Harvesting RF energy with rectenna arrays

Many rectennas have been developed over the years in order to meet power supply applications. In this paper, new broadband circular dipole rectenna arrays are investigated with the aid of an electromagnetic simulation package and measurement. The proposed device consists of circular dipole antennas and Shottky diodes as rectifying elements. The measurement of the rectenna array is shown that the design has produced the desired DC power with a reasonable efficiency. The more elements in the array, the higher output voltage although the bandwidth is not as wide as expected due to practical limitations.