Enhanced Broadband RF Differential Rectifier Integrated with Archimedean Spiral Antenna for Wireless Energy Harvesting Applications

This work addresses the design and implementation of a broadband differential rectifier (DR) combined with an Archimedean spiral dipole antenna (ASDA) for wireless power harvesting at low incident power densities below 200 mu W/cm(2). The proposed design exhibits an improved RF-DC conversion efficiency over a wide frequency range from 1.2 to 5 GHz. This frequency band is associated with several wireless communication services, for instance, ISM, WLAN, 5G, LTE, and GPS applications. The receiving planar ASDA exhibits circular polarization and has an average measured gain of 4.5 dBi from 1.2 to 5 GHz. To enable a wide operating bandwidth, the rectifier circuit is constituted by two architectures, designated A and B. Each scheme is designed to harvest power efficiently across a specific bandwidth. The optimal performance of both rectifiers are obtained using the nonlinear harmonic-balance simulations. The antenna-rectifier integration yields a compact rectenna with a high-efficiency performance over the intended bandwidth from 1.2 to 5 GHz for an input power of 9 dBm and terminal load resistance of 1 k W. The total measured RF-DC conversion efficiency is maintained above 30% across the entire frequency range with a peak value of 61% achieved at 1.2 GHz. In comparison with similar architectures, the proposed rectenna maintains a stable output efficiency despite the wide fluctuations in the input frequency and also has a minimum footprint size (58 x 55 mm(2)).