Meshed high-impedance matching network-free rectenna optimized for additive manufacturing
Meshed high-impedance matching network-free rectenna optimized for additive manufacturing
Additive manufacturing using direct-write or screen printing represents 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 paper proposes an electrically-small (0.212×0.212λ2) 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 μW/cm2 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.
antenna, rectenna, energy harvesting, transparent antennas, rectifiers, printed antenna, printed electronics, flexible antenna, Wireless Power Transfer, Impedance matching
1-12
Wagih, Mahmoud
7e7b16ba-0c64-4f95-bd3c-99064055f693
Weddell, Alex S.
3d8c4d63-19b1-4072-a779-84d487fd6f03
Beeby, Steve
ba565001-2812-4300-89f1-fe5a437ecb0d
Wagih, Mahmoud
7e7b16ba-0c64-4f95-bd3c-99064055f693
Weddell, Alex S.
3d8c4d63-19b1-4072-a779-84d487fd6f03
Beeby, Steve
ba565001-2812-4300-89f1-fe5a437ecb0d
Wagih, Mahmoud, Weddell, Alex S. and Beeby, Steve
(2020)
Meshed high-impedance matching network-free rectenna optimized for additive manufacturing.
IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation, .
(doi:10.1109/OJAP.2020.3038001).
Abstract
Additive manufacturing using direct-write or screen printing represents 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 paper proposes an electrically-small (0.212×0.212λ2) 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 μW/cm2 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.
Text
MWagih_OJAP2020_MeshedRectenna
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 11 November 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 November 2020
Keywords:
antenna, rectenna, energy harvesting, transparent antennas, rectifiers, printed antenna, printed electronics, flexible antenna, Wireless Power Transfer, Impedance matching
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 445087
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/445087
ISSN: 2637-6431
PURE UUID: 891d7a79-8804-43ce-aef5-2884ca62b232
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 19 Nov 2020 17:31
Last modified: 27 Jul 2024 02:02
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Mahmoud Wagih
Author:
Alex S. Weddell
Author:
Steve Beeby
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics