American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications

2015; 3(4): 24-30

Published online October 12, 2015 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ajea)
doi: 10.11648/j.ajea.20150304.11
ISSN: 2376-5968 (Print); ISSN: 2376-5984 (Online)

Modeling of Efficient Circular Polarized Rectenna Design

for Microwave Power Transmission at 2.45GHz
Mohamed Adel Sennouni1, *, Jamal Zbitou2, Benaissa Abboud1, Abdelwahed Tribak3,
Hamid Bennis2, Mohamed Latrach4
1
LITEN Laboratory FPK – Khouribga /FSTS, University of Hassan the 1ST Settat, Morocco
2
LMEET Laboratory FPK – Khouribga /FSTS, University of Hassan the 1ST Settat, Morocco
3
National Institute of Post and Telecommunication (INPT), Rabat, Morocco
4
RF & Hyper group ESEO, Angers, France

Email address:
[email protected] (M. A. Sennouni)

To cite this article:

Mohamed Adel Sennouni, Jamal Zbitou, Benaissa Abboud, Abdelwahed Tribak, Hamid Bennis, Mohamed Latrach. Modeling of Efficient
Circular Polarized Rectenna Design for Microwave Power Transmission at 2.45GHz. American Journal of Electromagnetics and
Applications. Vol. 3, No. 4, 2015, pp. 24-30. doi: 10.11648/j.ajea.20150304.11

Abstract: This paper presents a planar rectenna (rectifier + antenna) design at 2.45 GHz ISM band for microwave power
transmission for powering devices involving low power consumption, located in unreachable area or needing expensive
maintenance costs. The proposed design incorporate a 3×3 circular polarized antenna array with an enhanced directivity of
9.14 dBi and an overall size of 26.18×11.86 cm2 modeled by using CST Microwave Studio software, and associated to a
microstrip rectifier based on a voltage doubler circuit with HSMS 2822 Schottky diode designed and simulated by using
schematic simulation in ADS. A high conversion efficiency of 71% and a DC output voltage of 10V can be reached for a given
input power level of 20 dBm with an optimum load of 1500 Ω.
Keywords: Microwave Power Transmission, Rectenna, Antenna Array, Circular Polarization, RF-to-DC Microstrip Rectifier

his groundbreaking work in WPT in the 1960s in Raytheon

1. Introduction Technology Company in USA. He demonstrated its ability in
Over 100 years ago, the concept of Wireless Power 1964 by powering a helicopter from the solely through
Transmission (WPT) that was theorized, developed and microwaves. Obviously, WPT could revolutionize our energy
demonstrated by Nikola Tesla in the early 1900s, have known sector, our information and communication technology sector,
a great advance and successful impact in many real life our environment sector, and our medical sector. First, the
applications. Then it has been a topic of continued interests proposed SPS (Solar Power Satellite) would bring clean
since the last several decades. Wireless power transmission is energy from natural sunlight in space to power Earth without
the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to using the resources of our planet. This could fundamentally
an electrical load without wired connections. It is useful in change the landscape of resource planning and energy
cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, renewable strategies. This idea was first proposed in 1968
hazardous, or impossible. In particular, a WPT system and all of the experiments have only been carried out in
converts direct current (DC) power to microwaves, transmits terrestrial laboratories. The SPS satellites would be put in
that microwave radiation in the free space to a target. Once high earth orbit at geosynchronous location. This would
DC power is converted to microwaves and transmitted into allow them to receive light 99% of the year.
space, a system that requires power needs to receive and Hence the development of efficient rectifying antennas
convert microwaves back to useful DC power. The device (rectennas) has become a hot and vital research topic [1]. In
used for this reception and conversion is called a rectenna fact, a rectenna representing the key element for EM
(rectifying antenna), this term is derived from the fact that a "Electromagnetic" energy harvesting and Wireless Power
rectenna is comprised of an antenna coupled with a rectifying Transmission applications, thus device designed to collect the
circuit. The rectenna device was created by W.C. Brown in energy associated to a free propagating EM wave and to
25 Mohamed Adel Sennouni et al.: Modeling of Efficient Circular Polarized Rectenna Design for
Microwave Power Transmission at 2.45GHz

transform
ransform it into Direct Current (DC) power. Recently, conversion efficiency of more than 71% can be achieved for
several rectenna devices have been proposed in the literature an input RF power level of 20dBm with an optimum load of
investigating several operating frequencies [2-4].Components
[2 1.5 kΩ.
of microwave power transmission have traditionally been
focused on 2.45 GHz and recently moving up to 5.8 GHz, 2. Antenna Array Design
which has a smaller antenna aperture area than that of 2.45
GHz. Further both frequencies have comparably low In rectenna application, it is suitable to design antennas
atmospheric loss, cheap ap components availability, and with very high directive characteristics to meet the demands
reported high conversion efficiency. of long-distance links. Hence the aim is to use the rectenna to
A block diagram of the basic architecture of a rectenna
rec is transfer DC power through wireless links for a long distance,
illustrated in Fig.1.
1. The Radio Frequency (RF)/microwave this can be only accomplished by increasing the electrical
EM energy is collected by an antenna and converted into DC size of the antenna. We present in this section the antenna
power by a rectifying circuit (the rectifier). In order to array design which consisting of a 3×3 square patch antenna
improve the rectenna RF-to-DC DC conversion two blocks can etched on FR4 substrate (εr= 4.4, thickness = 1.58 mm, tan δ
be added respectively between the antenna and the rectifier, = 0.025), in each antenna elements we have applied two
also between the rectifier and the load resistor, in addition it’s techniques,, the first one is an inclined slot at the center to
necessary to further reduce the transmission loss and to obtain the circular polarization, we have chosen this
increase the input voltage of the rectifier
tifier circuit. These technique in order to avoid the increase or the modification
blocks act both as filtering and as matching sections, they of the antenna size, the second one is a V shaped slots at the
should be optimized in order to simultaneously fulfill the corners of each antenna in order to increase the bandwidth
following functions: around the operating
ting frequency of 2.45GHz. Fig.2 presents
to match the antenna and the load to the rectifier; the geometry of the developed antenna array.
to preserve the antenna from re-irradiatin
irradiating the high This new arrangement can minimize the effects of mutual
order harmonics generated by the rectifier must be coupling between the array elements and can avoid the
filtered; generation of higher modes; furthermore it can occupy a
to preserve the load from any RF signals which are high reduced area for such an antenna array of the same number of
order harmonics generated by the Schottky diode (to elements [16]. Firstly we have optimized the antenna
this end the block between the rectifier and the load dimensions and after the final antenna array structure to
should be a DC pass filter[5-6]. obtain a resonance frequency at 2.45 GHz. Optimizations
were performed by using the full-wave
full simulator CST
Microwave Studio [17] and Table.1 below shows the various
optimized parameters of the proposed antenna array. Also the
Figure 1. The block diagram of rectenna.
characteristic impedances of the microstrip lines have been
used for feeding various elements of the array are ar given in
Recently, many kinds of rectenna were reported, including Table 2.
linear [7-10] and circular polarization [11-15]
15]. The advantage
of a circularly
ularly polarized (CP) rectenna over a linearly
polarized one is that nearly constant DC output can be
achieved and significant level of power can be reached at the
reception of the rectenna. However most of the cited works
and others existing in the literature incorporate a single
antenna or antenna array with linear polarization, furthermore
the researches focus to interconnect many rectennas in order
to achieve
ve high DC output (power and/or voltage), and as a
result the size of the global system can be increased, which
makes it difficult to integrate in an electronic system such as
wireless sensors and mobile phones.
In this paper we are going to present a new rectenna design Figure 2. Geometry of proposed 3×3 antenna array.
with high performances for microwave power transmission Table 1. Physical Dimensions of the 3×3 Antenna Array.
Array
(MPT). The developed rectenna is aimed to capturing the RF
energy from the free space at the ISM frequency band of 2.45 Parameters Value (mm) Parameters Value (mm)
W 118.6 L1 26.52
GHz. In fact it’s formed by a receiving antenna which
Wa 3.3 L2 10
incorporates a new antenna array with circular polarization Wb 0.704 L3 8
and a RF-to-DC microstrip rectifier is constructed from a Wc 2.123 L4 29.29
single stage voltage doubler circuit with Schottky diode Wd 3.044 L5 33.04
HSMS2822, and output DC pass filter associated with the We 5.12 L6 137.87
L 261.8 L7 33.04
load resistor. An output voltage of 10V and RF-to-DC
 American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications 2015; 3(4): 24-30
30 26

Table 2. Microstrip Line Impedances.

Impedances loss, the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) also the axial
Microstrip Line Impedance Zb Zc Zd Ze ratio and the directivity of the developed array are evaluated.
Value(Ω) 100 61.237 50 35.35 It can be noticed that this performances
performanc are greatly affected
by the slots size and distance between the various patches
also by the feeding lines chosen to match all elements at the
resonant frequency. Figures 3 and 4 depict the simulated
return loss and VSWR of the presented CP antenna array.
array
From the graphs it is clear that the reflection coefficient
(|S11|) (dB) of the proposed antenna array provides a good
matching input impedance with a good return loss of -
37.48dB and VSWR of 1.02 at operating frequency of 2.45
GHz, and having a bandwidthh of 16 MHz which is from
2.441 to 2.457 GHz. In addition to achieve a CP operation,
the axial ratio has to be kept below 3dB. Eventually the
Figure 3. Simulation results of the return loss @ 2.45 GHz of the CP optimum values of the proposed antenna array parameters
antenna array. give a better axial ratio with a minimum of 1.36dB at
operation
ation frequency of 2.45GHz as shown in Fig. 5.

Figure 4. Simulated VSWR @ 2.45 GHz of the CP antenna array.

array
Figure 5. Simulated Axial Ratio (AR) @ 2.45 GHz of the CP antenna array.
array

The performances of the CP antenna array, such as return

27 Mohamed Adel Sennouni et al.: Modeling of Efficient Circular Polarized Rectenna Design for
Microwave Power Transmission at 2.45GHz

(a) (b)
Figure 6. Three and Two-dimensional
dimensional radiation pattern (a) E-
E plane, (b) H-plane
plane of the CP antenna array @ 2.45 GHz.
GHz

Hence the radiation pattern is taken into account to predict the with a minimum power loss. Furthermore Fig.9 presents the
capabilities of the developed array to harvest microwave power. simulated antenna radiation efficiency versus frequency
fre of
Fig.6 shows the simulated radiation pattern for the developed CP the developed CP 3×3 antenna array. From the graph it’s
antenna array in E-plane and H-plane
plane at operating frequency of clear that the antenna radiation efficiency has a peak
2.45 GHz. The graphs shows that the antenna provides a efficiency of 98% at 2.445GHz.
directional behavior with a half power beam width of 94° and
29.8° for E-plane and H-planeplane respectively, with enhanced
directivity of about 9.14 dBi is achieved.

Figure 8. Simulated powers at input antenna array port (Watt) vs. frequency.

Figure 7. Simulated input antenna impedance (Ohm) vs. frequency of the

proposed CP antenna array.

In Fig. 7, the simulated variation of the antenna input

impedance versus frequency of the 3×3 CP antenna
antenn array can
be seen. At the operating frequency of 2.45 GHz, the average
value of the resistance (real part) is 50 Ohms and the average
value of the reactance (imaginary part) is 0-Ohms
0 which
gives the adequate input impedance matching at the desired
resonant
ant frequency. Also Fig.8 depicts the simulated input Figure 9. Simulated Antenna Radiation Efficiency vs. frequency of the
power versus frequency. The input power available at the proposed CP antenna array.
antenna port is 0.5 Watt, hence the radiated power can reach
a maximum value of about 0.49 Watt, however the reflected Consequently it is clear from the above results and
one has a minimum value of approximately 0 Watt at 2.445 discussion that the proposed design has the required
GHz, which means that the previous developed antenna array performances and the potential to be investigated in a
has the required potential to be used in a rectenna system rectenna system.
 American Journal of Electromagnetics and Applications 2015; 3(4): 24-30 28

Table 3. Overview of antenna array at 2.45 GHz described in the literature shows that the proposed rectifier is well matched at 2.45GHz
for rectenna system. (S11< -25dB) around 5 dBm input power, and a good return
Ref Antenna type Antenna gain loss less than -15dB is obtained from about -3 to 28dBm.
[7] LP 4 element patch array 7dBi Then the conversion efficiency is an important parameter
[26] CP multilayers 4 circular patch array 10.8dBi for such rectifier to predict its ability to be used for RF-to-
[27] CP 4 element patch array with reflector 6.56dB
DC microwave conversion. Due to the characteristics of the
This work CP 6 element patch array 9.14dBi
diode the input power level is one of the main factors that can
affect the rectifier conversion efficiency which (η) is defined
3. 2.45 GHz Microstrip Rectifier Design as follows:
The microwave rectifier can take several configurations. PDC
However, the single serial [8-18-19] and shunt configuration η RF − DC
= × 100% (1)
[10-15-20] are the most used. In addition to improve the PReceived
output dc voltage, a voltage doubler [21-22-23] can also be
used. Then in order to increase the conversion efficiency and Where PDC is the DC power produced at the load
simplify the full-wave rectifier circuit we have used a voltage resistance R of the rectenna and Preceived is power received at
doubler for rectifying circuit etched on the same FR4 the antenna, which can be calculated from the Friis
substrate used for designing the receiving antenna. As we can transmission equation (Equation 2).
see in the layout of the proposed rectifier design presented in
 λ 
2
Fig. 10, it consist at least of three essential components: a PR eceived =  P tG tG r (2)
single stage voltage doubler circuit based on a Zero-Bias  4π r 
Schottky diode HSMS 2822 [24], is associated with an input
matching circuit having a form of a T-microstrip line with Where, Gr is the gain of the receiving antenna, λ is the
short end which can match the input impedance of the circuit operating wavelength, Gt and Pt are the gain and transmitted
to 50Ω, and an output DC pass filter. Then this rectifier power of the transmitting antenna, and r is the propagation
circuit can significantly increase the input voltage by using distance.
the first capacitor which charges at the negative half wave The computed RF-to-DC conversion efficiency (η) as
and discharges at the positive half wave. Also a low pass function of input power from -30 to 30 dBm for three
filter which contains two folded quarter wavelength open resistive loads is demonstrated in Fig.13. Due to the higher
stubs and a T-shape and having a cutoff frequency of 1.7 breakdown voltage (BV = 15 V) of the HSMS 2822 diode
GHz is applied before the resistive load to block the used in the microstrip rectifier design, it is clear from the
harmonic frequencies produced in rectifying operation as above results that the proposed rectifier can rectify high input
shown in Fig.11. powers. To this regard, it can be also noticed that the
conversion efficiency increases with the increment of
incident power from about -10 dBm and can reach a
maximum value of 71% at 20 dBm when the resistive load
has 1500Ω. Though it decrease when the value of the
resistive load is increased. Moreover the efficiency varies
slightly over a wide range of input power between 18 to 25
dBm. In addition with the same resistive load, the DC output
voltage can reach 10V and more than 18V at 20 dBm and 25
dBm respectively (Fig.14).

Figure 10. Layout of the Proposed RF-to-DC Microwave Rectifier.

In order to accurately predict the circuit performances and

DC output an analysis approach by using ADS software is
applied to simulate the schematic of the rectifier, and analyze
the rectifying efficiency. By using Harmonic Balance
Simulation and Large Signal Scattering Simulation in ADS
[25], the nonlinear behavior of rectifier at different incident
power can be observed. The choice of load resistance was
done to improve and to get the best value of the conversion
efficiency and also the maximum DC voltage delivered to the
load.
The simulated return loss (S11) of the proposed rectifier
Figure 11. Simulation Results of S-Parameter responses of the DC-LPF
versus the input power is presented in Fig.12. The results
obtained by using Agilent ADS.
29 Mohamed Adel Sennouni et al.: Modeling of Efficient Circular Polarized Rectenna Design for
Microwave Power Transmission at 2.45GHz

Figure 14. Simulation result of DC Output Voltage versus input Power.

4. Conclusion
An efficient rectenna design for Microwave Power
(a) Transmission systems at 2.45GHz has been proposed and
analyzed using an analysis approach into its components using
simulation methods. The developed design presents good
features which makes it a suitable candidate to be used in a
WPTs. The design provides a high directivity of its receiving
antenna which maintains a circular polarization due to the
good axial ratio obtained and also the good radiation efficiency
that can reach more than 98% at the operating frequency.
Further the enhanced RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of about
71% of the microstrip rectifier which exhibits an output DC
voltage of 10V where the input power level is around 20 dBm
with an optimum load of 1500Ω are a good features which
provides that the developed design has the capability and the
potential to be investigated for power supply using microwave
power transmission at high power densities for RFID systems,
(b) WSN and future ubiquitous systems.
Figure 12. Return loss of the proposed rectifier (a): versus input power (HB
simulation), (b): versus frequency.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like acknowledge the contribution of
the professor Mohamed Latrach from ESEO of Angers in
France and the professor Jamal Zbitou from LMEET
laboratory of FPK/FSTS of Hassan the first university in
Morocco for their technical support in this research. The
authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their
constructive and helpful comments and suggestion.

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