Electromagnetics

ISSN: 0272-6343 (Print) 1532-527X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uemg20

A triple band circularly polarized rectenna for RF

energy harvesting

Neeta Singh, Binod Kumar Kanaujia, Mirza Tariq Beg, Mainuddin & Sachin
Kumar

To cite this article: Neeta Singh, Binod Kumar Kanaujia, Mirza Tariq Beg, Mainuddin &
Sachin Kumar (2019): A triple band circularly polarized rectenna for RF energy harvesting,
Electromagnetics, DOI: 10.1080/02726343.2019.1658164

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02726343.2019.1658164

Published online: 21 Aug 2019.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 11

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uemg20
ELECTROMAGNETICS
https://doi.org/10.1080/02726343.2019.1658164

A triple band circularly polarized rectenna for RF energy

harvesting
Neeta Singha, Binod Kumar Kanaujiab, Mirza Tariq Bega, Mainuddina,
and Sachin Kumarc
a
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India; bSchool of
Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; cDepartment of
Electronics and Communication Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

In this paper, a triple band rectenna for Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz), Wi-MAX Received 6 March 2019
(3.5 GHz) and WLAN (5.2 GHz) application frequencies is proposed. Accepted 28 May 2019
The rectenna consists of a square-shaped circularly polarized antenna KEYWORDS
and a voltage doubler rectifier linked through a matching circuitry. Antenna; circularly polarized;
A Schottky diode based voltage doubler rectifier and three stubs are energy conservation; green
used for the rectification of RF power to achieve high conversion communication; rectifier
efficiency. The impedance matching network provides a perfect
matching between the sensing antenna and RF-DC rectifier. The
rectenna maximum conversion efficiency realized is 85.6% at 3.5 GHz.

Introduction
Recently, the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) has shown significant development in the area
of wireless communication, smart environment monitoring, biomedical health services and
manufacturing industry. The battery is usually used to power up GPS, RFID, wireless sensors
and nodes present in the IoT systems. However, the battery needs frequent charging and has
a limited operational life. Therefore, it is not preferred to use it as a secondary source of power
and a self-sustainable, eco-friendly and non-conventional energy source is required.
A rectenna can be a cost-effective and efficient solution to power up the recent IoT compo-
nents. A rectenna is comprised of a rectifier, sensing antenna, low pass filter (LPF) and
matching circuitry, which collects RF energy from the surroundings and convert it into
suitable DC power.
In the last decade, various types of rectenna have been proposed for the single (Lou and
Yang 2018), dual (Singh et al. 2018b) and multiple band operations (Chandravanshi, Sarma,
and Akhtar 2018; Shi et al. 2018; Singh et al. 2018a). A dual band rectenna with cross-shaped
slot was reported with 38.2% conversion efficiency (Song et al. 2015). An antenna with 11.5
dBi gain for energy conservation at ISM band (2.45 GHz) was proposed (Sun et al. 2012).
A rectenna with dual linearly polarized (LP) aperture coupled antenna for 2.45 GHz frequency
was reported (Chou et al. 2014). In recent years, several rectenna with circular polarization
(CP) have also been reported (Georgiadis et al., 2010; Sun and Geyi 2016; Yo et al. 2008).
A rectenna using microstrip square patch antenna with dual CP at 2.45 GHz was presented in

CONTACT Sachin Kumar gupta.sachin0708@gmail.com Department of Electronics and Communication

Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai 603203, India
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/uemg.
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
2 N. SINGH ET AL.

(Haboubi et al. 2014). A dual circularly polarized rectenna functioning at 2.45 GHz with
harmonic rejection characteristics was demonstrated (Harouni et al. 2011). This rectenna
shows a conversion efficiency of 63% and output voltage 2.82 V. A circularly polarized
rectenna for 2.45 GHz was reported in (Yo et al. 2008). This structure uses two unbalanced
slots to achieve CP. By using circularly polarized rectenna, the multipath fading effects and
polarization mismatch between transceiver systems can be avoided. This technique also
improves the conversion efficiency of the rectenna. However, most of the above-reported
rectenna structures have one or two circularly polarized bands, complex and bulky design,
large size, low conversion efficiency and are difficult to integrate with modern devices.
In this article, a triple band rectenna consisting of spiral slot loaded antenna and triple
stub voltage doubler rectifier is presented. In contrast to the reported structures, the
proposed rectenna has simple geometry, three operating bands with CP, high output
efficiency and can be easily integrated with low power IoT sensors and components. The
proposed rectenna is a suitable candidate for RF energy harvesting as it is able to harvest
a low input power level of −20 dBm. Also, the compact and simple rectifier design solves
the problem of multiple rectifiers used for multiband operation, which generally increases
the size and design complexity.

Sensing antenna
Figure 1 shows the schematic diagram of the proposed sensing antenna. The antenna
consists of a square geometry with spiral-shaped and asymmetric cross slots loaded in the
center of the radiating element. The corners of the antenna radiator are truncated for
obtaining CP and on the back side (of the substrate) a modified rectangular ground plane
is present. A 50 Ω microstrip line feed is used for the excitation of the antenna. The
antenna is fabricated on low cost FR-4 substrate with relative permittivity of 4.4 and
thickness of 0.8 mm. The overall dimension of the fabricated antenna is 45 mm×45 mm.
The EM simulator Ansys HFSS is used for designing the antenna. Figure 1b and c shows
top and bottom views of the fabricated antenna structure, respectively.
The antenna designing steps and reflection coefficient characteristics are presented in
Figures 2 and 3, respectively. The proposed Antenna-1 is a simple square monopole
radiator with 5.2 GHz design frequency. As shown in Figure 2a, the antenna is excited
through a microstrip line feed and is linearly polarized. In the next step, as illustrated in
Figure 2b, a spiral slot is loaded on the radiating surface of Antenna-1. The Antenna-2
with loaded spiral slot shows resonance at two frequency bands, 2.4 and 5.2 GHz. Also, the
spiral slot helps in exciting two orthogonal current modes of similar amplitude and
quadrature phase difference, thus introducing CP behavior at 5.2 GHz. Further, in order
to obtain more resonances, a circularly-shaped balun is introduced in the antenna ground
plane as illustrated in Figure 2c. It improves impedance matching of the antenna and the
proposed Antenna-3 shows resonance at 2.4, 3.5 and 5.2 GHz.
Moreover, to obtain CP in other resonating bands, an asymmetric cross slot is loaded in
the center of the radiator and corners are truncated as shown in Figure 2d. The corner
truncations and cross slot introduces CP at 2.4 and 3.5 GHz, respectively. The proposed
Antenna-4 simulated and measured reflection coefficients, axial ratio and gain characteristics
are shown in Figure 4. From Figure 4a, it is clear that the antenna resonates at 2.4 GHz
(2.05–2.65 GHz), 3.5 GHz (3.2–4 GHz) and 5.2 GHz (4.5–5.35 GHz) frequencies. The 3-dB
 ELECTROMAGNETICS 3

WSUB
A
WPatch B

L = A 2 + B2

R L1

LG
W1

(a)

(b) (c)
Figure 1. Proposed triple band antenna (a) schematic diagram (b) fabricated prototype top view (c)
bottom view (WSUB = 45, WPatch = 30, W = 24, ΔL = 8.48, L1 = 9.5, L2 = 18, L3 = 4, L4 = 5, LG = 7,
W1 = 1.5, W2 = 1, W3 = 1, g = 1, R = 1.5; all dimensions are in mm).

axial ratio bandwidths at these three frequencies are 2.18–2.56 GHz (2.4 GHz), 3.21–3.6 GHz
(3.5 GHz), 4.77–5.35 GHz (5.2 GHz). The peak gains in the three resonating bands are 4.8
dBi (2.4 GHz), 4.9 dBi (3.5 GHz) and 5.1 dBi (5.2 GHz). The simulated and measured
radiation patterns of the antenna at 2.4, 3.5 and 5.2 GHz frequencies are plotted in Figure 5.
The antenna shows right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) behavior in all three bands.

Rectifier
The voltage doubler topology with Schottky diode HSMS282E is used for designing the
rectifying circuit shown in Figure 6. Due to its low turn-on voltage, the Schottky diode is
chosen for the rectification of RF signals. Two surface mounted capacitors are used (with
a value 5 pF) to block RF signals and pass DC signal only towards the load.
The proposed rectifier is designed for triple band operation at 2.4, 3.5 and 5.2
GHz. As shown in Figure 6, triple stubs are used to achieve perfect matching at these
4 N. SINGH ET AL.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 2. Designing steps of triple band antenna (a) Antenna-1 (b) Antenna-2 (c) Antenna-3 (d)
Antenna-4.

-5

-10
S11 (dB)

-15

-20

-25
Antenna-1
-30
Antenna-2
Antenna-3
-35
1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 3. Simulated reflection coefficient characteristics of the antenna designing steps.

three frequencies. The radial type stub-2 and −3 are used to tune the circuit at 3.5
and 5.2 GHz frequencies, respectively. Compared to the rectangular stubs, the radial
stubs require less chip space and also offers a wide frequency range. Whereas, the
open-circuited type stub is used to tune the circuit at 2.4 GHz as they show better
results at low frequencies. The open circuited type stubs are easy to fabricate and
ground, in contrast to the other types. The reflection coefficient performance of
different rectifier stubs is shown in Figure 7. It is noticed that when the radial
stubs were not used, the rectifier resonates only for a single band. But after the
introduction of radial stubs in the rectifier circuitry, the resonance at three bands is
 ELECTROMAGNETICS 5

0 8
Simulated
7 Measured
-5
6

Axial Ratio (dB)

-10
5
S11 (dB)

-15
4
-20
3
-25 2

-30 Simulated 1
Measured
-35 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
(a) (b)
7

5
Gain (dBi)

1
Simulated
Measured
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (GHz)
(c)

Figure 4. Simulated and measured performance of the antenna (a) reflection coefficients (b) axial ratio
(c) gain.

observed. The proposed rectifier is designed and simulated by the help of Keysight
ADS tool. From Figure 7, it is clear that the impedance matching is perfect at all
three frequencies. At the output end, a 500 Ω load resistor is used, which can
optimize the input power level from −20 to 0 dBm. Here, by using triple stub tuners
as a substitute of three rectifiers, the circuit size reduces, further increasing the
conversion efficiency.

Results discussion
The proposed rectenna is fabricated and results are shown in Figure 8. The rectenna
measurements are taken in two steps by means of two standard Horn antennas placed at
transmitter and receiver ends. The signal generator at the transmitter side radiates the RF
waves, which are received through spectrum analyzer at the other end. Next, the Horn
antenna is replaced with the proposed rectenna prototype. The rectenna senses the RF
signal for different power levels and converts them into DC power. The power level was
measured at all the three frequencies as shown in Figure 9. The received power can be
defined by the Friis transmission equation as
6 N. SINGH ET AL.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Figure 5. Radiation patterns of triple band antenna (a) 2.4 GHz, φ = 0° (b) 2.4 GHz, φ = 90° (c) 3.5 GHz,
φ = 0° (d) 3.5 GHz, φ = 90° (e) 5.2 GHz, φ = 0° (f) 5.25 GHz, φ = 90°.



λ 2
Pr ¼ Pt Gt Gr (1)
4πr
where, Gt is the gain of transmitting antenna, Gr is the gain of receiving antenna, λ is the
wavelength, Pt is the input power in dBm, r is the distance between the transmitting and
receiving antennas.
From Figure 8b, it is noticed that the Horn antenna is replaced by the proposed
antenna prototype and used at the transmitter end to transmit EM signals. The transmit-
ting antenna and rectenna are kept at a distance of around 350 mm. The conversion
efficiency can be calculated by
 ELECTROMAGNETICS 7

Figure 6. Schematic diagram of the rectifier.

-5

-10

-15
S11 (dB)

-20

-25

-30 Simulated
Measured
-35
W/o radial stub
-40
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5
Frequency (GHz)
Figure 7. Reflection coefficient characteristics of the rectifier.

PDC V 2 DC
ηCE % ¼  100% ¼  100% (2)
Pin RL Pin

VDC is the output voltage, Pin in the input power and RL is the load resistor (which is
500 Ω). The maximum conversion efficiency of 85.6% is achieved at 3.5 GHz as shown in
Figure 10. Table 1 shows the comparison of proposed rectenna with other recently
reported works. It is clear that the proposed structure is small in size and has three
circularly polarized bands, which supports high conversion efficiency. The prototype is
fabricated with overall dimensions 15 mm×10 mm to verify the output DC voltage as
shown in Figure 11. The maximum voltage obtained is 5.12 V at 2.4 GHz frequency.

Conclusion
In this paper, a new triple band rectenna for Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz), Wi-MAX (3.5 GHz) and
WLAN (5.2 GHz) frequency bands is proposed. The designed microstrip-fed triple band
sensing antenna shows good CP performance in the resonant frequency bands. A partial
ground plane is used for improving the impedance matching, which further improves the
8 N. SINGH ET AL.

(a)

(b)
Figure 8. (a) Rectenna prototype (b) measurement setup.

-25

-30
Recieved Power (dBm)

-35

-40

-45

-50

-55

-60

-65
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0
Frequency (GHz)
Figure 9. Measured received power when the input power is −5 dBm.

conversion efficiency. The simulated result shows a maximum conversion efficiency of

85.6%. The measured peak gains of the antenna at 2.4, 3.5 and 5.5 GHz are 4, 3.9 and 4.5
dBi, respectively. The good amount of RF-DC conversion efficiency verifies that the
rectenna is suitable for IoT systems.
 ELECTROMAGNETICS 9

90
80
70

Efficiency (%)
60
50
40 Sim. 2.4 GHz
Mea. 2.4 GHz
30
Sim. 3.5 GHz
20 Mea. 3.5 GHz
Sim. 5.2 GHz
10 Mea. 5.2 GHz
0
-20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0
Pin (dBm)

Figure 10. Measured and simulated conversion efficiency.

Table 1. Comparison with other related works.

Reference Frequency (GHz) Size (mm2) Polarization Maximum Efficiency
(Lou and Yang 2018) 2.45 70 × 70 CP 83.7
(Singh et al. 2018b) 2.1, 5.8 40 × 40 LP 86
(Chandravanshi, Sarma, and Akhtar 2018) 2.1, 2.4, 3.5 120 × 120 LP 68
(Song et al. 2015) 1.8, 2.5 70 × 70 CP 55
(Chou et al. 2014) 2.45 100 × 100 CP 82.3
(Sun and Geyi 2016) 2.45 70 × 70 LP 77.2
This work 2.4, 3.5, 5.2 60 × 45 CP 85.6

6
2.4 GHz
5 3.5 GHz
Output Voltage (V)

5.5 GHz
4

0
-20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0
Pin (mW)

Figure 11. Measured output DC voltage.

References
Chandravanshi, S., S. S. Sarma, and M. J. Akhtar. 2018. Design of triple band differential rectenna
for RF energy harvesting. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 66 (6):2716–26.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2018.2819699.
10 N. SINGH ET AL.

Chou, J.-H., D.-B. Lin, K.-L. Weng, and H.-J. Li. 2014. All polarization receiving rectenna with
harmonic rejection property for wireless power transmission. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagation 62 (10):5242–49. doi:10.1109/TAP.2014.2340895.
Georgiadis, A., G. Vera Andia, and A. Collado. 2010. Rectenna design and optimization using
reciprocity theory and harmonic balance analysis for electromagnetic (EM) energy harvesting.
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters 9:444–46. doi:10.1109/LAWP.2010.2050131.
Haboubi, W., H. Takhedmit, J.-D. L. S. Luk, S.-E. Adami, B. Allard, F. Costa, C. Vollaire, O. Picon,
and L. Cirio. 2014. An efficient dual-circularly polarized rectenna for RF energy harvesting in the
2.45 GHz ISM band. Progress In Electromagnetics Research 148:31–39. doi:10.2528/
PIER14031103.
Harouni, Z., L. Cirio, L. Osman, A. Gharsallah, S. Member, and O. Picon. 2011. A dual circularly
polarized 2.45-GHz rectenna for wireless power transmission. IEEE Antennas and Wireless
Propagation Letters 10:306–09. doi:10.1109/LAWP.2011.2141973.
Lou, X., and G. Yang. 2018. A dual linearly polarized rectenna using defected ground structure for
wireless power transmission. IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 28 (9):828–30.
doi:10.1109/LMWC.2018.2860285.
Shi, Y., J. Jing, Y. Fan, L. Yang, Y. Li, and M. Wang. 2018. A novel compact broadband rectenna for
ambient RF energy harvesting. AEU-International Journal of Electronics and Communications
95:264–70. doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2018.08.035.
Singh, N., B. K. Kanaujia, M. T. Beg, M. T. Khan, and S. Kumar. 2018a. A dual polarized multiband
rectenna for RF energy harvesting. AEU-International Journal of Electronics and Communications
93:123–31. doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2018.06.020.
Singh, N., B. K. Kanaujia, M. T. Beg, S. Kumar, and M. K. Khandelwal. 2018b. A dual band
rectifying antenna for RF energy harvesting. Journal of Computational Electronics 17 (4):1748–55.
doi:10.1007/s10825-018-1241-6.
Song, C., Y. Houng, J. Zhou, J. Zhang, S. Yuan, and P. Carter. 2015. A high-efficiency broadband
rectenna for ambient wireless energy harvesting. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
63 (8):3486–95. doi:10.1109/TAP.2015.2431719.
Sun, H., and W. Geyi. 2016. A new rectenna with all-polarization-receiving capability for wireless
power transmission. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters 15:814–17. doi:10.1109/
LAWP.2015.2476345.
Sun, H., Y. X. Guo, M. He, and Z. Zhong. 2012. Design of a high-efficiency 2.45-GHz rectenna for
low-input-power energy harvesting. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters 11:929–32.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2012.2212232.
Yo, T.-C., C.-M. Lee, C.-M. Hsu, and C.-H. Luo. 2008. Compact circularly polarized rectenna with
unbalanced circular slots. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation 56 (3):882–86.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2008.916956.