IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 67, NO.

9, SEPTEMBER 2019 3821

An Ambient RF Energy Harvesting System Where

the Number of Antenna Ports Is Dependent
on Frequency
Shanpu Shen , Member, IEEE, Yujie Zhang , Student Member, IEEE,
Chi-Yuk Chiu , Senior Member, IEEE, and Ross Murch , Fellow, IEEE

Abstract— We describe the design of a multiport rectenna WiFi, cellular, and broadcast systems, the power density of
system for ambient radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting where ambient RF signals has generally become large enough for
the number of ports utilized is dependent on frequency. A unique supporting self-sustainable and low-power devices for IoT
aspect of the design is the use of different numbers of antenna
ports for harvesting RF energy at different frequencies. This applications [1].
allows the available area for the rectenna to be fully utilized at Various single-band rectennas have been designed for har-
all frequencies. In particular, the proposed antenna is designed vesting RF energy for various frequency bands, including
to have four ports for harvesting energy from the GSM-900 fre- GSM-900 [1], GSM-1800 [1], 3G [1], AM [6], DTV [7],
quency band and 12 ports for the GSM-1800 frequency band in and WiFi [8]. The types of antenna proposed for these
the same area. The design for the rectifiers for the GSM-900 and
GSM-1800 frequency bands with direct current (dc) combining frequency bands include dipole [9]–[11], monopole [12],
is provided and prototypes are demonstrated. Field-test measure- loop [6], microstrip patch [13]–[16], slot [17], [18], and log
ments show that the proposed rectenna can provide an output periodic antennas [7]. However, a key problem in ambient
dc voltage of more than 3.2 V, an output dc power of more than RF energy harvesting is the extremely low RF power density
−10 dBm, and an RF-to-dc efficiency of greater than 42% when of the ambient RF environment as shown by various RF
the power density is greater than 1400 µW/m2 . Measurements
in an ambient RF environment at a university campus with surveys [1], [19], [20]. This limits the RF power received
commercial GSM-900 and GSM-1800 systems in operation show by antennas and leads to low RF-to-direct current (RF-to-dc)
that the proposed rectenna can achieve output dc voltages of up power conversion efficiency for the rectifier. To maximize
to 2.2 V and dc power up to −13.6 dBm. harvested ambient RF energy, the frequency domain can
Index Terms— Dual band, dual polarized, energy harvesting, be exploited to fully utilize the available RF energy in
frequency dependent, frequency domain, inverted-F, multiport, the ambient RF environment and dual-band [20]–[23], triple-
polarization diversity, rectenna, rectifier, spatial domain. band [24], [25], quad-band [26], hexa-band [27], and broad-
band rectennas [28]–[31] have been demonstrated.
I. I NTRODUCTION Polarization diversity has also been considered in rectenna

A MBIENT radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting sys-

tems use rectifying antennas (rectenna) to extract
energy from RF signals in the everyday or ambient RF
designs to increase harvested RF energy. Dual linear polariza-
tion (LP) rectennas [13], [32]–[34] and dual circular polariza-
tion (CP) rectennas [27], [28], [35], [36] have been proposed.
environment [1]–[3]. One potential application of ambient The spatial domain has also been exploited to increase har-
RF energy harvesting is for powering devices used in vested RF energy leading to 2-D [28], [33] and 3-D [37] uni-
the Internet of Things (IoT), which could help enable form rectenna arrays as well as compact dual-port [25], [38]
enhanced services such as medical, healthcare, environment, and triple-port [3] rectennas. Combining the harvested energy
and infrastructure management [4], [5]. With the increased from the ports in multiport antenna configurations is also
deployment of wireless communication infrastructure such as an important issue and the advantages and disadvantages
of RF and dc combining have been discussed in [39]. One
Manuscript received November 21, 2018; revised February 17, 2019;
accepted February 20, 2019. Date of publication April 11, 2019; date conclusion is that dc combining can be more suitable for
of current version September 4, 2019. This work was supported by the ambient RF energy harvesting since it can provide a broader
Hong Kong Research Grants Council under Grant 16207314. (Corresponding beamwidth. Other techniques, such as using harmonic rejec-
author: Shanpu Shen.)
S. Shen, Y. Zhang, and C.-Y. Chiu are with the Department of Electronic tion filtennas [40]–[44], a differential rectenna [14], and an
and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and artificial magnetic conductor [45], have also been used to
Technology, Hong Kong (e-mail: sshenaa@[Link]). increase the harvested RF energy or the rectenna efficiency.
R. Murch is with the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, and also A comprehensive comparison of multiband and broadband
with the Institute of Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science rectenna designs is provided in Table I. It can be deduced
and Technology, Hong Kong. that most multiband and broadband rectenna designs are
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article are available
online at [Link] single-port based. One limitation of this approach is that for
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2019.2906598 dual-band or multiband designs the resultant antenna electrical
0018-9480 © 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See [Link] for more information.
3822 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 67, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2019

TABLE I
C OMPARISON OF THE P ROPOSED M ULTIBAND R ECTENNA D ESIGN W ITH P REVIOUS M ULTIBAND AND B ROADBAND R ECTENNA D ESIGNS

size becomes larger for the higher frequency bands. For exam- frequency bands. However, for convenience, in this paper,
ple, the antenna electrical size for the GSM-1800 frequency we use GSM-900 and GSM-1800 to refer to their respective
band is four times electrically larger than the antenna size downlink frequency bands (925–960 and 1805–1880 MHz,
for the GSM-900 frequency band (see results in [25]–[27] respectively) and it is understood the underlying system in
in Table I). The electrically large antenna size can be used to operation maybe GSM or LTE. For our purposes, the type
increase antenna directivity. However, as shown in Section II of mobile telephone system in operation in these bands will
of this paper, antenna directivity does not increase harvested not affect the capability of our ambient RF energy harvesting
ambient RF power since ambient RF power arrives at an rectenna.
antenna from all angular directions when averaged over time. This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we show
Therefore, the large electrical size of the antenna at higher fre- that frequency-dependent multiport antennas are required to
quency bands does not lead to any improvement in harvested maximize harvested energy across dual or multiple frequency
RF power. In fact, as we show in Section II, the harvested bands. In Section III, we detail the basic antenna geome-
RF power is actually less at higher frequencies when using a try of the proposed frequency-dependent multiport antenna.
single-port antenna and does not depend on antenna directivity. In Section IV, single-series diode rectifier designs for the
To solve this issue, the number of ports utilized in the antenna GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands and subsequent dc
should increase with operating frequency so that the average combining for multiple rectifiers are described. In Section V,
antenna size of each port at all frequencies is electrically the we provide the measurement results, and in Section VI,
same. we provide conclusions.
In this paper, we propose a multiport rectenna for ambi-
ent RF energy harvesting where the number of antenna II. D EPENDENCE OF H ARVESTED RF P OWER ON
ports utilized is dependent on frequency. The novelty lies A NTENNA D IRECTIVITY AND N UMBER
in that the number of ports of our proposed rectenna is OF A NTENNA P ORTS
frequency dependent while utilizing the same overall area.
We refer to this antenna as a frequency-dependent multiport Consider a single-port antenna, in which we denote its
rectenna in the remainder of this paper. Our contributions directivity, gain, and radiation efficiency as D(), G(),
include: 1) showing that increasing antenna directivity does and er , respectively, where  = (θ, φ) represents the spatial
not increase harvested ambient RF energy; 2) showing that angle with θ and φ being the elevation and azimuth angles in
increasing the number of antenna ports in the same area as spherical coordinates. Gain function and directivity function
frequency increases, increases harvested ambient RF energy; can be related by G() = er D() [46] and D() can be
3) provide designs for rectifiers and dc combining for the expressed as
GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands; 4) proposing a 4π|E()|2
compact antenna design where there are four ports for the D() =  (1)
 |E()| d
2
GSM-900 frequency band and 12 ports for the GSM-1800 fre-
quency band all occupying the same area and finally; and where |E()| denotes the normalized electric far-field radi-
5) demonstrating the system with measurements in an ambient ation pattern (|E()|max = 1). It is known [46] that when
RF environment at the campus of the Hong Kong University of conjugate matching is used, the maximum RF power har-
Science and Technology also shows that the proposed rectenna vested from spatial angle  by a single-port antenna is
can have a maximum output dc voltage of 2.2 V and dc power PRF = λ2 G()S()/4π, where λ is the wavelength and S()
of −13.6 dBm. is the power density of the incident wave at .
It should also be noted that in many countries, For ambient RF signals due to the multiple reflections and
GSM-900 and GSM-1800 are being phased out and replaced scattering, the incident ambient RF power may appear in
by long-term evolution (LTE) systems operating in the same nearly any direction [47], [48]. In addition, the orientation of
SHEN et al.: AMBIENT RF ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM 3823

the IoT device using the rectenna may also be at any 3-D
orientation. For this reason, we assume the ambient RF power
is uniformly distributed across 3-D when averaged over time
so that it can be written as S = E[S()] where E[·] denotes
expectation (in the next paragraph we also extend to a 3-D
cone). The corresponding average harvested ambient RF power
with conjugate matching is, therefore,

er λ2 S
E[PRF ] = D()d = er λ2 S. (2)
4π 
Two important conclusions result from (2) as follows: 1)
because the harvested RF power in (2) does not depend on
directivity, we can conclude that the directivity of the antenna
does not improve the average harvested ambient RF power
as long as efficiency remains the same and 2) because of
the λ2 term in (2), we can also deduce that as frequency
increases harvested power decreases. For example, the RF
ambient power harvested at 900 MHz would be four times
more than at 1800 MHz no matter what its directivity is.
If the power angular spectrum (PAS) of the random RF
field is not uniform in 3-D, our general conclusions still hold.
For example, if the PAS is restricted to be uniform along
a 3-D cone, then as long as the antenna patterns considered
are restricted to the 3-D cone, their directivity will not affect
the harvested energy.
A direct implication in (2) is that we should use antennas
with the minimum directivity possible. This is because the
antenna size is related to its directivity [46] and, therefore,
to reduce size directivity should be minimized. We should
instead excite as many ports as possible with the minimum
directivity possible rather than use a single larger higher
directivity antenna. Fig. 1. Geometry and dimensions of the frequency-dependent multiport
dual-band dual-polarized IFA (millimeter). (a) 3-D view of the single-port
A further implication in (2) is that given harvested power IFA. (b) Side view of the single-port IFA. (c) Top view.
decreases with an increase in frequency, we should increase
the number of antennas in proportion to the square of the
frequency so the overall area remains the same. Because the
antenna size is proportional to λ2 , we can deduce that increas- size. Therefore, a multiport dual-band dual-polarized antenna
ing the number of ports in square proportion to frequency can be realized by dc combining several individual IFAs
would result in a multiport antenna that has exactly the same in a specific configuration. The IFA’s geometry is shown
overall size across all frequencies. In practice, however, some in Fig. 1(a) and (b) and it consists of a ground plane and
adjustment of the results will be necessary since, for example, an inverted-F radiator that is fed by the inner conductor of an
antenna losses typically increase as wavelength increases. SMA connector. The substrate is 1.6-mm-thick FR-4 epoxy
However, the general trend will hold even in practical appli- printed circuit board (PCB) with a dielectric constant of 4.4.
cations. By simulation in CST Microwave Studio, we determine the
In the next sections, we propose a frequency-dependent dimensions of the single-port IFA needed for single-band
multiport rectenna system that incorporates these design operation in the GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands.
principles. The sizes of the substrate supporting the ground are 160 ×
40 mm2 and 80 × 20 mm2 for the GSM-900 and GSM-
III. F REQUENCY-D EPENDENT M ULTIPORT D UAL -BAND 1800 frequency bands, respectively. These dimensions provide
I NVERTED -F A NTENNA D ESIGN the same proportion of grounding areas for the two frequency
bands and govern the antenna separations when multiple IFAs
A. Basic Antenna Geometry are oriented horizontally. The frequency-dependent multiport
To demonstrate the design of a multiport rectenna for dual-band dual-polarized IFA is constructed by integrating
ambient RF energy harvesting, where the number of ports four of these IFAs for the GSM-900 frequency band and
utilized is dependent on frequency, we use a basic single-port 12 IFAs for the GSM-1800 frequency band together in an
printed inverted-F antenna (IFA) design as a canonical antenna orthogonal configuration. The entire design has an area of 240
element. The antenna is straightforward to fabricate and is × 240 mm2 and is shown in Fig. 1(c). The dimensions of
able to achieve single-band resonance with LP in a compact the inverted-F radiators are slightly tuned for better resonance
3824 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 67, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2019

TABLE II
D IMENSIONS OF THE P ROPOSED F REQUENCY-D EPENDENT
M ULTIPORT D UAL -BAND D UAL -P OLARIZED IFA

when all the IFAs are integrated together, and the detailed
values of all the dimension parameters for each port are given
in Table II. To achieve a compact configuration, the ground Fig. 2. Photograph of the frequency-dependent multiport dual-band dual-
planes of ports 13 and 15 are placed on the bottom layer polarized IFA.
of the substrate and the corresponding inverted-F radiators
are shorted to ground through vias. In order to perform dc
combining at the outputs of different rectifiers, dc isolation
needs to be considered. As a result, each antenna has a separate
ground plane and a common ground structure for all 16 IFAs
cannot be used. For this reason, we have left empty areas in
the ground plane, as can be observed in Fig. 1(c). However,
these empty areas could also be filled with separate ground
planes if its fabrication is made easier.
The number of ports is frequency dependent with four ports
for the GSM-900 frequency band and 12 ports for the GSM-
1800 frequency band, so that the average antenna size of
each port is 0.37λ1 × 0.37λ1 and 0.42λ2 × 0.42λ2 , where
λ1 and λ2 are the wavelengths in the GSM-900 and GSM-
1800 frequency bands, respectively (referred to the central
frequency). Therefore, it has the advantage that the average
antenna size of each port is compact for both the GSM-900 and
GSM-1800 frequency bands. It is competitive in size compared
to the existing work when considering both lower and upper Fig. 3. Measured reflection coefficients and mutual couplings of the
frequency bands, as shown in Table I. The design fully frequency-dependent multiport dual-band dual-polarized IFA.
utilizes the antenna size by exciting more ports at higher
frequency bands and, therefore, harvesting more RF energy, as
suggested in Section II. The orthogonal configuration of the shown in Fig. 3. We can find that the reflection coefficients
frequency-dependent multiport antenna also exploits polariza- of ports 1–4 are below −10 dB from 925 to 960 MHz,
tion diversity so that ports 1 and 3 are horizontal polarization the reflection coefficients of ports 5–16 are below −10 dB
ports for the GSM-900 frequency band, ports 2 and 4 are from 1805 to 1880 MHz, and the mutual couplings between
vertical polarization ports for the GSM-900 frequency band, all ports are below −13 dB over the two bands, showing that
ports 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, and 16 are horizontal ports for the GSM- our proposed antenna has good impedance matching.
1800 frequency band, and ports 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, and 15 The radiation patterns of the frequency-dependent multiport
are vertical ports for the GSM-1800 frequency band. The dual-band dual-polarized IFA are also measured by a SATIMO
implementation of this dual LP allows harvesting energy from StarLab system. The measured radiation patterns of ports
both polarizations in the random ambient RF environment and 1–4 at 940 MHz and ports 5–16 at 1840 MHz in the X O Z
the collection of as much available power as possible. Further plane and Y O Z plane are shown in Fig. 4. Note that all fig-
miniaturization of the multiport antennas is possible and one ures are normalized individually. We can find that at 940 MHz,
approach might be to adapt one of the existing published the radiation patterns of ports 1 and 3 are horizontally lin-
designs for dual-band compact antennas [49]. ear polarized and orthogonal to the vertical linear polarized
radiation patterns of ports 2 and 4. Similar orthogonal linear
polarized radiation patterns can be found in the radiation
B. Antenna Measurement patterns of ports 5–16 at 1840 MHz where ports 5, 8, 9, 12, 14,
A prototype of the frequency-dependent multiport dual-band and 16 are horizontally polarized and ports 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, and
dual-polarized IFA has been fabricated to verify the design 15 are vertically polarized. The small distortion evident in the
as shown in Fig. 2. The reflection coefficients and mutual patterns of ports 5–16 is due to scattering from nearby antenna
couplings measured by a vector network analyzer (VNA) are elements in the compact multiple antenna configuration, but
SHEN et al.: AMBIENT RF ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM 3825

Fig. 4. Measured radiation patterns of the frequency-dependent multiport dual-band dual-polarized IFA.

Fig. 5. Measured realized gain of the frequency-dependent multiport Fig. 6. Measured total efficiency of the frequency-dependent multiport
dual-band dual-polarized IFA. (a) Ports 1–4. (b) Ports 5–16. dual-band dual-polarized IFA. (a) Ports 1–4. (b) Ports 5–16.

due to the mutual coupling in the compact multiple antennas

overall the patterns remain orthogonal to each other. The
configuration.
measured orthogonal radiation patterns verify the capability
of harvesting random polarized ambient RF energy from the
IV. R ECTIFIER D ESIGN
GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands without polariza-
tion mismatch. The measured realized gain and total efficiency A. Single-Series Diode Rectifier Design
of the proposed antenna are also shown in Figs. 5 and 6, For ambient RF energy harvesting, various types of rec-
respectively. From 925 to 960 MHz, the realized gains and tifier topologies have been proposed such as a single-series
total efficiencies of ports 1–4 are around 3 − 4 dBi and 70%, diode rectifier [1], [20], single shunt diode rectifier [8], [28],
respectively. From 1805 to 1880 MHz, the realized gains are voltage doubler rectifier [13], [14], and the Greinacher
around 5, 4, 3, and 1.5 dBi for ports 14 and 16, ports 5, 6, 9, rectifier [30], [39]. In this paper, we use the single-series diode
10, 13, and 15, ports 8 and 12, and ports 7 and 11, respectively. rectifier to implement the single-band rectifier for harvesting
It is noted that the harvested RF power does not depend on the ambient RF energy from the GSM-900 and GSM-1800 fre-
directivity of antenna, as described in Section II. The lower quency bands, respectively, due to its higher RF-to-dc effi-
realized directivities for ports 7 and 11 will, therefore, not ciency at low input RF power. The Schottky diode Avago
degrade the overall performance of the rectenna. The total HSMS-2850 is selected as the rectifying diode because of
efficiencies for ports 6 and 10, ports 5, 8, 9, and 12 − 16, and its low turn-on voltage and the rectifier circuit is fabricated
ports 7 and 11 are around 70%, 60%, and 55%, respectively. on 62-mil-thick substrate RT/Duroid 5880 (dielectric constant
The relatively lower total efficiencies for ports 7 and 11 are r = 2.2) with low loss tangent of 0.0009 to decrease the
3826 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 67, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2019

Fig. 7. Topology of the single-series diode rectifier (mm). Fig. 8. Photograph of the single-series diode rectifiers for GSM-900 (down)
and GSM-1800 (up) frequency bands.

insertion loss. We also use an optimized load and single-stub

impedance matching. The reasoning for this approach relates
to efficiency and includes the following.
1) PCB Substrate Loss Tangent: To minimize the inser-
tion loss, we selected the substrate RT/Duroid 5880
(dielectric constant r = 2.2) with very low loss tangent
of 0.0009.
2) Rectifying diode: Because the input power is low,
a diode with low turn-on voltage is helpful to boost the
RF-to-dc efficiency. We have simulated different diodes
in Advanced Design System (ADS) and found that the
Schottky diode Avago HSMS-2850 has a high RF-to-dc
efficiency with low input power.
3) Rectifier Circuit Topology: We compared three common Fig. 9. Measured reflection coefficient of the single-series diode rectifier at
rectifier circuit topologies: a) the single-series diode different input RF power levels. (a) Rectifier for GSM-900 frequency band.
rectifier; b) the voltage doubler rectifier; and c) the (b) Rectifier for GSM-1800 frequency band.
Greinacher rectifier in ADS simulation, and we found
that the single-series diode rectifier topology has the
The optimized load resistor for −20 dBm input RF power is
highest RF-to-dc efficiency when the input power is low,
R L = 7k. In the second phase of the rectifier design process,
4) Load Resistor: The load resistor, which provides the dc
we design the matching network to match the preliminary
voltage bias for the diode, is important for achieving
rectifier with the optimal load resistor in the GSM-900 and
good rectifier performance. Therefore, we optimize the
GSM-1800 frequency bands, respectively. Single-stub tuning
load resistor in ADS to maximize the RF-to-dc efficiency
is adopted to implement impedance matching. The stub is
under the input power of −20 dBm.
grounded by a via to provide a dc circuit in the rectifier.
5) Impedance Matching: Good impedance matching should
The dimensions of the transmission lines in the single stub
not only have a low reflection coefficient but also have a
are optimized in ADS for good impedance matching. The
low insertion loss. For single-band impedance matching,
optimized dimensions are (mm): W 1 = 4.85, L1 = 6,
the single-stub approach is effective. There is no need
W 2 = 4.77, L2 = 10.37, W 3 = 0.41, and L3 = 45.02
to use more complicated impedance matching circuit
for the GSM-900 frequency band and W 1 = 4.85, L1 = 6,
topologies since it will increase the insertion loss.
W 2 = 3.09, L2 = 2.12, W 3 = 1.37, and L3 = 19.38 for the
The exact topology of the single-series diode rectifier is shown GSM-1800 frequency band, respectively.
in Fig. 7 where the matching network and a preliminary
rectifier (which consists of a diode, a 1000-pF capacitor, and a
load resistor) can be identified. In the first phase of the rectifier B. Single-Series Diode Rectifier Performance
design process, the preliminary rectifier is simulated by the Prototypes of the single-series diode rectifiers for the
harmonic-balance (HB) solver in the ADS with the nonlinear GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands were fabricated to
SPICE model for the Schottky diode Avago HSMS-2850. verify our designs, as shown in Fig. 8. The sizes of the recti-
Nonlinear performance such as RF-to-dc efficiency of the fiers are 67 × 27 mm2 and 40 × 19 mm2 for the GSM-900 and
rectifier is primarily determined by the load resistor for a GSM-1800 frequency bands, respectively. We use a VNA to
given input RF power level [50], [51]. Therefore, we optimize measure the reflection coefficients S11 of the rectifiers for the
the load resistor in ADS under the condition of an input RF GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands at different input
power of −20 dBm to simultaneously maximize RF-to-dc RF power levels and plot them in Fig. 9. At the input power
efficiencies in the GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands. RF level of −20 dBm, the two rectifiers resonate at 938 and
SHEN et al.: AMBIENT RF ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM 3827

Fig. 10. Measured RF-to-dc efficiency of the single-series diode recti- Fig. 11. Measured RF-to-dc efficiency of the single-series diode recti-
fier versus frequency at different input RF power levels. (a) Rectifier for fier versus input RF power level at different frequencies. (a) Rectifier for
GSM-900 frequency band. (b) Rectifier for GSM-1800 frequency band. GSM-900 frequency band. (b) Rectifier for GSM-1800 frequency band.

1838 MHz, respectively. When the input RF power level is RF power level of −40 dBm. A comparison for the proposed
increased from −35 to −10 dBm, the resonant frequencies rectifier designs and previous rectifier designs is provided
shift from 932 to 944 MHz and from 1820 to 1848 MHz for in Table III. Our proposed rectifiers feature higher RF-to-dc
the GSM-900 and GSM-1800 frequency bands, respectively. efficiencies than the previous work in both GSM-900 and
Despite the nonlinear behavior of the rectifier causing the GSM-1800 frequency bands at low input RF power ranges
resonant frequency shifts with the input RF power level, the from −30 to −20 dBm due to the following three reasons.
measured reflection coefficients show that the proposed recti- 1) Single-Diode Topology: When the input RF power is
fiers have good impedance matching in the desired bands at low, using more diodes lowers RF-to-dc efficiency.
low power from −35 to −10 dBm and are suitable for ambient 2) Optimized Load Resistor: The RF-to-dc efficiency is
RF energy harvesting. To evaluate the RF-to-dc efficiency significantly affected by the load resistor; therefore,
of the rectifier, we connect it to a signal generator and use we have optimized the resistor values in ADS to achieve
a multimeter to measure the output dc voltage across the the maximum RF-to-dc efficiencies, particularly at
load resistor. The RF-to-dc efficiency of the rectifier is then −20 and −30-dBm input RF power levels.
obtained from 3) Simple Matching Network: The matching network gen-
VL2 1 erally introduces additional insertion loss that reduces
η= × (3) the RF-to-dc efficiency.
RL Pin
Therefore, we use a simple single-stub topology for
where VL denotes the output dc voltage of the rectifier and Pin
single-band matching. The insertion loss can be minimized
denotes the input RF power provided by the signal generator.
and so the RF-to-dc efficiency can be further enhanced. On the
The measured RF-to-dc efficiencies of the two rectifiers versus
contrary, other works often use complex matching networks
frequency at different input RF power levels are plotted in
for multiband operations.
Fig. 10. In Fig. 10, we can find that in the GSM-900 frequency
band, the peak efficiency is 6.5% at −35 dBm, 14.6% at
−30 dBm, 26.7% at −25 dBm, 38.1% at −20 dBm, 47.3% at C. DC Combining
−15 dBm, 54.4% at −10 dBm, and 57.5% at −5 dBm, and In RF energy harvesting, combining the antenna ports for
in the GSM-1800 frequency band, the peak efficiency is 5.4% array or multiport antenna configuration is an important issue.
at −35 dBm, 12.3% at −30 dBm, 22.6% at −25 dBm, 34.0% The advantages and disadvantages of the two common com-
at −20 dBm, 42.7% at −15 dBm, 49.2% at −10 dBm, and bining techniques, RF and dc combining, have been discussed
52.6% at −5 dBm, which show good rectification efficiency at in [39], where it is shown that dc combining has broader
low input RF power levels. The frequency achieving the peak beamwidth for random RF signal reception and can be more
efficiency is increasing with the input RF power level, which suitable for ambient RF energy harvesting. For this reason,
agrees with the trend of S11 , as shown in Fig. 9. In addition, we adopt dc combining for our frequency-dependent multiport,
we plot the measured RF-to-dc efficiencies of the two rectifiers as shown in Fig. 12. We fabricate 4 GSM-900 frequency
versus input RF power level at different frequencies, as shown band rectifiers and 12 GSM-1800 frequency band rectifiers,
in Fig. 11, in order to investigate the impact of the input RF as shown in Fig. 8, without load resistors and connect two
power level on the rectifier performance. The efficiencies of GSM-900 frequency band rectifiers to the vertically polarized
both rectifiers increase with the input RF power until a turning GSM-900 frequency band antenna ports, two GSM-900 fre-
point around −5 dBm after which the efficiencies go down due quency band rectifiers to the horizontally polarized GSM-900
to the breakdown effect of the diode. Our rectifiers can also frequency band antenna ports, six GSM-1800 frequency band
operate with an efficiency of 2% at the extremely low input rectifiers to the vertically polarized GSM-1800 frequency band
3828 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 67, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2019

TABLE III
C OMPARISON OF THE P ROPOSED R ECTIFIER D ESIGNS AND P REVIOUS R ECTIFIER D ESIGNS

Fig. 12. System diagram of the frequency-dependent multiport dual-band

dual-polarized inverted-F rectenna with dc combining.

Fig. 13. Different IFAs for comparison. (a) SBSP for GSM-900. (b) SBSP
antenna ports, and six GSM-1800 frequency band rectifiers to for GSM-1800. (c) DBSP for GSM-900 and GSM-1800. (d) SBDP for
the horizontally polarized GSM-1800 frequency band antenna GSM-900. (e) SBDP for GSM-1800. (f) DBDP for GSM-900 and GSM-1800.
The abbreviations, such as SBSP, are defined in the first paragraph
ports, as shown in Fig. 12. The dc output of each rectifier is of Section V-A.
connected in series so that the output dc voltages are added to
the same load resistor, and thus, the total output dc voltage is
improved. Since we have 16 antenna ports, the load resistor for
dc combining is chosen to be R L = 7 k × 16 = 112 k [52].
It should be noted that each antenna port in our proposed
frequency-dependent multiport rectenna is dc isolated from
each other so that there is no need to add a dc block in the
corresponding rectifier for output dc voltage summation in dc
combining.

V. R ECTENNA M EASUREMENT Fig. 14. Rectenna measurement system.

A. Measurement in an Anechoic Chamber
To demonstrate the performance of our proposed
frequency-dependent multiport rectenna, we compare it with: in Fig. 13. These IFAs shown in Fig. 13 are connected to
1) a single-band single-polarized (SBSP) inverted-F rectenna the rectifiers shown in Fig. 8 with dc combining and their
operating in GSM-900 (a one-port antenna); 2) an SBSP load resistor are 7, 7, 14, 14, 14, and 28 k, respectively,
inverted-F rectenna operating in GSM-1800 (a one-port and are selected to match the number of ports the antenna
antenna); 3) a dual-band single-polarized (DBSP) inverted-F configurations have.
rectenna operating in both GSM-900 and GSM-1800 The proposed frequency-dependent multiport rectenna sys-
(a two-port antenna); 4) a single-band dual-polarized (SBDP) tem and the various inverted-F rectennas are measured in
inverted-F rectenna operating in GSM-900 (a two-port an anechoic chamber, as shown in Fig. 14. Two single-tone
antenna); 5) an SBDP inverted-F rectenna operating in GSM- signals at 940 and 1840 MHz, provided by the signal gen-
1800 (a two-port antenna); and 6) a dual-band dual-polarized erator, are combined into a dual-tone signal by a power
(DBDP) inverted-F rectenna operating in both GSM-900 and combiner. Then, using a power divider, the dual-tone sig-
GSM-1800 (a four-port antenna). Their antenna structures nal is split into two equal-power dual-tone signals to feed
consisting of the canonical single-port IFA element are shown the horizontal-polarized and vertical-polarized ports of the
SHEN et al.: AMBIENT RF ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM 3829

Fig. 15. Measured output dc voltage of the frequency-dependent multiport Fig. 16. Measured output dc power of the frequency-dependent multiport
dual-band dual-polarized inverted-F rectenna and different inverted-F recten- dual-band dual-polarized inverted-F rectenna and different inverted-F recten-
nas for comparison versus power density per polarization. The abbreviations, nas for comparison versus power density per polarization. The abbreviations,
such as SBSP, can be found in the first paragraph of Section V-A. such as SBSP, can be found in the first paragraph of Section V-A.

dual-polarized horn antenna, AS-48410 from Condor Systems. dc voltage can be increased by up to four times and, cor-
The rectenna under test is placed in the far-field region respondingly, the output dc power can be increased by up to
of the horn antenna to harvest the dual-tone dual-polarized 6 dB while the two antennas have similar size. Both our pro-
incident wave. The RF power received by each antenna port is posed rectenna and the dual-band dual-polarized rectenna have
measured by a spectrum analyzer and it can also be predicted already exploited frequency domain and polarization diversity.
by the Friis transmission equation given the transmitting Therefore, the higher output dc voltage and dc power results
power, transmitting and receiving antenna gains, and distance from our frequency-dependent multiport rectenna system are
between the transmitter and the receiver [46]. The low- and achieved from using more ports for the higher frequency
high-frequency tones are adjusted so that the power received band in the fixed antenna size. Conventional multiband recten-
by the SBSP antennas, as shown in Fig. 13 (a) and (b), nas have the same number of ports for different frequency
respectively, is the same to ensure that the rectifiers can operate bands [20], [23], [25]–[27]. The measured RF-to-dc efficiency
with good efficiency at both frequency bands [20], [25], [26]. of the proposed rectenna and the various comparison rectennas
This means that the power density in the GSM-1800 frequency versus the power density per polarization is plotted in Fig. 17.
band is approximately four times larger than the power density The RF-to-dc efficiency increases with the power density
in the GSM-900 frequency band, which is approximately because of the increased received RF power. There are small
consistent with the RF power density survey in [1] and [20]. differences in the RF-to-dc efficiency between the different
The rectifiers are then connected to the antennas with dc rectennas and this is caused by the fluctuation of the antenna
combining and we use a multimeter to measure the output dc gain in different configurations. However, overall, they have
voltage to find the output dc power. For the dual-tone signal, the same trend. In Figs. 15–17, we can conclude that the output
we calculate its power density using [20], [25], [26] dc voltage is greater than 3.2 V, the output dc power is greater
than −10 dBm, and the RF-to-dc efficiency is greater than 42%
PRF ( f 1 ) + PRF ( f 2 )
S= (4) when the power density is more than 1400 μW/m2 . Even for
A( f 1 ) + A( f 2 ) a low power density of 100 μW/m2 , we can still achieve
where PRF denotes the received RF power and A denotes the 500-mV output dc voltage, −26.5-dBm output dc power, and
antenna effective aperture. The measured output dc voltage and 15% RF-to-dc efficiency. One reason for the reduced efficiency
output dc power of the proposed rectenna and the comparison for the 16-port design shown in Fig. 17 is because there are
rectennas versus the power density per polarization are plotted more antenna ports. Each antenna adds additional coupling
in Figs. 15 and 16, respectively. In Figs. 15 and 16, we find and, therefore, the overall coupling is increased creating a
that using the dual-band rectenna harvests more RF energy decrease in efficiency.
from the dual-tone signal than the single-band rectennas and In addition to the comparison of the proposed rectenna
provides a higher output dc voltage and dc power. Com- and previous rectenna designs with respect to the antenna
pared with single-polarized rectennas, using dual-polarized parameters as shown in Table I, we also provide a comparison
rectennas can double the output dc voltage and dc power, of the proposed rectenna and previous rectenna designs in
demonstrating the advantage of exploiting frequency domain respect to the output dc voltage, output dc power, and RF-to-
and polarization diversity in ambient RF energy harvesting. dc-efficiency, as shown in Table IV. We find that our proposed
Comparing our proposed rectenna with the dual-band dual- rectenna system provides larger output dc power with good
polarized inverted-F rectenna, we can find that the output RF-to-dc efficiency at lower power densities, demonstrating
3830 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 67, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2019

Fig. 17. Measured RF-to-dc efficiency of the frequency-dependent multiport

dual-band dual-polarized inverted-F rectenna and different inverted-F recten-
nas for comparison versus power density per polarization. The abbreviations,
such as SBSP, can be found in the first paragraph of Section V-A.

TABLE IV
C OMPARISON OF THE R ECTIFICATION P ERFORMANCE FOR THE
P ROPOSED R ECTENNA D ESIGN AND R ELATED W ORK

Fig. 18. Map of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and
rectenna measurement locations.

TABLE V
P ROPOSED R ECTENNA M EASUREMENT IN A MBIENT RF E NVIRONMENT
IN THE H ONG K ONG U NIVERSITY OF S CIENCE AND T ECHNOLOGY

the potential usefulness of the rectenna for harvesting ambient

RF energy. These results help to support our reasoning for the
design of the rectifier as described in Section IV-A.

B. Measurement in an Ambient RF Environment

We also test our proposed frequency-dependent multiport
rectenna system in an ambient RF environment around the
campus of the Hong Kong University of Science and Tech-
nology. The ambient RF environment consists of commercial
GSM-900 and GSM-1800 systems that provide mobile tele-
phone coverage on campus in the frequency bands we are
considering. The map of the Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology and the corresponding rectenna measurement
locations are shown in Fig. 18. The rectenna measurement base station locations. The measured average output dc voltage
locations are around the academic building, atrium, canteen, and dc power are from 0.36 to 1.6 V and from −29.3 to
and student dormitories and have rich ambient RF energy. The −16.4 dBm, respectively. According to Figs. 15–17, we can
average and maximum output dc voltage and dc power of the estimate that the corresponding power density and RF-to-dc
proposed rectenna measured in this ambient RF environment efficiency are they are 70 to 480 μW/m2 and 11.4% to 31%,
are summarized in Table V. The output dc voltage and dc respectively. In addition, the measured output dc voltage and
power measured at a fixed location vary with time because dc power can be up to 2.2 V and −13.6 dBm, respectively, cor-
of channel fading and also the number of mobile telephones responding to 760 μW/m2 power density and 36% RF-to-dc
being supported by the base station at any one time. The efficiency. The measurements in the ambient RF environment
average output dc voltage and dc power vary with different on the campus of the Hong Kong University of Science
locations due to path loss, shadowing effects, and different and Technology demonstrate that our proposed rectenna can
SHEN et al.: AMBIENT RF ENERGY HARVESTING SYSTEM 3831

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[30] C. Song, Y. Huang, J. Zhou, J. Zhang, S. Yuan, and P. Carter, “A high- Shanpu Shen (S’15–M’18) received the bachelor’s
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ing,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 63, no. 8, pp. 3486–3495, jing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing,
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omnidirectional antenna for RF energy harvesting,” IEEE Antennas University of Science and Technology (HKUST),
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rectifying antenna at 2.45 GHz for microwave power conversion and the Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Massa-
detection,” in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., VOL. 3, May 1994, chusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA,
pp. 1749–1752. USA. From 2017 to 2018, he was a Post-Doctoral
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“Scalable RF energy harvesting,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., the Communications and Signal Processing Group, Department of Electrical
vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 1046–1056, Apr. 2014. and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London, U.K. His
[34] H. Sun and W. Geyi, “A new rectenna with all-polarization-receiving current research interests include RF energy harvesting, wireless power
capability for wireless power transmission,” IEEE Antennas Wireless transfer, multiple antenna systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)
Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 814–817, 2016. antenna design, and antenna optimization.
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circularly polarized 2.45-GHz rectenna for wireless power transmis-
sion,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 306–309, Yujie Zhang (S’18) received the bachelor’s degree
2011. in optoelectronic information science and engineer-
[36] J.-H. Chou, D.-B. Lin, K.-L. Weng, and H.-J. Li, “All polariza- ing from the Huazhong University of Science and
tion receiving rectenna with harmonic rejection property for wireless Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2017. He is currently
power transmission,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 10, pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the Department of Elec-
pp. 5242–5249, Oct. 2014. tronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong
[37] T. S. Almoneef, H. Sun, and O. M. Ramahi, “A 3-D folded University of Science and Technology (HKUST),
dipole antenna array for far-field electromagnetic energy transfer,” Hong Kong.
IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 1406–1409, His current research interests include the antenna
2016. design on the Internet-of-Things applications,
[38] S. Shen and R. D. Murch, “Designing dual-port pixel antenna for RF energy harvesting, wireless power transmission,
ambient RF energy harvesting using genetic algorithm,” in Proc. IEEE multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna design, and 5G.
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array configurations for enhanced RF power harvesting,” IEEE Antennas Chi-Yuk Chiu (M’05–SM’12) received the [Link].,
Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 262–265, 2011. [Link]., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering
[40] T.-C. Yo, C.-M. Lee, C.-M. Hsu, and C.-H. Luo, “Compact circularly from the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,
polarized rectenna with unbalanced circular slots,” IEEE Trans. Antennas in 2001, 2001, and 2005, respectively.
Propag., vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 882–886, Mar. 2008. In 2005, he joined the Department of Electronic
[41] F.-J. Huang, T.-C. Yo, C.-M. Lee, and C.-H. Luo, “Design of circular and Computer Engineering (ECE), The Hong Kong
polarization antenna with harmonic suppression for rectenna applica- University of Science and Technology (HKUST),
tion,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 592–595, Hong Kong, as a Research Associate. In 2011,
2012. he joined Sony Mobile Communications, Beijing,
[42] H. Takhedmit, L. Cirio, S. Bellal, D. Delcroix, and O. Picon, “Compact China, as a Senior Antenna Engineer. Since 2015,
and efficient 2.45 GHz circularly polarised shorted ring-slot rectenna,” he has been with HKUST, where he is currently a
Electron. Lett., vol. 48, no. 5, pp. 253–254, Mar. 2012. Research Assistant Professor with the Department of ECE. He has authored
[43] X.-X. Yang, C. Jiang, A. Z. Elsherbeni, F. Yang, and Y.-Q. Wang, or co-authored more than 63 papers and two book chapters. He holds several
“A novel compact printed rectenna for data communication sys- patents related to antenna technology. His current research interests include the
tems,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 2532–2539, design and analysis of small antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)
May 2013. antennas, MIMO measurements, and energy harvesting.
[44] Z. Ma and G. A. E. Vandenbosch, “Wideband harmonic rejection Dr. Chiu is a member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society
Filtenna for wireless power transfer,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Education Committee.
vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 371–377, Jan. 2014.
[45] H. Kamoda, S. Kitazawa, N. Kukutsu, and K. Kobayashi, “Loop
antenna over artificial magnetic conductor surface and its application Ross Murch (S’84–M’90–SM’98–F’09) received
to dual-band RF energy harvesting,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., the bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and
vol. 63, no. 10, pp. 4408–4417, Oct. 2015. electronic engineering from the University of Can-
[46] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory and Design. New York, NY, USA: Wiley, terbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
2012. From 2009 to 2015, he was the Department Head
[47] R. G. Vaughan and J. B. Andersen, “Antenna diversity in mobile with The Hong Kong University of Science and
communications,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. VT-36, no. 4, Technology (HKUST), Hong Kong, where he is the
pp. 149–172, Nov. 1987. Co-Program Manager of the HKUST-MIT Research
[48] R. Vaughan and J. B. Andersen, Channels, Propagation and Antennas Alliance. He is currently a Chair Professor with the
for Mobile Communications, vol. 50. Edison, NJ, USA: IET, 2003. Department of Electronic and Computer Engineer-
[49] C. R. Rowell and R. D. Murch, “A compact PIFA suitable for ing and an IAS Senior Fellow with the Institute
dual-frequency 900/1800-MHz operation,” IEEE Trans. Antennas of Advanced Study, HKUST. He has authored or co-authored more than
Propag., vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 596–598, Apr. 1998. 200 publications. He holds 20 patents on wireless communication systems
[50] T.-W. Yoo and K. Chang, “Theoretical and experimental development and antennas and these have attracted over 14 000 citations. His current
of 10 and 35 GHz rectennas,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., research interests include the Internet-of-Things, multiple-input multiple-
vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 1259–1266, Jun. 1992. output (MIMO) antenna design, RF imaging and acoustics and his unique
[51] J. O. McSpadden, L. Fan, and K. Chang, “Design and experiments of expertise lies in his combination of knowledge from both wireless communi-
a high-conversion-efficiency 5.8-GHz rectenna,” IEEE Trans. Microw. cation systems and electromagnetic areas.
Theory Techn., vol. 46, no. 12, pp. 2053–2060, Dec. 1998. Dr. Murch was a recipient of several awards including the Computer
[52] Y.-J. Ren and K. Chang, “5.8-GHz circularly polarized dual-diode Simulation Technology (CST) University Publication Award in 2015 and two
rectenna and rectenna array for microwave power transmission,” teaching awards. He has served the IEEE in various positions, including as
IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 1495–1502, an Area Editor, a Technical Program Chair, a Distinguished Lecturer, and a
Jun. 2006. Fellow Evaluation Committee.