Received: 9 October 2018 Revised: 15 November 2018 Accepted: 17 November 2018

DOI: 10.1002/mmce.21628

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Design and performance analysis of broadband rectenna

for an efficient RF energy harvesting application
N. Saranya | T. Kesavamurthy

Department of Electronics and Communication

Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Abstract
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India This article proposes the design of coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed broadband rec-
Correspondence tenna for radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting application. The rectenna is
N Saranya, Department of Electronics and
designed to operate in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) frequency band
Communication Engineering, PSG College of
Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641 004, of 5.8 GHz. For designing the proposed rectenna, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
India. dielectric material was used to design, fabricate the CPW fed slot antenna. It was
Email: [email protected] observed that the proposed antenna exhibits the |S11| of −23.43 dB and achieves
the peak antenna gain of 8.56 dBi at 5.8 GHz. Secondly, the CPW fed rectifier
circuit which comprises of the matching circuit, rectifying unit, and filter was
designed. The measured results showed that the |S11| of −19 dB and it was per-
fectly matched with 50 Ω impedance. Finally, the rectenna was designed by
integration of antenna with rectifier circuit. The simulated results showed the maxi-
mum RF to direct current (DC) conversion efficiency and the output DC voltage of
88% and 445 mV at the load resistance of 1 kΩ. The measured results show the
maximum RF to DC conversion efficiency of 73.4% with the output DC voltage of
540 mV at the load resistance of 1 kΩ.

KEYWORDS

conversion efficiency, coplanar waveguide, polytetrafluoroethylene, rectenna, RF

energy harvesting

1 | INTRODUCTION following conditions, climate, temporal, and geographical.3,4

Figure 1 depicts the basic principle of RF energy harvesting
Wireless energy harvesting, a concept introduced by Nikola system with rectenna as the core device of the harvesting
Tesla in 1890, has gained a lot of attention since the RF system. This rectenna consists of receiving antenna, imped-
power is radiated from the various reliable electromagnetic ance matching circuit, and rectifying circuit. The intentional
sources. The wireless power transmission (WPT) can be and unintentional electromagnetic wave available in the
achieved through either near field radiations such as induc- environment is captured by the receiving antenna and con-
tive and capacitive coupling or far field radiations such as verted it into the dc power by the rectifier circuitry. The per-
microwave and laser. In 1964, William C. Brown invented formance of the RF energy harvesting system depends on
the radio frequency (RF) based energy harvesting system, the efficiency of the rectenna, which can be improved by
which directly converted the microwave signal into DC antenna's physical dimensions, high directive gain, radiation
current.1,2 pattern, and impedance matching.5,6
RF energy harvesting may either harvest the ambient This article proposes the coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed
energy available in the environment or from the feeding broadband rectenna at 5.8 GHz for the wireless energy har-
sources. Among the various sources, the advantage of using vesting application. The CPW fed slot antenna is used as a
the RF energy is that it is not significantly hindered by the receiving element which receives the RF energy from the

Int J RF Microw Comput Aided Eng. 2018;e21628. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mmce © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 of 12
https://doi.org/10.1002/mmce.21628
2 of 12 SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY

FIGURE 1 Block diagram of RF energy harvesting system

environment. Microstrip line, coplanar strip line (CPS) and CPW slot antenna and its performance. Section 4 describes
coplanar waveguide are the transmission lines used for the the implementation of the rectifier circuit, design and analy-
rectenna.7 Compared with the CPS and the CPW, the micro- sis of the broadband rectenna. Further this section measures
strip line needs a ground via for connecting the active com- and analyses the rectenna conversion efficiency and output
ponents present in the rectifier. The coplanar strip lines are DC voltage. Finally, Section 5 presents the conclusion and
suitable for the design of the rectenna, but require addition the future scope of the work.
balun circuit for measurement.8,9 The CPW transmission line
generic structure shown in Figure 2 have the following
advantages, it can be easily integrated with the active and 2 | E XI S T I N G A P P R O AC H
passive components, it does not require any ground via, and
it has low dispersion and radiation loss. The above parame- In the past few years, different kinds of rectenna have been
ters are perfectly suitable for the design of the rectenna. developed for RF energy harvesting applications. Mahima
The CPW fed slot antenna has two advantages such as et al.12 reported a broadband bend triangular omnidirectional
wide bandwidth and simple impedance matching network.10 antenna at the frequency band of 850 MHz to 1.94 GHz for
The CPW fed rectifier circuit is designed using polytetra- RF energy harvesting applications. A maximum conversion
fluoroethylene (PTFE) dielectric material which has the efficiency of 60% and 17% were obtained for a load of
maximum power transfer capability with a low dielectric 500 Ω at 980 and 1800 MHz. A dual band microstrip
constant(εr = 2.1), very low loss tangent (0.0018 at antenna with gain enhancement had been investigated.13 A
10 GHz), negligible water absorption and a high temperature high efficiency rectenna was introduced14 at 2.45 GHz with
resistance(the melting point is about 327
C), PTFE dielectric the peak gain of 8.6 dBi. The antenna was designed to
material have suitable technical advantages like it provides directly match with rectifier circuit at 2.45 GHz, which pro-
isolation between the antenna and the metallic structure, it vides the maximum conversion efficiency of 83% with a
reduces the current cancelation in the antenna, it reduces the load resistance of 1400 Ω.
power loss. Thus, PTFE is the suitable dielectric material Dukju Ahn et al.15 presented millimeter sized wireless
which improves the performance of the rectenna. power transmission for biomedical implants. This WPT system
The antenna, rectifier and integrated rectenna are fabri- was based on the principle of inductive coupling between the
cated and tested. The performance of the rectenna is verified two coils; it achieves power transfer efficiency of 0.56% and
by both simulation and measured results. From the results, it power delivered to the load of about 224 μW at 200 MHz with
is observed that the proposed rectenna may be used for 12 mm separation between the two coils in the tissue environ-
powering the low power devices such as sensors, implant- ment. A microstrip antenna array based wireless power trans-
able biomedical devices, and internet of things (IoT) mission system was introduced16 for the ISM band of 5.8 GHz.
applications.11 Joseph et al.17 developed a broad-band rectenna array for recy-
This article is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces cling ambient microwave energy. Besides, the wide band
the existing approaches used for designing the rectenna. rectenna,18 the triple band differential rectenna provides the
Section 3 briefly discusses the design of the broadband maximum conversion efficiency of 86%, when 11 dBm micro-
wave power was received at 433 MHz with a load resistive of
5 Ω,19 and the multiband rectenna20 were studied for harvesting
the RF energy applications.
Recently many researchers have focused on the design of
an efficient antenna for wireless energy harvesting application.
Sandhya et al.21 presented a miniature implantable antenna for
rectenna application. Many CPW fed antenna design for differ-
ent frequency band have been investigated.22–27 An analytical
model of a Schottky diode has been investigated.28 From the
FIGURE 2 Generic structure of CPW transmission line existing research, the ISM frequency band of 5.8 GHz has been
SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY 3 of 12

selected, because the frequency band is less crowded and the The proposed CPW fed slot antenna length (L1) is
size of the rectenna will be reduced, when compared with approximately one-guide wavelength (λg) is determined by
2.45 GHz. the following Equations (1) and (2),

C=f
λg ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1Þ
3 | AN TEN N A DE SIGN εeff
where, εeff is the effective constant and f is the resonant
3.1 | Antenna configuration frequency. The effective dielectric constant is equal to the
The proposed CPW fed broadband slot antenna is shown in average dielectric constant of the substrate and the air.
Figure 3A. The CPW structure without the use of any extra εr + εair
balun is used to match the antenna and the rectifier to εeff ¼ ð2Þ
2
improve the power conversion efficiency. The advantage of
0:5 ≤ w=h ≤ 2 ð3Þ
using the coplanar waveguide is that the diode and the pas-
sive components are integrated with the antenna with less s
≤4 ð4Þ
complexity, which is preferable for rectifying circuit design. s + 2w
The characteristic impedance of the CPW transmission line The width of the CPW feed line and gap is obtained by
is 50 Ω. The CPW fed broadband rectenna is fabricated on a Equations (3) and (4). The optimized dimensions of the
1.5-mm–thick(h) PTFE dielectric material with the dielectric antenna are shown in Table 1. The optimal antenna parame-
constant of 2.1 and loss tangent δ = 0.0018.The proposed ters including the |S11| and the gain are obtained by using
antenna has a single layer metallic structure on one side of Keysight EmPro 3D electromagnetic simulator.
the substrate whereas, the other side is without any metalli- The simulated surface current distribution of the proposed
zation. The CPW slot antenna consists of CPW feed line CPW fed slot antenna at the different frequencies 5.1, 5.8, and
separated from the ground plane with two narrow slot lines. 6.1 GHz are depicted in Figure 4. From the figure, it is clear
The two symmetrical V shaped resonating slots are intro- that the surface current distributions at various frequencies are
duced on the CPW plane, whose length have been chosen different. At 5.1 GHz, the surface current distribution is along
according to the longest working wavelength of the desired the CPW rectangular ground plane. Similarly, at 5.8 GHz fre-
frequency band and it have been fed by the center conductor quency band, the two V-shaped slot and feed line have rich
of CPW. The frequency of the operation depends on the current distributions. At 6.1 GHz, the surface current is mainly
length of the slot (L1). The input impedance of the antenna is distributed on the feed line. This indicates the slot length and
tuned by the stub length (d) and the dimensions of the copla- feed line controls the resonant frequency of the antenna.
nar waveguide.29,30 In order to increase the gain and direc-
tivity of the proposed antenna, maximum beam is directed in
3.2 | Parametric variation
one direction, a reflector plane is placed at the back side of
the antenna at the distance of D = 0.48 λ0 as shown in In the parametric variation analysis, five critical parameters
Figure 3B.The microwave power is received by the slot with effect on the performance are given and discussed. The
antenna and transmitted to the rectifying circuit. other parameters such as the slot width (Ws), feed length

FIGURE 3 Configuration of proposed CPW fed slot antenna: A, top view. B, Side view
4 of 12 SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY

TABLE 1 Optimized values of parameters used in designing of proposed antenna (in mm)

Parameters Wt Lt Wf Lf G Ws Ls θ D d
Values (mm) 58 38 4.1 10 1.2 0.4 20 45 10.4 3.5

FIGURE 4 Simulated surface current distribution at different frequencies

(Lf), gap G, and reflecting plane distance D are kept as same 3.2.2 | Effect of varying length of the patch (Lt)
as mentioned above. The variation in the length of rectangular patch (Lt) influ-
ences the loss in the antenna. Different values of the length
3.2.1 | Effect of varying length of the slot (Ls) of patch are taken as 24, 26, 28, 30, and 32 mm, the results
The effect of varying length of the slot (Ls) is shown in show slight deviation in resonant frequency, but it has strong
Figure 5 which illustrate the influences of the slot length (Ls) influences in reflection coefficient (S11). Figure 7 shows that
for the resonant frequency. Deviation in the resonant fre- by changing the length of the patch, the reflection coefficient
quency and reflection coefficient (S11) is observed by vary- (S11), bandwidth and resonant frequency changes. It is also
ing the length of slot from 16 to 24 mm in steps of 2 mm. observed that the patch length at 28 mm gives the reflection
As the slot length decreases, the resonant frequency shifted coefficient of −23 dB at 5.8 GHz ISM band. The compari-
from 5.8 to 6.3 GHz. When the slot length increases, the res- son of frequency versus VSWR for different patch length
onant frequency shifted from 5.8 to 5.2 GHz. The frequen- (Lt) is shown in Figure 8.
cies versus voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR)
performance for different slot length (Ls) are shown in 3.2.3 | Effect of varying width of the patch (Wt)
Figure 6. It can be concluded that for the value of optimum
Effect of varying width of the patch (Wt) is shown in
slot length Ls = 20 mm, the VSWR is 1.153 is achieved at
Figure 9. It can be seen that, when Wt increases from 58 to
the resonant frequency of 5.8 GHz.
64 mm, the value of reflection coefficient increases. As Wt
decreases from 58 to 54 mm, the resonant frequency slightly

FIGURE 5 Comparison of simulated S11 (dB) versus frequency for FIGURE 6 Frequency versus VSWR performance for different slot
different value of slot length (Ls) length (Ls)
SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY 5 of 12

FIGURE 7 Comparison of simulated S11 (dB) versus frequency for FIGURE 9 Comparison of simulated S11 (dB) versus frequency for
different value of patch length (Lt) different value of patch width (Wt)

resonant frequency range. The frequency response versus

VSWR performance is shown in Figure 12. It can be seen
that the optimum substrate height 1.5 mm, the VSWR is
1.153 achieved at 5.8 GHz.

3.2.5 | Effect of varying width of the feed (Wf)

The variation in the width of feed is an important factor in
designing a rectenna. Different value of the width of feed are
taken such as 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, and 5.1 mm and it is perceived
that changing this width affect the antenna performance seri-
ously. The Figure 13 shows that by changing the feed width,
there is change in the value of resonant frequency, reflection
coefficient and bandwidth. It is observed that the feed width
at 4.1 mm gives the optimum value of reflection coefficient
(S11) is −23 dB for desired frequency band. The impedance
graph for real and imaginary parts are shown in Figure 14A,B
FIGURE 8 Frequency versus VSWR performance for different patch
length (Lt)

shifted upward and the reflection coefficient value increases,

it means that reflection signal power from the antenna is
increased. Figure 10 shows the frequency response versus
VSWR for different patch width. It can be concluded that
the value of optimum patch width (Wt) = 58 mm, the reflec-
tion coefficient of −23 dB with the VSWR of 1.153 is
achieved at the resonant frequency of 5.8 GHz.

3.2.4 | Effect of varying height of the substrate (h)

The antenna performance with different substrate height (h)
is shown in Figure 11. Substrate with different thickness is
taken such as 0.8, 1.2, 1.5, and 2 mm. As the substrate
height (h) increases from 1.5 to 2 mm, the resonant fre-
quency of operation shifted toward lower resonant frequency
range. As the substrate height (h) decrease from 1.5 to
0.8 mm, the resonant frequency shifted toward the upper FIGURE 10 Frequency versus VSWR for different patch width (Wt)
6 of 12 SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY

FIGURE 13 Comparison of simulated S11 (dB) versus frequency for

FIGURE 11 Comparison of simulated S11 (dB) versus frequency for
different feed width (Wf)
different value of substrate height (h)

achieved. A good impedance matching performance within a

which demonstrates that optimized value of Wf =4.1 mm
bandwidth has been achieved. The proposed antenna radiation
gives the value of real part closer to 50 Ω and imaginary parts
characteristics are described in terms of the E-plane and
gives closer to 0 Ω.

3.3 | Antenna performance

The fabricated CPW fed broadband slot antenna and the
antenna test setup are shown in Figure 15A,B. The compari-
sons of proposed antenna with existing structures are shown
in Table 2. Both the simulated and the measured |S11| are
found to be better than −20 dB at 5.8 GHz as plotted in
Figure 16. From the plot, it is clear that the measured |S11| is
slightly different from the stimulated value and this may be
due to the fabrication losses and effect of adhesive copper.
The simulated and measured antenna bandwidth of
0.8 GHz (5.3-6.1 GHz) and 1.2 GHz (5.5-6.7 GHz) are

FIGURE 14 A, Frequency versus impedance (real part) performance

FIGURE 12 Frequency versus VSWR performance for different substrate and B, frequency versus impedance (imag. part) performance for different
height (h) feed width (Wf)
SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY 7 of 12

FIGURE 15 A, Fabricated CPW slot antenna. B, Proposed antenna test setup

TABLE 2 Comparison of proposed antenna with antennas reported in reference

References Structure Dimensions mm3 Substrate Frequency |S11| in dB Bandwidth (%) Gain (dBi)
6
Chen and Chiu CPW fed bended monopole 35 × 35 × 1.6 Fr4 and 4.4 3.6,6.8,9 GHz <−20 dB 3.1 to 9 GHz 2.5 dBi
antenna
Bing et al.8 CPW fed slot antenna 66.4× 54 × 1.4 Fr4 and 4.4 2.45 GHz −30 dB 33.3% 3 dBi
Lin-Tao et al.9 CPW-bed asymmetrical slot 35 × 35 × 1.6 Fr4 and 4.4 2.45 GHz −20 dB 118.7% 2.95 dBi
antenna
Li Zhang et al.10 Bent triangular antenna 94 × 82 × 1.6 Fr4 and 4.4 980 MHz and <−10 dB 0.89-1.9 GHz 7 dBi
1800 MHz
Palandoken11 Microstrip antenna 50 × 50 × 0.8 Fr4 and 4.4 1.95,2.45GHz 19 dB,35 dB - 8.3,7.8 dBi
Zhanf et al. 20
CPW fed monopole antenna 70 × 70 × 0.8 Fr4 and 4.4 2.45,5.51GHz −20 dB 41.89%, 90.91% 7.1 dBi
Proposed work CPW fed slot antenna 60 × 60 × 1.6 PTFE and 2.1 5.8 GHz −23.43 dB 20.68 8.56 dBi

H-plane 2D radiation pattern. The E plane is the plane that con- angle for the antenna. The simulated and measured antenna
tains vector of electric field while H-plane is the plane that con- gain versus frequency is plotted in Figure 18B. The mea-
tains the magnetic field. The two-dimension radiation sured peak gain is 8.66 dBi at the resonant frequency of
characteristics of the E plane and H-plane are simulated at dif- 5.8 GHz, while the simulated peak gain is 10.56 dBi at
ferent frequencies such as 5.3, 5.8, and 6.1 GHz are shown in 5.8 GHz. The measured gain varies between 6.5 and 10.44
Figure 17. In E plane, the value of Φ is 0
and 90
while H dBi in the bandwidth of 5.2-6.2 GHz. From the gain plot, it
plane the value of θ is 0
and 90
. is clear that the measured gain slightly differs from the simu-
The simulated far field 3D radiation pattern of the pro- lated value this may be due to the properties of adhesive
posed antenna at 5.8 GHz is shown in Figure 18A. The radi- copper tape. By placing the reflecting plane beyond the pro-
ation pattern shows the directivity over the phi and theta posed antenna at the distance of D the measured gain of the
antenna can be improved.

4 | R E C T I F I E R DE S IG N

The proposed CPW rectifying circuit configuration is shown

in Figure 19. The proposed rectifier circuit consists of 50 Ω
feed line, rectifying diode, capacitors, dc-pass filter, and
resistive load. The rectifier is designed by using the PTFE
substrate with the dielectric constant of 2.1. The rectifying
diode plays an input role in RF to DC power conversion effi-
ciency. In the proposed design, HSMS-2862 Schottky diode
is used as a rectifying diode. The diode consists of pair of
series-parallel connecting diodes in a single SOT-23 to
reduce the size of the device. The main SPICE design
FIGURE 16 Simulated and measured |S11| versus frequency for the parameters of the HSMS 2862 Schottky diode as listed in
proposed antenna the Table 3. A pair of capacitor C1 and C2 is shunted across
8 of 12 SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY

FIGURE 17 Radiation pattern of the proposed antenna at: A, f = 5.8 GHz; B, f = 5.3 GHz; C, f = 6.1 GHz

the CPW ground line and feed line to act as the dc-pass fil- circuit is directly connected to the output terminal of the pro-
ter, which blocks any unrectified microwave power that posed antenna without any extra balun.
enters the load. The series capacitor C1 is used to prevent the Keysight ADS simulation tool is used for designing the
direct current path from being short-circuited, because the rectifying circuits. The simulated input impedance of the
feed line of the CPW antenna is directly connected with the Schottky diode at 5.8 GHz is 47.68-j7.975 Ω when the input
CPW ground plane. The load resistance (Rload) is connected power is −6 dBm. Hence, an input impedance matching net-
to the output of rectifier to collect the DC power. Diode and work is designed to match the input impedance of the
capacitors are directly attached with CPW structure without antenna to the diode input impedance. The input impedance
any ground vias, this reduces the parasitic effect and sim- matching network is realized by CPW Transformer. The per-
plifies the fabrication process. The design of rectifying fect impedance matching can be realized by adjusting the
SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY 9 of 12

TABLE 3 SPICE parameters of the HSMS 2862 diode

Parameters VB Cj0 EG IBV IS RS

Value 7.0 V 0.18 pF 0.69 ev 1E-5 A 5E-8 A 6.0 Ω

simulated results. Both the simulated and measured imped-

ance of the rectifier shows that the rectifier is perfectly
matched with 50 Ω impedance. Thus, a good agreement
between the measured and the simulated results have been
achieved. The comparisons of proposed rectifier with the
existing systems are shown in Table 5.
The proposed CPW fed slot antenna and the rectifier are
directly connected to form a rectenna. Figure 21 illustrates
the front view of the fabricated rectenna. To measure the
conversion efficiency of the rectenna, the transmitting
antenna and proposed rectenna are aligned face to face with
a distance of 20 mm. Keysight vector signal generator
(VSG) is used as microwave power source fed to the trans-
mitting antenna. The RF to DC conversion efficiency η(%)
can be calculated as,

V L2 1
ηð%Þ ¼ × × 100% ð5Þ
RLoad Pin

where, Rload is the load resistance, VL is the voltage

across the resistive load, and Pin is the input power of the
rectifier. The efficiency of the rectenna changes with change
in the load resistance as shown in Figure 22. It is observed
FIGURE 18 A, Far field 3-D radiation pattern for the proposed antenna at
5.8 GHz. B, Simulated and measured gain versus frequency for the
that the load resistance increases with the efficiency curve
proposed antenna tends to go down for input power larger than 5 dBm. At the
load resistance of 0.5 Ω, the maximum conversion efficiency
of 71% at the input power of 1 dBm. The conversion effi-
CPW transformer width of W2, the length of L2, and the gap ciencies of the rectifier are above 50% at the input power of
of G. The optimum dimensions of the rectifier circuit are −5 to 6 dBm. The conversion efficiency of 88% can
shown in Table 4. achieved at the load resistance of 1 kΩ with the low input
The simulated and measured |S11| values of the CPW rec- power of −6 dBm. The conversion efficiency remains 50%
tifier are illustrated in Figure 20. The reflection coefficient| from the input power of −8 to 6 dBm. The conversion effi-
S11| is measured at the input power −6 dBm with the opti- ciency of 70% is achieved at load resistance 2 kΩ with the
mum load resistance of 1 kΩ. It is observed that the |S11| of input power of 0 dBm. The conversion efficiencies of the
above −15 dB can be achieved in both measured and rectifier is above 50% at the input power of −6 to 6 dBm. At

FIGURE 19 Configuration of the proposed CPW fed rectifier circuit

10 of 12 SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY

TABLE 4 Optimal dimension of the proposed rectifier circuit

Parameters W1 L1 W2 L2 G C1 C2 C3 Rload
Value 18 mm 24 mm 3 mm 10 mm 1.2 mm 10 pF 47 pF 47 pF 1 kΩ

FIGURE 20 Simulated and measured |S11| versus frequency for the

proposed rectifier

the load resistance of 3 and 4 kΩ, the maximum conversion

efficiency is 71% at the input power of −4 dBm. The output FIGURE 21 Photograph of the fabricated CPW fed rectenna
voltage versus input power for different load resistance is
shown in Figure 23. It can be seen that as the output voltage
increases with increasing load resistance. It can be concluded
that at the optimum load resistance of 1 kΩ gives maximum
conversion efficiency of 88% at the low input power of
−6 dBm and the efficiency remains higher than 50% at the
input power of −8 to 6 dBm.
Figure 24 shows the simulated and the measured conver-
sion efficiencies of the rectenna at different input power
range from −15 to 5 dBm. It is observed that the peak con-
version efficiency of 88% and 73% is achieved at the input
power of −6 dBm in both the simulation and measured
results. The overall conversion efficiency can remain 30%
for the input range of −10 to +5 dBm, respectively. The DC
voltage across the load resistor have been shown in
Figure 25 which illustrates the simulated and measured out-
put DC voltage of 445 and 540 mV is obtained at the load FIGURE 22 Comparison of efficiency versus input power for different
resistance of 1 kΩ and input power of −6 dBm. It is also load resistance (Rload)

TABLE 5 Function comparison of proposed rectenna with rectenna reported in references

References Rectifier structure Maximum conversion efficiency (%) Output DC voltage (V)
Arrawatia et al.12 CPS load single port rectifier 83% @ −5 dBm 1V
Sun et al.14 Microstrip based voltage doubler circuit 46.9% –
Yang et al.16 Single port rectifier 86% @ 11 dBm 5V
Hagerty et al.17 Single shunt diode rectifier 41% –
Huang et al.18 Single voltage doubler circuit 57% @ 9 dBm 100 mV
Okba et al.19 Differential port rectifier circuit 68% @ −2 dBm 25 μV
Proposed work CPW fed voltage doubler rectifier circuit 73.4% @ −6 dBm 540 mV
SARANYA AND KESAVAMURTHY 11 of 12

observed that the DC voltage increases with increasing input

power level.

5 | C O NC L U S IO N

The rectenna is one of the key components of RF energy

harvesting system. A broadband CPW fed slot antenna and
the CPW rectifier have been developed for RF energy har-
vesting applications. A slot antenna is mounted on CPW
transmission which provides broadband operation and easily
integrates the passive and active components. The antenna
has a compact structure of 60 × 60 × 1.6 mm3. The pro-
posed antenna has the measured bandwidth of 1.2 GHz (5.5
−6.7 GHz) at a reflection coefficient of −10 dB including
5.8 GHz and the maximum antenna gain of 8.56 dBi at
FIGURE 23 Comparison of output voltage versus input power for 5.8 GHz. The impedance matching circuit have been studied
different load resistance (Rload) and analyzed. From the analysis, the quarter wave trans-
former is designed to match the input impedance of antenna
and input impedance of diode in order to achieve the maxi-
mum power conversion efficiency. The antenna along with
the designed rectifier circuit forms a smart rectenna which
provides the maximum power conversion efficiency of 73%
at the input power of −6 dBm and the load resistance of
1 kΩ. Besides the rectenna exhibits 30% conversion effi-
ciency from the input range of −10 to +5 dBm. The maxi-
mum output DC voltage of 540 mV across 1 kΩ resistive
load and the input power of −6 dBm. The performance is
confirmed through both the simulation and the measured
results, which shows that the rectenna has the potential to
harvest the RF energy and it has the power to the various
battery power devices such as mobile phone, implantable
biomedical devices, and IoT applications.

OR CID

N. Saranya https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1523-8030
FIGURE 24 Simulated and measured conversion efficiency versus input
power levels

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11. Palandoken M. Microstrip antenna with compact anti-spiral slot resonator
for 2.45 GHz energy harvesting applications. Microw Opt Technol Lett.
neering from Trichy Engineering Col-
2016;58(6):1404-1408. lege, Trichy in 2013 and the Master
12. Arrawatia M, Baghini MS, Kumar G. Broadband bent triangular omnidirec- Degree in Wireless Communication from
tional antenna for RF energy harvesting. IEEE Antennas Wirel Propag Lett.
PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore
2016;15:36-39.
13. Mohammed Aboualaa AB, Rahman A, Allam A, Elsadek H, Ramesh KP. in 2015. Currently she is pursuing her
Design of a dual –band microstrip antenna with enhanced gain for energy PhD degree from PSG College of Technology, Anna Uni-
harvesting. IEEE Antennas Wirel Propag Lett. 2017;16:1622-1626. versity, Chennai as Full Time Research Scholar. Her
14. Sun H, Guo Y-X, He M, Zhong Z. Design of efficiency 2.45 –GHz rectenna
for low –inputs –power energy harvesting. IEEE Antennas Wirel Propag Research interest in the area of Wireless Power Transmis-
Lett. 2012;11:929-932. sion, RF and Microwave Engineering Antenna.
15. Ahn D, Ghovanloo M. Optimal design of wireless power transmission links
for millimeter –sized biomedical implants. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. T KESAVAMURTHY is presently working
2016;10(1):125-137. as an Associate professor in Depart-
16. Geyi XY, Sun H. Optimum design of wireless power transmission system
ment of Electronics and Communica-
using microstrip patch antenna. IEEE Antennas Wirel Propag Lett. 2017;16:
1824-1827. tion Engineering, PSG College of
17. Hagerty JA, Helmbrecht FB, McCalpin WH, Zane R, Popovic ZB. Recy- Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu.
cling ambient microwave energy with broad band rectenna arrays. IEEE He obtained his Bachelor Degree in
Trans Microw Theory Tech. 2004;52(3):1014-1024.
18. Huang F-J, Lee CM, Chang C-L, Chen L-K, Yo T-C, Luo C-H. Rectenna Electronics and Instrumentation Engi-
application of miniaturized implantable antenna design for triple –band neering in the year 1993 from Tamilnadu College of
biotelemetry communication. IEEE Trans Antennas Propag. 2011;59(7): Engineering, Coimbatore and Master in Applied Elec-
2646-2653.
19. Okba A, Takacs A, Aubert H, Charlot S, Calmon P-F. Multiband rectenna
tronics in the year 1999 from PSG College of Technol-
for microwave applications rectenna multi-bands pour des application ogy, Coimbatore and Doctorate in information and
micro-ondes. C R Physique. 2017;18(2):107-117. Communication from Anna University, Chennai in 2009.
20. Zhanf J-W, Yi H, Cao P. An investigation of wideband rectenna for wireless
He has 3 year of industry experience and 21 years of
energy harvesting. J Wirel Eng Technol. 2014;5(4):107-116.
21. Chandravanshi S, Sarma SS, Akhtar MJ. Design of triple band differential teaching experience. His research interest include wire-
rectenna for RF energy harvesting. IEEE Trans Antennas Propag. 2018; less communication, wireless power transmission, digital
66(6):2716-2276. image processing, RF and Microwave Engineering. He
22. Ashok Kumar S, Shanmuganantham T, Dileepan D. Design and develop-
ment of CPW fed monopole antenna at 2.45 GHz and 5.5 GHz for wireless has more than 50 publications in various International/
applications. J Alexandria Eng. 2017;56:231-234. National journals and conference. He has supervised
23. Sinha S, Rana B, Ghosh CK, Parui SK. A CPW –fed microstrip antenna for 05 research students and currently 08 are working toward
WLAN application. Proc Technol. 2012;4:417-420.
24. Saghorbon AP, Batra JS, Kameoka J, Entesari K. Miniature and reconfigura-
their PhD. He has contributed as an investigator /Co-
tion CPW folded slot antenna employing liquid–metal capacitive loading. investigator in many government funded projects.
IEEE Trans Antennas Propag. 2015;63(9):3798-3807.
25. Pouyanfar N. CPW –fed UWB antenna with band stop properties. Microw
Opt Technol Lett. 2013;55(7):1553-1537.
26. Yang L, Chen X, Wu D, Guang F, Yan Z. Wideband and compact horizon-
tally polarized omnidirectional antenna using composite dipole elements. Int
J RF Microw Comput-Aid Eng. 2017;27(4):1-8. How to cite this article: Saranya N,
27. Ling T, Yan Z-H, Song Y, Chen L. Compact CPW –fed planar monopole
antenna for dual band WLAN application. Microw Opt Technol Lett. 2009;
Kesavamurthy T. Design and performance analysis of
51(5):1377-1379. broadband rectenna for an efficient RF energy har-
28. Tang AY, Drakinskiy V, Yhland K, Stenarson J, Bryllert T, Stake J. Analyti- vesting application. Int J RF Microw Comput Aided
cal extraction of a schottky diode model from broadband s-parameter. IEEE
Eng. 2018;e21628. https://doi.org/10.1002/mmce.
Trans Microw Theory Tech. 2013;64(5):1870-1878.
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