Meshed High-Impedance Matching Network-Free Rectenna Optimized for Additive Manufacturing

oleh: Mahmoud Wagih, Alex S. Weddell, Steve Beeby

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: IEEE 2020-01-01

Deskripsi

Additive manufacturing using direct-write or screen printing represent low-waste methods for fabricating antennas on low-cost flexible substrates. To realize rectennas using low-resolution printing methods, high-impedance antennas with simple printable geometries are required. This article proposes an electrically-small (0.212 &#x00D7; 0.212&#x03BB;<sup>2</sup>) folded dipole antenna design with a scalable impedance for directly matching energy harvesting rectifiers. The antenna is demonstrated in a high-efficiency sub-1 GHz rectenna, with varying mesh fill-factors for optical transparency. The proposed solid (non-transparent) and meshed (70%-transparent) rectennas achieve a Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) of over 70% and 60% from sub-1&#x03BC;W/cm<sup>2</sup> power densities, at 940 and 920 MHz, respectively. This represents a 37% improvement in the PCE over state-of-the-art flexible rectennas while maintaining the smallest electrical size and simplest design by not requiring a matching network. The 70%-transparent rectenna's performance is investigated in real-life use-cases showing its suitability for ambient RF energy harvesting with over 500 mV DC output from a phone-call.