An orientation-independent UHF rectenna array with a unified matching and decoupling RF network

This work describes the design of a rectenna array exploiting orthogonal, closely-spaced UHF monopoles for orientation-independent RF energy harvesting to energize a passive tag, designed for UWB localization, with wake-up radio (WUR) capabilities. To reach this goal, different RF networks are studied to simultaneously realize RF decoupling of the antenna elements and matching of the radiating elements to the non-linear network of rectifiers. The design is performed for a wide power range of the RF incoming signals that need to be exploited for both energizing the passive tag and for providing energy autonomy to a WUR sub-system, used to minimize the long-term power consumption during tag standby operations. Two meandered cross-polarized monopoles, located in close proximity, and thus highly coupled, are adopted for orientation-insensitive operations. The combining RF network is reactive and includes an unbalanced power divider to draw a fraction of the harvested energy to a secondary way for WUR operations. The performance of the harvester is first optimized by EM/non-linear co-design of the whole system over an interval of low RF power levels. The system has been realized and experimentally validated: the superior results obtained, in terms of both dc voltage and power, with respect to a standard single-monopole rectenna, justify the deployment of the presented tag for the energy autonomy of future generation radio-frequency identification tags for indoor localization.