Compact Flat Dipole Rectenna for Energy Harvesting or Wireless Power Transmission Applications

This paper addresses the design and the characterization of a compact (2.3 cm x 3.4 cm) flat dipole antenna surrounded by a rectangular ring. Due to its wide frequency bandwidth, this antenna covers the UMTS, LTE 4G, WiFi and WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) bands and can be advantageously used for RF Energy Harvesting or Wireless Power Transmission applications. A compact rectenna using the proposed antenna was manufactured and characterized. It allows reaching a RF -DC conversion efficiency of 38.6% for an E-field of 7V/m with a 1.5 kΩ load.