A Triple-Band High-Gain Multibeam Ambient RF Energy Harvesting System Utilizing Hybrid Combining

Abstract

Overcoming the challenge of battery recharging and replacement in industry Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications is considered by proposing the design of a triple-band high-gain multibeam ambient radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting system utilizing hybrid combining. The novelty of the design is that it simultaneously exploits frequency, space, and polarization to maximize the harvested RF energy. Wideband hybrid combining is proposed, which enables the harvesting of energy at low RF power densities while maintaining the wide frequency and space coverage necessary for ambient RF energy harvesting. The antenna design consisting of 16-ports has an average area per port of 0.3λ × 0.3λ (where λ is the freespace wavelength at 1.8 GHz) and is demonstrated to achieve a wide relative bandwidth of 38.5% covering the GSM-1800, UMTS-2100, and WiFi frequency bands. Hybrid combining of the 16-port antenna provides multiple antenna beams each with up to 11 dBi antenna gain and these provide broad beam coverage. The design for the rectifiers, using multistub impedance matching, is also provided and these are shown to be efficient over the frequency bands of interest. Measurements in an anechoic chamber demonstrate that the proposed energy harvesting system can provide an output dc voltage of more than 755 mV, an output dc power of more than -6.4 dBm and RF-to-dc efficiencies greater than 40% when the power density is more than 1400 μW/m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . It is also shown that the proposed system can provide output dc power of 80 μW and 7.3 μW in real outdoor and indoor ambient environments, respectively.