Ultra-Wideband (UWB) rectenna design for Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting

Abstract

This work focuses on designing, fabricating, measuring and testing each component of a Rectenna. A rectenna consists of an antenna and a rectifier circuit that is optimized for incoming signals of low power density. This rectenna is used to harvest electric energy from the RF signals that have been radiated at:  GSM-850  GSM-900 (downlink: 935-960MHz)  GSM-1800 (downlink: 1805-1880MHz)  ISM band centered in 2.45 GHz. This work contains antenna design techniques using Ansoft HFSS software and methods to simulate rectennas using Harmonic Balance and electromagnetic full-wave Momentum with the Agilent Advanced Design Software (ADS2008). For the antenna fabrication it was used a LPKF Milling machine. And for measurements a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA), spectral analyzer, analog signal generator, multimeter, and anechoic chamber were used.