Dual-Polarized Communication Rectenna Array for Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transmission

A dual-polarized communication rectenna array with high isolation and low cross polarization for simultaneous wireless information and power transmission (SWIPT) is presented. It consists of a 2 x 2 element receiving antenna array and a high effficiency rectifier based on voltage doubler topology. The receiving element is corner-fed to achieve high isolation of more than 20 dB between the dual-polarized ports, which guarantees low mutual interference between the communication and the rectifying ports. To receive enough electromagnetic (EM) wave for rectifying and meanwhile meet the communication sensitivity, this 2 x 2 array uses its 2 x 2 vertical polarization ports and 1 x 2 horizontal polarization ports for power rectifying, and the rest 1 x 2 horizontal polarization ports for communication. For the communication port, the measured gain is 10.9 dBi and the cross polarization is less than 20 dB. The performance of the whole communication rectenna array has been measured, where a 2 x 4 circularly-polarized array with a gain of 17.5 dBi, settled 1 meter away is used as the transmitter. Measured results show that the system achieves a peak microwave - direct circuit (mw-dc) conversion effficiency of 74.9 % for the CW signal, and 67 % for the QPSK signal with 10 MHz channel bandwidth on the load of 345 Omega at 2.58 GHz operating frequency.