Rectennas for High-Efficiency Wireless Power Transfer

Neeta Singh , Binod Kumar Kanaujia

Jamia Millia Islamia , New Delhi110025 ,

School of ComputationalIntegrative Sciences , Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi110067
Email :neeta . singh90 @ gmail . com,

RECENTLY, there has been an increasing interest in the research of wireless power transmission
(WPT). In a WPT system, the Rectenna (antenna and rectifier) functions as a key device to collect
the incident RF energy and convert it into DC energy. This technology was utilized in microwave-
powered helicopters, solar power satellites concept, and high altitude aircrafts applications as
described in [1]. With the development of wireless communications, WPT technology is supposed to
be used as a wireless battery to supply power for wireless sensors radio frequency identification
and portable electrical devices. WPT technology is used to provide the supply of electricity to the
areas where connecting of wires are hazardous and impossible to connect. This can be achieved by
the device called Rectenna.
A Rectenna is a rectifying antenna special type of antenna that is used to convert electromagnetic
energy into direct current (DC) electricity [2]. A simple rectenna element consists of a dipole antenna
with an RF diode connected across the dipole elements. The diode rectifies the AC current induced in
the antenna by the microwaves, to produce DC power, which powers a load connected across the
diode. Schottky diodes are usually used because they have the lowest voltage drop and highest speed
and therefore have the lowest power losses due to conduction and switching [3]. A basic Rectenna
mainly consists of four basic elements: Receiving Antenna, Low Pass Filter (LPF), Schottky Diode as
Rectifier and DC Pass Filter followed by a resistive load. Higher order harmonics are generated from
non-linear circuits which causes re-radiations at higher harmonics towards the antenna due to which,
efficiency of antenna reduces [4].

Fig.1 wireless charging application Fig.2 wireless satellite communication Fig.3 medical use
REFERENCES
[1] W. C. Brown, The history of power transmission by radio waves, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
Tech., vol. 32, no. 9, pp. 12301242, 1984.
[2] M. Arrawatia, M. S. Baghini, and G. Kumar, Broadband bent triangular omnidirectional
antenna for rf energy harvesting, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15,(2016).
[3] Surface Mount Mixer and Detector Schottky Diodes, Data Sheet.Skyworks Solutions, Inc.,
Woburn, MA, USA, 2013.
[4] Mohamed Aboualala, Adel B. Abdel-Rahman, Ahmed Allam, Hala Elsadek, Design of Dual
Band Microstrip Antenna with Enhanced Gain for Energy Harvesting Applications
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Lett., LAWP.(2017)