem overcome by energy harvesting
networks. Though wireless sensor networks find lots that is abundantely available in the form of solar
of applications in agriculture, an industry etc, one of (100mW/𝑐𝑚2), thermal (60 µW/𝑐𝑚2), vibration
the major constraints is its power consumption. The (200 µW/𝑐𝑚 ) and radio frequency (1 µW/𝑐𝑚2 )[6].
2

physical model comprises of antenna, a Schottky The physical model comprises of antenna, a Schottky
diode,a matching microstrip line, and an output low- diode,a matching microstrip line, and an output low-
pass filters are designed using lumped components pass filters. Apart from RF energy, most of the other
was designed and developed using the software sources are environment reliant that makes this
Advanced Design System (ADS). ADS software for technology more useful in critical applications such
designing microwave electronic circuits. Schottky as environmental monitoring, healthcare, and defense
diode (HSMS-2820) is used for rectification. The etc. [7]. The design parameters of the antenna such as
circuit is designed using FR4 substrate h=1.6mm the width and length of the patch are based on the
and εr = 4.6 having the fabricated dimensions of operating frequency of 2.4 GHz are calculated using
285mm x 90mm. The return loss output of the Equation in [9].To obtain the maximum energy in a
Rectenna is measured as -66 with a load resistance of wide range of frequencies, wideband and the compact
500 Ω. antenna is desired to power up small handheld
devices i.e. cell phones, tablets, electronic watches
Key words : Rectenna ,wireless energy Harvesting, and other smart devices. It is desired that the RF
Ultra Wide band. systems for energy harvesting should be able to cover
most of the telecommunication bands like 2.4 GHz,
I. INTRODUCTION 5.1 GHz, 5.8GHz (Bluetooth/Wi-Fi), 2.3 GHz, 2.5
GHz, 3.5 GHz,5 GHz (WiMAX), 3.4-3.6 GHz etc.
RF energy harvesting system acting important role in
gathering clean energy from nearby environment. [10]. Apart from the antenna, the rectifier circuit with
The issues linked to self-configuration, power high conversion efficiency characteristics is needed
management, and reliability must be addressed, that can effectively function on most of the frequency
bands of 2G/3G/4G networks, Wi-Fi and TV/radio
effectively. This paper addresses the power
broadcasting.
management issues by incorporating energy
harvesting technology for the SOs in the next
II. RECTENNA DESIGN
Wireless application. The solution for this problem
can be either power consumption decrease or external The block diagram of the rectenna circuit is shown in
power supply by means of energy harvesting. A lot of Fig. 1. It can be seen in Fig. 1 that the rectenna circuit
energy is wasted in the power conversion process of comprises of an antenna, a BPF, matching circuit, a
Powering an Empty Chest Freezer, Washing Clothes

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SSRG International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering ( SSRG - IJECE ) - Special Issue ICRTCRET Mar 2019

rectifier circuit, and a LPF. Each module is matched maximum power transfer. Hence, input and output
to the next module using stubs for maximum power impedances of all the modules are measured to
transfer [17].In order to fulfill the rectenna design calculate the length and width of the TLs for
requirements, the first step is to design the antenna.
maximum power transfer between the modules.
Here, an MPA is prefer and used which serve as a
promising solution for these requirements as they are
It can be seen from the S11 plot that the simulated
small, low-profile and easy-to-fabricate whereas their
antenna is resonating at 2.4GHz and showing an
shortcomings such as narrow bandwidth and low-
acceptable bandwidth of 25MHz.
gain characteristics can be improved by using
different techniques [18-22]. A typical MPA consists 1
of a radiating patch and a ground plane. The radiating C= (1)
patch is characterized by its relative permittivity and 2П𝑓𝑐𝑅
height [17]. The fringing-field effect between the
ground plane and the radiating patch causes the patch
antenna to emit at a single resonant frequency [17]. Freq =2.4 GHz
For the radiating patch to resonate at multiple
frequencies, slots and slits can be introduced in the dB(S(1,1))=-32.415
design which alters the current path on the patch [19-
22]. The low-cost FR4 substrate is used here with
M1
height (h), dielectric constant (Ɛr), and loss tangent
(δ) of 1.6mm, 4.6 and 0.019, respectively.

Fig 1 : Block diagram of the rectenna circuit

Figure 3 : Simulation result for S11 parameter of

microstrip patch rectenna

This simulation goes -32.415 dB on frequency

2.4GHZ.

The Termination is connected to the output port

,in Which measured power losses is predicted to be
-32.415 and the frequency corresponds to be 2.4
GHz. While on connecting load impedence, the
resultant power losses , gets reduced to about -66.468
and frequency 2.236 GHz respectively. Hence, this is
vital advantage.
Fig 2: Schematic of diode rectifying circuit
BPF Calculated Implemented
Low pass filtering is the last step in designing the
𝐿1 50.2nH 50nH
rectenna circuit as it smoothes the signal and removes
2𝐿2 424pH 400pH
any noise present.
𝐶1 0.08pF 0.1pF
All the individual modules of the rectenna circuit are 𝐶2 /2 10.04pF 10pF
then connected together using a matching circuit for

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SSRG International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering ( SSRG - IJECE ) - Special Issue ICRTCRET Mar 2019

Matching Calculated Implemented consists of two tapered microstrip lines, a Schottky

circuit diode,a λ/4 microstrip line,a matching microstrip line,
L 3.3nH 3.5nH and an output low-pass filters.
C 0.6pF 0.55pF

LPF Calculated Implemented

C 0.5pF 0.45pF
Table I : calculated And Tuned Component
Values of The rectenna Circuit

The rectenna design contains two main parts such

as the receiving Antenna and the rectifier. The
rectenna circuit comprises of a microstrip patch
antenna (MPA), a filter, rectifier and a load. The
MPA is designed using the low-cost flame resistant
(FR4) substrate.

Antenna
Rectifier Rectifier LPF Load
Figure5 : Schematic of diode rectifying circuit

Figure 4: Block Diagram of Energy Harvesting

System III. SIMULATED RESULTS :
The measured MPA bandwidth is found in good The Proposed Microstip Patch antenna was
agreement with the simulated one. Lumped simulated in ADS Microwave using Time domain
components are used to implement the and a low- solver. The antenna 2.23 GHz is Shown in Fig. 2.
pass filter (LPF) operating at the 2.4GHz band. A
schottky diode is used to execute the rectifier circuit
due to its high-speed switching at higher frequencies Freq =2.23 GHz
and low voltage drop characteristics. Transmission-
lines and stubs are used for matching and maximum dB(S(1,1)) =-66.468
power transfer. Load impedence, inherent power
losses in rectenna and non-linearity of the rectifier
with corresponding frequencies are major challenges
for state of the art rectenna design.The energy
harvester is designed and simulated using Agilent
advanced design system (ADS) Momentum—a
simulator that works on full-wave analysis method-
of-moment (MoM) technique [17,25].

The receiving antenna is a Microstrip Patch antenna

and was Printed on FR4 substrate with permittivity of
ξr =4.3 and thickness (h) of 1.6 mm. Microstrip feed
lines with thickness of 0.035 mm was used to feed
the antenna. The rectifier circuit was designed using Figure 6 : Return loss of the Antenna
Agilent ADS 2009 simulation software. The rectifier

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SSRG International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering ( SSRG - IJECE ) - Special Issue ICRTCRET Mar 2019

Fig. 5shows the simulated return loss results available software Advance Design System (ADS).
of the Antenna .As it can be seen from Fig.5, the The simulation results of DC voltage as a function of
antenna has an operating frequency of 2.23 GHz with input power of the proposed rectifier circuit is shown
a simulated return loss of -66.468 dB. in Fig. 5. From the DC voltage plot, it can be
observed that the DC voltage increases dramatically
LOAD RETURN LOSS when the input power is increases as well as load
100Ω -37 dB resistance. The conversion efficiency is simulated
200Ω -42 dB with respect to the rectifier circuit load at range of 0
300Ω -48 dB dBm to 30 dBm of the input power as shown in Fig.
400Ω -53 dB 6. The highest conversion efficiency of 59.35% is
reached at 30dBm of input power for the load of
500Ω -66 dB
200Ω. The efficiency increases gradually with the
Table 1: Tabulation determined for Load and input power.
Return loss

The different load resistance of 100Ω, 200Ω, 300 Ω,

400Ω, 500Ω and are simulated for maximum Vout. It
is noted that at 500Ω, a return loss is calculated with
better at 2.3 GHz band. Final rectenna measurements
have been carried out by selecting physical
components ranging from 500Ω.

Fig7: Simulated and measured conversion

efficiencies at different load resistance

Simulated conversion efficiency as a function of

input power for 5 KΩ, 30 KΩ, and 50 KΩ is depicted
in Fig. 5 . It is clear from the graph that the efficiency
is low at low input power levels as well as with the
increase of RF input signal power. Below 52%
conversion efficiency is observed for -10dBm input
Figure 6 :Simulated DC voltage at different load
power, while a peak conversion efficiency of75.5% is
resistance and input power found at 5 dBm.
Frequency Antenna Return Reference
(GHz) Size loss
( mmxmm)
2.4 30X 18 -40 [1] 2018
1.8 98X56 -25 [18] 2018
1.9 70X66 -20 [19] 2018
2.4 285X90 -32 [2] 2018
2.3 30X18 -66 Proposed
work
Fig 8: Measured and simulated conversion
The performance of the proposed rectifier circuit was efficiencies for 2.3 GHz frequency levels.
analyzed and optimized by using commercially

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SSRG International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering ( SSRG - IJECE ) - Special Issue ICRTCRET Mar 2019

IV .CONCLUSION Tavakol-Hamedani, "Compact Dual-Band

Rectenna design is investigated as wireless Suspended Microstrip Slot Antenna with an
energy harvesting device operating at 2.3 GHz. Antipodal Parasitic Element for WLAN
Microstrip patch antenna and rectifier circuit are Applications,"WirelessPersonalCommunications
designed. The simulated characteristics of the , vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 571-579, 2015.
antenna are analysed as well. The Antenna return loss
is also analysed. Good agreement the simulated
characteristics are obtained. [9] M. Ramachandran, I. Ramanadhan, S. R.
Elavazhagan, and B. Shanmugham, "Rectenna
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