A Novel Ultra-Lightweight Multiband Rectenna on Paper for RF Energy Harvesting in the Next Generation LTE Bands

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 66; no. 1; pp. 366 - 379
• Main Authors: Palazzi, Valentina, Hester, Jimmy, Bito, Jo, Alimenti, Federico, Kalialakis, Christos, Collado, Ana, Mezzanotte, Paolo, Georgiadis, Apostolos, Roselli, Luca, Tentzeris, Manos M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-01-2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Broadband antennas; conformal antennas; Copper; copper adhesive laminate; Energy conversion efficiency; Energy harvesting; flexible electronics; Harvesters; Internet of Everything; Internet of Things (IoT); multiband rectifier; Radio frequency; Rectennas; Slot antennas; Substrates
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2017.2721399

This paper introduces a novel compact ultralightweight multiband RF energy harvester fabricated on a paper substrate. The proposed rectenna is designed to operate in all recently released LTE bands (range 0.79-0.96 GHz; 1.71-2.17 GHz; and 2.5-2.69 GHz). High compactness and ease of integration between antenna and rectifier are achieved by using a topology of nested annular slots. The proposed rectifier features an RF-to-dc conversion efficiency in the range of 5%-16% for an available input power of -20 dBm in all bands of interest, which increases up to 11%-30% at -15 dBm. The rectenna has been finally tested both in laboratory and in realistic scenarios featuring a superior performance to other state-of-the-art RF harvesters on flexible substrates.