Comparative Study of Antenna Designs for RF Energy Harvesting

Abstract

In the last few years, several antenna designs of rectenna that meet various objectives have been proposed for use in RF energy harvesting. Among various antennas, microstrip patch antennas are widely used because of their low profile, light weight, and planar structure. Conventional patch antennas are rectangular or circular in shape, but variations in their basic design are made for different purposes. This paper begins with an explanation and discussion of different designs, put forward with an aim of miniaturization, harmonic rejection, and reconfigurability. Finally, microstrip patch structured rectennas are evaluated and compared with an emphasis on the various methods adopted to obtain a compact rectenna, harmonic rejection functionality, and frequency and polarization selectivity.

Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting Sources

“…Nevertheless, the pervasive distribution of commercial information and communications networks in urban, metropolitan and peri-urban environments make RF a comparatively strong and reliable ambient source, despite the traffic fluctuations and some unpredictable nature in radio wave propagation [42]. It is critical to note that ambient RF energy in both indoor and outdoor environments is accessible at different frequencies and frequency bands, levels and polarizations.…”

“…Mimis [47] presented results of indoor RF spectrum survey that was carried out in a variety of residential locations around the city of Bristol, UK between frequencies of 500 MHz and 6 GHz. In all these reported studies, there is a general conclusion that the maximum RF power density can be obtained from GSM 900/18000 bands [17, [42][43][44][45][46][47].…”

MEMS Based RF Energy Harvester for Battery-Less Remote Control: A Review

“…A rectifier is a nonlinear circuit formed by a series diode and a resistor-capacitor circuit. The rectenna can be from many types of rectifying circuit, for example a full-wave bridge, single shunt full-wave, or any other types of hybrid circuit (Shrestha et al, 2013). In short, a rectenna is a type of microwave antenna radiates at the preferred frequency range with RF diode converts and rectifies incoming RF waves into DC current.…”

“…At short range, only a little amount of energy can be harvested in the order of microwatts from a normal Wi-Fi router broadcasting at 50-100 mW power level. However, in support of longer range operation, the antenna with higher gain is needed for harvest practically the RF energy from cell phone base stations and radio broadcast towers (Shrestha et al, 2013).…”

Design and Implementation of Tapered Slot Antenna for Ship's Indoor Location-Aware System

“…제안한 테이퍼드 슬롯 안 테나는 그림 1의 Wt의 Lt의 물리적 길이의 변화를 통 해 반사손실 및 정재파비 특성을 분석하였다. Wt의 물 리적 길이 변화에 따른 반사손실 및 정재파비 결과는 그림 2와 같다 [11,12] . …”