Double band microwave rectifier for energy harvesting

Energy harvesting has been investigated by many researchers due to their ability to generate power by using existing sources which eliminate the need of batteries and power supply that requires extra cost to the system. Rectifier is the main component in energy harvesting where it converts RF sources to DC power. This work presents the design and investigation of the seven-stage rectifier. A Villard configuration is chosen with consists of two HSMS 2850 Schottky diodes and two through hole ceramic capacitors for each stage. The aim of this article is to study and evaluate the rectifier performance at 550 MHz and 900 MHz frequency range. Rectifier properties such as number of stage, capacitance effects, and variation in capacitor's combination, and are analyzed and discussed in this article. The result shows that the designed rectifier is operate well at the targeted frequencies. Measured results show that voltages of 9.17 V and 3.78 V are obtained for an input of 0 dBm at 900 MHz and 550 MHz, respectively. The circuit is generating 44.4% rectified output than in the reference work. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:922-927, 2016