International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 16 (2015) pp 37820-37825

Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com

Systematized & Energy Efficient Wireless Power Generation Using

Rectenna
K Harsha Satya Kumar1, Burla Rajesh 2, M.Nithyavelam3, C.Malathi4
1

UG Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,

GITAM University, Hyderabad, India.
2
3,4
UG Student, Asst. Professors, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
2,3,4
Vel Tech University, Avadi, Chennai, India,
Email: nithyavelam87@gmail.com harshasatyakumar@gmail.com1 raaz.burla@gmail.com 2.
Si) with shorter transit times are required. In the present
case, we have chosen silicon based on availability, low cost,
and simulated performance. Similar to low-frequency, highpower applications, the diode is driven as a half-wave
rectifier.

Abstract- Energy harvesting techniques becomes an

appropriate alternative for the currently existing energy
resources. In this paper we demonstrate the performances
and design of the rectenna that have the ability to collect low
incident power density levels, at a single ISM-band
frequency (f0 = 2.44 Ghz). With the help of Global
simulation we modeled a new rectenna topology consisting
only of a matching circuit, an antenna, a Schottky diode, and
a DC. In order to suppress the very first filter we proposed
the circular aperture coupled patch, including the losses
present with this filter. The harmonics rejection of the
antenna primarily helped to reduce the size of the rectenna.
By implementing the filter in the antenna structure, with the
combination of reduced antenna size, gives plenty of
advantages in many applications where the size and weight
are critical criteria. Maximum energy conversion efficiency
in this configuration is 84.4%. The paper includes
theoretical discussion as well as simulation results and also
practical prototype results.

Where
is the output dc voltage and
is the drop
across the conducting diode. In this study, it is more
appropriate to measure the efficiency which includes the
loss due to reflected power.
For low-power applications, same as the case for the
collected ambient energy, practically there is not enough
power in order to drive the diode in a high-efficiency mode.
The diode is not externally biased in this application, so it is
important to use a diode with a low turn-on voltage.
Furthermore, rectification over multiple octaves requires a
different approach from standard matching techniques. In a
rectenna application, the antenna itself can be used as the
matching mechanism instead of using a transmission-line
matching circuit. The antenna design is therefore heavily
dependent on the diode characteristics. The following
section presents various techniques for analyzing diode
operation at microwave frequencies. The results are then
used to design the antenna and integrated rectenna for
relevant ambient power levels.

Keywords- Rectenna, Schottky diode, low pass filter (LPF),

matching circuit.

I. INTRODUCTION
There were many energy harvesting techniques which
form a good alternative to existing energy resources. These
include energy harvesting from geothermal, hydro power,
tidal power, wind energy and solar power.
We can use solar rectennas to harvest solar power but
those rectennas are operating at GHz/THz and have a lot of
disadvantages such as power fading, complicated design
procedure and high fabrication technology. Thus, it has been
suggested to use rectennas operating at low range of
frequencies using fractal antennas not to harvest solar power
but to harvest electromagnetic waves instead of all those
energy harvesting techniques because those rectennas are
simpler and cheaper to construct. To maintain rectennas
advantages, fractal antennas are used. DC-up converter
circuits can be used to raise the voltage harvested by the
rectenna.
At low RF frequencies (kilohertz to low megahertz), both
p-n diodes and transistors are used as rectifiers. At
microwaves (1 GHz and higher), Schottky diodes (GaAs or

II. RECTENNA DESIGN

A rectifying antenna (rectenna) receives a microwave
signal at the antenna and converts it to direct current. It
should do this as efficiently as possible and provide a clean,
constant, low-ripple voltage. Typically, a rectenna is
composed of four components:
(1) An antenna,
(2) A pre-rectification filter,
(3) A rectification diode,
(4) A post-rectification filter.

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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 16 (2015) pp 37820-37825
Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
The rectenna can eliminate the need for a low-pass filter
(LPF) placed between the antenna and the diode, as well as
achieve a conversion efficiency of 77.8% at 2.4 GHz. The
low pass filter is the pre-rectification filter used in this
rectenna circuit. This is illustrated in the following diagram

with an input power of 45 mW. The conversion efficiency

depends on load resistance, due to the internal resistance of
the rectenna system.

Figure 3. Full-wave rectification

III. DESIGNING OF RECTENNA USING ADS
A full-wave rectenna circuit will provide more stable dc
output voltage than that a half-wave rectenna of the same
chip area. We can figure out the feasibility of a rectenna
with an efficiency of 53% at an incident radiation power
density of 30 W cm2 and frequency of 35 GHz.
The rectenna comprised a power-receiving linear tapered
slot antenna (LTSA), a slot line (SL) to finite-width ground
coplanar waveguide (FGCPW) transition, a band pass filter
(BPF), a full-wave rectifier for rf-to-dc conversion, a dc
bypass capacitor, and a resistive load. The fabricated
rectenna with off-chip lumped elements is depicted on the
following figure.

Figure 1. Block diagram of the conventional and the

proposed rectenna.
A rectenna system combining a two-stage, zero-bias
Schottky diode with a miniature antenna could achieve 70%
efficiency at 2.4 GHz. The diodes are in parallel to RF
signals, but appear in series for the dc circuit in order to
produce doubled voltage. The circuit layout of the rectenna
is depicted in the following figure

Figure 4. Block diagram of full-wave rectifier

As in the previous circuit, in order to minimize the size
and weight, elimination of the low-pass filter is considered.
For our design, a micro strip-fed dipole will be used in place
of the LTSA. It is a lighter-weight structure that can be
tuned to 10 GHz, whereas the LTSA is a broadband
structure. The three different circuit designs for a full-wave
rectenna are shown below.

Figure 2. Circuit design of the rectenna

The use of full-wave rectification for rf-to-dc conversion
showed that 70.69% rectenna efficiency could be achieved

Full-wave rectenna design using a pre-LPF

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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 16 (2015) pp 37820-37825
Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
Full-wave rectenna design using a post-LPF
Full-wave rectenna design without a LPF
In the ADS model, the antenna is represented by a power
source with 50 impedance. The diodes are matched using
shorted stubs placed the required distance from the diodes.
The stub location and stub length were computed using the
standard stub-matching procedure. Then the ADS
optimization program was used to adjust the line lengths so
the output power was a maximum.

Figure 7. ADS model of a full-wave rectenna design without

LPF
The output dc power produced by three circuit designs of
the full-wave rectenna that were simulated in ADS were
shown in the following figures

Figure 5. ADS model of a full-wave rectenna design with a

pre-LPF.

Figure 8. Output power (watts) versus time for a full-wave

rectenna design with a pre-LPF.

Figure 6. ADS model of a full-wave rectenna design with a

post-LPF.

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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 16 (2015) pp 37820-37825
Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com

Figure 11. Simulated conversion efficiency of full-wave

rectenna using ADS with different LPF.
Figure 9. Output power (watts) versus time for a full-wave
rectenna design with a post-LPF.

Comparing previous results, we observed that the fullwave rectenna with no LPF is selected to achieve the highest
efficiency (68.1%) of the various rectenna designs and
obtain more stable dc power than with the half-wave
rectenna. The full-wave rectenna with no LPF also provides
a lightweight design for the MAV application.
IV. EVALUATION OF HARMONIC ANALYSIS
The reflected harmonic energy from the input or output
side of the diode can alter the voltage across the diode. The
diode also begins to bias itself as it produces more dc
current, thus moving the dc operating point of the I-V curve
in a nonlinear fashion. The diodes harmonic frequency
components can possibly be radiated by the antenna, causing
interference with other systems.
Based on the 44 properties of the diode at microwave
frequencies, we simulate and analyze the radiated harmonics
and dc power of different rectenna designs for an input
microwave power at 10 GHz. This can be accomplished
using the harmonic balance (HB), nonlinear-circuit analysis
module of the ADS software.
The full-wave rectenna ideally converts all power, due to
its architecture. We also observe that the full-wave rectenna
without LFP converts more dc power than other designs and
the full-wave rectifier design eliminates the fundamental
frequency and third harmonic frequency at the output. In
order to have a lightweight rectenna, the full-wave rectenna
without LFP is selected.

Figure 10. Output power (watts) versus time for a full-wave

rectenna design without LPF.

The simulated conversion efficiencies of the three fullwave rectenna designs are given in figure shown below. In
the figure, the efficiency of the full-wave rectenna with
post-LPF and no-LPF are the same and higher than that with
pre-LPF. In comparison with the previous result, the design
with no LPF is able to convert wireless power to dc power
with an efficiency of 68.1% at an input power of 170 mW,
but the design with pre-LPF only achieves an efficiency of
56.6% at the same input power.

V. FINAL DESIGN
The full-wave rectenna design with the final optimized
circuit and dielectric material is shown in below figure. The
simulated output dc power, voltage, and current of full-wave
rectenna are shown in corresponding figure. The output
power of the rectenna is calculated as 131 mW for the input
power of 23 dBm, and also the voltage oscillates from
2.55V to 2.53V.

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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 16 (2015) pp 37820-37825
Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com

Figure 14. Conversion efficiency of final full-wave rectenna

design.
Figure 12. Final circuit design of full-wave rectification
rectenna.

Figure 15. Output power (watts) of final full-wave rectenna

design.

Figure 13. Simulated output power, voltage, and currentversus-time for the full-wave rectenna with a 23 dBm input.

VII. FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS

VI. PERFORMANCE MEASURE

The following are some improvement factor which would

increase the efficiency of the rectenna
Using high power transmitter and high gain
antenna.
Building a hardware prototype.
Running simulations for an array.
Reducing polarization loss.

The simulated conversion efficiency of the full-wave

rectenna as a function of input power is shown in figure.
The full-wave design is able to convert microwave power to
dc power with an efficiency of 65.9% at an input power of
200 mW. The simulated output power of the full-wave
rectenna design is shown in Figure 60. The full-wave design
is able to produce 132 mW at an input power of 200 mW. In
addition, the full-wave inputoutput characteristic is nearly
linear, from 20 mW to 200 mW. From 200 mW to 400 mW
of input power, the output begins to saturate.

VIII. REFERENCES
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 16 (2015) pp 37820-37825
Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com

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