Fast and Accurate Rectenna Design Method

A fast and accurate method is proposed for the design of rectennas. It combines the use of a full-wave electromagnetic simulator, for the analysis of the antenna, and a harmonic balance simulator, for the analysis of the rectifying circuit, with a single-point experimental calibration procedure. The proposed method can be used to speed up the development of general rectenna configurations. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the proposed concept. The first one is general, whereas the second is efficiency-optimization-oriented. A modified planar printed dipole without a matching network is used in both cases. An efficiency of 48% is achieved for a power density of 57 mu W/cm(2) around 5 GHz. A good agreement is obtained between simulation and experimental results.