2.45 GHz Rectenna Designed for Wireless Sensors Operating at 500 C

High temperature wireless sensors that operate at 500 C are required for aircraft engine monitoring and performance improvement These sensors would replace currently used hard-wired sensors and lead to a substantial reduction in mass. However, even if the sensor output data is transmitted wirelessly to a receiver in the cooler part of the engine, and the associated cables are eliminated, DC power cables are still required to operate the sensors and power the wireless circuits. To solve this problem, NASA is developing a rectenna, a circuit that receives RF power and converts it to DC power. The rectenna would be integrated with the wireless sensor, and the RF transmitter that powers the rectenna would be located in the cooler part of the engine. In this way, no cables to or from the sensors are required. Rectennas haw been demonstrated at ambient room temperature, but to date, no high temperature rectennas haw been reported. In this paper, we report the first rectenna designed for 2.45 GHz operation at 500 C. The circuit consists of a microstrip dipole antenna, a stripline impedance matching circuit, and a stripline low pass filter to prevent transmission of higher harmonics created by the rectifying diode fabricated on an Alumina substrate. The rectifying diode is the gate to source junction of a 6H Sic MESFET and the capacitor and load resistor are chip elements that are each bonded to the Alumina substrate. Each element and the hybrid, rectenna circuit haw been characterized through 500 C.