Advance and Innovation in Wireless Power Transmission Technology For Autonomous Systems

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DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0773-4.ch010
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Handbook of Research
on Advanced Trends
in Microwave and
Communication
Engineering
Ahmed El Oualkadi
Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Morocco
Jamal Zbitou
Hassan 1st University, Morocco
A volume in the Advances in Wireless

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316
Chapter 10
Advance and Innovation
in Wireless Power
Transmission Technology
for Autonomous Systems
Mohamed Adel Sennouni Abdelwahed Tribak
Hassan 1st University, Morocco National Institute of Post and
Telecommunication (INPT), Morocco
Benaissa Abboud
Hassan 1st University, Morocco Hamid Bennis
Hassan 1st University, Morocco
Mohamed Latrach
RF & Hyper Group ESEO, Morocco
ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the concept of transmitting power without using wires that is also known as
Wireless Power Transmission (WPT). This chapter attempts to present the most important and relevant
works in this field of research in order to develop a topical ‘overview’, present the current results, and
also share some contributions and ‘vision’ for the future. The technological developments in Wireless
Power Transmission is also presented and discussed. The advantages, disadvantages, biological impacts
and the most potential applications of WPT are also presented. This chapter presents also new and ef-
ficient designs of a rectifying antenna (rectenna) involved to be used at low and high input power levels
constraints at microwave frequencies of ISM band in particular at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz. The rectennas
have been developed were based on microstrip technology incorporating a new class of phased antenna
arrays with circular polarization associated with a new RF-to-DC rectifiers.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0773-4.ch010
Copyright © 2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Advance and Innovation in Wireless Power Transmission Technology for Autonomous Systems
INTRODUCTION
Actually in our daily life, wireless technology has become a popular means of transmitting signals from
the use of satellite in space to the use of cell phones and sensors networks. Anybody, anywhere and
anytime wireless technology has provided the easiest way to us, which enhances our life quality. Then
wireless technology based on radio-frequency (RF) enables three different basic system functions, namely,
wireless communication (data/voice), wireless sensing (parameter), and wireless powering (energy).
The first two well-known wireless applications have been found today in nearly all social and economic
activities, which have been transforming our daily life. However, the wireless power transmission or
transfer (WPT), which is less known at least publicly, has not yet been well developed and established
as one of the fundamental driving forces for wireless applications.
Currently, emerging technologies enable proactive energy replenishment of wireless devices, it is
advantageous in supporting applications with quality of service (QoS) requirements. A weak point of
future ubiquitous information systems is the rising demand for energy and power source. In addition,
there has been a growing usage of wireless sensors networks and their applications such as wireless body
area networks (WBANs) which directly leads to the increased battery usage. Until today, the limitation
of energy supplies has become a crucial issue for the lifetime of these sensors since they operate on
conventional batteries with a limited lifespan and fixed energy rate (Shuttleworth et al, 2009). Further,
the deployment of a large number of sensor nodes results in periodic battery replacement which is im-
practical and cost-consumed (Vaghela et al., 2009). However, electrical energy is being distributed using
the conventional grid which is characterized by out dated infrastructure, delayed communication and
heavy transmission losses. One of the promising solutions of the heavy line losses is the transmission of
electricity without wires which is called wireless power transmission. Eventually, in the present situation
where the production of energy is reliant especially on gas and oil industry whose price is irregular daily,
and regarding need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels has led to the development of surrounding self-
regenerating energy source. For these reasons RF energy transfer and harvesting is considered as one of
the wireless energy transfer techniques that can be used as an alternative energy source to supply power
to the electrical and electronics equipment that can increase the portability and convenience. There are
three main methods of wireless power transmission. The first method is to transfer electric power by
the phenomena of mutual induction between two coils operating at same resonant frequency; second
method is by microwave transmitter and receiver while the third method is the transfer of electric power
using laser technology (Ramasamy et al., 2010; Summerer & Purcell, 1999). These techniques will be
described with more details in the next section.
WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION TECHNIQUES
In the past few years, scientists have faced challenges involving power: the continuity of supplied power,
recharging batteries, optimizing the location of sensors, and dealing with rotating or moving joints, and
they are looking for alternate and efficient technologies to provide efficient electricity transfer. Although
those challenges remain, new demands that arise from increased use of mobile devices and operation
in dirty or wet environments. Where almost of these devices are powered by disposal batteries that they
present many disadvantages such as: the need to either replace them or recharge them periodically and
their big size and weight compared to high technology electronics, which mean that designers, engi-
317

neers and researchers require new approaches and solutions to supplying power to equipment with cost
effective, minimum losses and efficiently. In order to improve the ultimate electricity supply, Wireless
Power transmission (WPT) has become a focal point as research point of view and nowadays lies at top
10 future hot burning technologies that are under research, these days.
Historically, WPT began with radio waves. Maxwell’s equations, formulated in 1862 and describing
all phenomena of radiowaves are essentially the first theoretical basis for WPT. After Maxwell proposed
his equations, Poynting described radio waves as an energy flow, which is a well-known concept of the
Poynting vector. After the discoveries of Maxwell and Poynting, Tesla, still over 100 years ago, dreamt
that all electricity would be provided wirelessly. Consequently, the first WPT experiment conducted at
the end of the19th century in 1893.Unfortunately, his experiments failed because of the diffusion in dif-
ferent directions of the wireless power, which depends on the frequency of the operation and size of the
transmitting antenna (Tesla, 1904a, 1904b). After Tesla’s failure, the history of radiowaves development
focused on wireless communication and remote sensing, rather than WPT. However, the technologies for
wireless communication and remote sensing helped lead to the development of new WPT techniques.
This section will describes the basic WPT techniques and present the benefits of using WPT technology.
Moreover, attempts are made to highlight future issues so as to index some emerging solutions.
Wireless Power Transmission by Inductive Coupling and Resonance Coupling
Inductive and Magnetic Resonance Coupling WPT
WPT by inductive coupling is based on Ampere’s circuital law and Faraday’s law of induction. Ampere’s
circuital law describes the relationship between the integrated magnetic field around a closed loop (coil)
and the electric current passing through the loop. Faraday’s law of induction describes the relationship
be-tween a time-varying magnetic field and an induced electric field. The electric power is carried
through the magnetic field between two coils (Figure 1a). Ampere’s circuital law and Faraday’s law of
induction are both examples of Maxwell’s equations. The efficiency of WPT depends on the coupling
coefficient, which in turn depends on the distance between the two coils. Therefore, the wireless energy
cannot be carried over a distance longer than a few millimeters with high efficiency, and the frequency
used in inductive coupling is below some dozen of megahertz (Shinohara, 2012).
The Biot-Savart’s Law is used for calculating the magnetic field produced by an arbitrary current
distribution:

µ0 IdI .r
B=
4π ∫ 3
(1.1)
r
Where µ0 is the magnetic constant, I is the current in the transmitter coil, dI is a vector whose mag-
nitude is the length of the differential element of the wire, and r is the full displacement vector from the
wire element to the point at which the field is being computed. The Faraday’s Law can then be used for
calculating the induced voltage VInd over the receiver coil as the rate of magnetic field B change through
an effective surface area S by:
318

Figure 1. (a): Scheme of inductive, (b): scheme of magnetic resonance coupling-based wireless power
transfer
∂
VInd = −
∂t ∫ B.dS (1.2)
So,with respect to its simple design and high safety, one significant drawback of the inductive coupling-
based WPT is its short transmission distance. Moreover, when the transmitter coil and the receiver coil
are not well aligned, the power transmission efficiency (PTE) drops significantly.
A resonator is formed by adding capacitance (C) on an induction (L) coil (Figure 1b). Two resonators
are coupled electromagnetically, and the energy in one resonator is transmitted to the other through an
evanescent mode wave. Resonance coupling with coils is called magnetic resonance coupling and the
transmitted power is mainly a magnetic field supported by the coil. So this concept of WPT was made
possible using resonance where an object vibrates with the application of a certain frequency of energy.
Figure 2 explains with steps the transfer of power without wire based on magnetic resonance method.
The first step consists of a circuit [A] connected to the AC power supply and feeds it to the transmitting
coil [B]. The performance of this system is that when the AC source is connected to the transmitter coil,
an AC current is established. The AC current in the transmitter coil establishes an AC flux with the same
Figure 2. Concept of WPT via magnetic resonance coupling (a):step 1, (b):step 2, (c):step 3
319

frequency. The frequency of the source must be equated to the resonant frequency of the transmitter and
receiver circuit. Then as the second step an alternating flux produced by the transmitter coil, would be
received by the receiver coil [C] by mutual induction and since its frequency is equal to the resonant
frequency of the receiver circuit it picks up the energy of the first coil’s magnetic field. At the end, the
maximum energy transfer occurs and lighting the bulb (Kurs et al., 2007; Burali & Patil, 2012).
Theory of Coupling WPT
Recently, for magnetic resonant coupling, a theoretical investigation based mainly on inductive coupling
has been carried out (Kurs et al., 2007; I. N & Hori, 2011). Given the theory of inductive coupling, kQ,
where k is the coupling coefficient and Q is the quality factor of the coil resonator, is established as a
critical factor. The maximum coupling transmission efficiency η is calculated using kQ as mentioned
in the following equations:
η=
form (1.3)
2
(1 + 1 + form ) 2
2 R1R2
form = k 2Q1Q2 = (1.4)
ω 2M 2
Where ω is frequency, R is resistance, and M is mutual inductance. The coupling transmission ef-
ficiency is determined by kQ. The efficiency curve is shown in Figure.3.
The Q factor is often defined by:
1 L ωL
Q= = 0 (1.5)
R C R
1
Where ω0 = denotes the resonant frequency.
LC
The mutual inductance can be written as:
M = K L1 .L2 (1.6)
Where k is the coupling coefficient determined by the distance between transmitter and receiver
coils and given by:
M2
k2 = (1.7)
L1 .L2
320

In inductive coupling, a high Q factor cannot be used; therefore, k should increase as a function of
the distance between the two coils. However, in resonance coupling, it is easy to increase kQ with a high
Q factor even if the distance between the two coils is large and the k factor is small (note that k contains
a wavelength parameter). If a lower frequency is selected, then k increases if the distance and Q factor
are the same. As a result, the WPT distance with a high efficiency is expanded using a lower frequency
in an inductive or resonance coupling WPT system. A lower frequency indicates that higher efficiency
can be achieved using lower cost components for the system (Kurs et al., 2007; Inagaki & Hori, 2011).
Recent Progress and Applications of WPT by Inductive and Resonance Coupling
Eventually, inductive coupling WPT is the oldest type of WPT investigated in real applications. Some
battery chargers adopted inductive coupling as an independent technology. For example, in 1995 the
Japanese consumer electronics company Sony proposed and sold ‘Felica’ IC cards with inductive cou-
pling WPT. Further in Japan, various types of IC cards as well as transportation and electronic money
have adopted the ‘Felica’ system that has an operating frequency of 13.56 MHz.
Currently, a wireless charging pad for mobile phones was released in 2011 in Japan based on the
‘Qi’ standard defined by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) which is active in popularizing the Qi
standard and multipurpose inductive coupling WPT (“Wireless Power Consortium,” 2015).
Figure 3. Coupling transmission efficiency of resonant coupling.
321

In addition inductive coupling has also been applied to the wireless charging of EVs (Electrical Ve-
hicles). since the 1980s in the United States, when it was introduced as a part of the Partners for Advanced
Transit and Highways project. In 2009 in Japan, Hino Motors Ltd.(“Hino Global,” 2015) and Showa
Air-craft Industry (“Showa Aircraft Industry Co., Ltd,” 2015) carried out wireless charging field experi-
ments with an electric bus using the inductive power transfer technology developed by Wampfler Co.,
Germany. Thereafter some companies in the world; such as, HaloIPT Co., Evatran Co., and UniServices
Co., offer inductive coupling WPT systems for EVs as commercial products.
However, it was not until 2006 that MIT researchers demonstrated a WPT experiment using resonance
coupling (Kurs et al., 2007). After the publication of the MIT research, magnetic resonance coupling WPT
systems were applied in real applications such as mobile phones and other mobile devices, TVs, EVs.
In (Jinwook et al., 2012), a 150 watt wireless charging circuit has been presented that makes use
of three self-resonators for charging 47 inch LED TV. The transmitter resonator and the intermediate
resonator are placed in vertical, while the receiver resonator and the intermediate resonator are placed
in parallel. The power transmission efficiency has been shown as up to 80% with an operating frequency
of 250 MHz.
In Korea, Sixty kilowatts of power may be transferred wirelessly from the power lines with 80% ef-
ficiency by resonant coupling technique for wireless power supply that has been used for an online EV
(Ahn & Kim, 2011) and by using an inverter stage. In Japan, at the University of Tokyo, a research group
carried out a wireless charging experiment for an EV with resonance coupling. As a first experiment, they
used an approximately 10 MHz band for WPT. Currently, they use approximately 120 kHz to be able to
use the power supply components. In the same way, Toyota Central R&C Lab., and Toyohashi University
of Technology in Japan proposed a new concept for power transfer through a capacitor composed of a
steel belt in a tire and a metal plate attached to the road (Hanazawa & Ohira, 2011). Separately, Toyota
Motor Corporation invested in 2011 in WiTricity Corporation, the first inventor of resonant coupling for
WPT. IHI Corporation was also given a license by WiTricity Corporation. Furthermore, the Qualcomm
Company in the United States began wireless charging experiments on EVs with resonance coupling in
London in 2011. Previously, at the Mobile World Congress in 2009, Qualcomm Company had demon-
strated a wireless charging technology (the ‘eZone’) for mobile phones using a resonant coupling WPT
technology which had a coupling frequency of 13.56 MHz. Sony also released a resonance coupling
WPT system for TVs in 2009. As the next step, they proposed a new WPT with a simple receiver coil
(Miyamoto et al, 2011).
However, substantial amount of research work has to be carried out to bring current technology to
achieve the best performances for EVs. Then Major design challenges are increasing the WPT range
with acceptable efficiency level. Also design and optimization of resonators play a major role in improv-
ing the system performance in extended range. With the advent of modern semiconductor technologies
such as wide band gap devices, frequency limit of the high power WPT system has been increasing in a
rapid manner. Therefore, cost effective, high power, near MHz WPT would be next step of the WPT for
EV charging. Figure 4 presents some examples of WPT real applications using inductive and magnetic
resonance coupling.
Compared with the inductive coupling approach, the magnetic resonant coupling approach can trans-
fer power to a longer distance. Furthermore, it is non-radiative, so that it does not require line of sight.
However, similar to the inductive coupling approach, the magnetic coupling approach is also sensitive
to misalignment. Another problem is that it is difficult to adjust the resonance frequency when charging
multiple devices (Inagaki & Hori, 2011).
322

Figure 4. Examples of real applications of WPT using inductive and magnetic resonance coupling, (a):
Experiment at MIT of WPT based on magnetic resonance coupling, (b): QI Convenient Power’s trans-
mitter for Mobile phone using inductive coupling
Wireless Power Transmission Via Laser
Another important technique of wireless transfer of energy from one location to another is laser power
beaming, using laser light. The basic concept is the same as solar power, where the sun shines on a
photovoltaic cell that converts the sunlight to energy. Here, a photovoltaic cell converts the laser light
to energy. The key differences are that laser light is much more intense than sunlight, it can be aimed at
any desired location, and it can deliver power 24 hours per day. Also, power can be transmitted through
air or space, or through optical fibers, as communications signals are sent today, and it can be sent po-
tentially as far as the Moon (Landis, 1992).
Experiments have shown that the wireless power transmission through laser beam is 50% efficient
with respect to other methods but by using advanced technology of laser photovoltaic cells receivers the
efficiency could be increased. Various stages of the process are described as following. The laser source
transmits the laser beam through an efficient lens. The lens is used to converge the beam of the laser to
the specific place where the receiver is present. The laser receiver consists of a series of highly efficient
photovoltaic cells which receives the laser beam and then converts it into electrical energy. The load is
attached with the photovoltaic cells which after being energized through laser beam convert light energy
of laser beam into electrical energy (Landis, 1994).
While over the years, several laser-based wireless power transmission experiments and applications
have been suggested and described; only relatively few actual experiments have been carried out. The
classified experiments involving laser power transmission technology demonstration have been reported
to have taken place in the 1980s during the US Strategic Defense Initiative. These seem to have been
conducted building on a heritage from the Apollo program that used ground-based lasers with reflec-
tors on the Moon to measure the Earth-Moon distance (Summerer & Purcell, 1999).In 2002 and 2003,
323

Steinsiek and Schafer demonstrated ground to ground wireless power transmission via laser to a small,
otherwise fully independent rover vehicle equipped with photovoltaic cells as a first step towards the use
of this technology for powering airships and further in the future lunar surface rovers. The experiment
was based on a green, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at only a few Watts. It included the initiation and
supply of the rover including a micro-camera as payload as well as the pointing and tracking of the mov-
ing rover over a distance up to 280 m by applying active control loops (Figure 5) (Steinsiek et al, 2003).
The use of laser-based wireless power transmission was revisited in the early 1990s by Landis (Landis,
1992),(Landis, 1994), and to date, a number of laboratory-based experiments have taken place, which
have shown the promise that this type of power transmission holds for the future.
The Japanese space agency JAXA is pursuing since several years a solid and targeted R&D program
towards the development of space-based solar power stations, including as the two main technical options
the microwave and laser based concepts. The JAXA proposed laser based system is based on direct solar
pumped lasers using a Nd:YAG crystal. Further, a reference system has been designed, delivering in
its full configuration 1 GW. The entire system would be built in a highly modular way, with individual
modules of 100m×200m primary mirrors and an equally large radiator system as base unit delivering
10 MW each and stacked to a total length of 10 km in orbit (Figure 6) (Suzuki et al., 2006).
Although these features and success of the presented techniques in many real life application, it could
be not suitable in another context with different and difficult situations that require continuous power
Figure 5. EADS developed, fully laser powered autonomous rover
324

Figure 6. (a) JAXA L-SPS system diagram, (b): JAXA L-SPS 100×200 m reference unit delivering 10
MW via direct solar pumped lasers, (c): JAXA L-SPS fully deployed reference system delivering 1 GW
via direct solar pumped lasers
supply such as biomedical implant devices,pervasive and future ubiquitous systems or also wireless re-
mote sensors. The next subsequence will focus on the wireless power transmission based on microwave
technique.
Microwave Power Transmission
Since 1893, when Nikola Tesla first proposed the concept of wireless power transmission (Tesla, 1904a,
1904b), the idea of transmitting energy through the air has excited public interest. So today, RF energy is
currently broadcasted from billions of radio transmitters around the world, including mobile telephones,
handheld radios, mobile base stations, and television/radio broadcast stations. Systems that use very low
power do not even require a battery, and can be run on energy harvested from ambient radio frequency
and microwave radiation. The ability to harvest RF energy, from ambient and/or dedicated sources, en-
ables continuous charging of low-power devices and will possibly eliminate the need of using a battery.
Therefore, the number of batteries required can be reduced when wireless power is widespread because
they can be charged wirelessly, and hence, the shortage of batteries will not be a concern.
State of the Art of Microwave Power Transmission Technology
In the year 1893, NikolaTesla tested his wireless power transmission system by illuminating two hun-
dred incandescent lamps from 40 kilometers away without wires, “with electrical energy extracted from
the earth”. In 1899, Nicola Tesla suggested an idea of the wireless power transmission, performed and
carried out the first WPT experiment in Colorado (Tesla, 1904a, 1904b).The aerial Wardenclyffe tower
was intended to be a pilot plant for his “World Wireless System” to broadcast energy around the globe
325

(Figure 7). Tesla actually built a gigantic coil which was connected to a high mast of 187-ft with a 3-ft
diameter ball at its top. He fed 300 kW power to the Tesla coil resonated at 150 kHz. The RF potential
at the top sphere reached 100 MV. Unfortunately, he failed because the transmitted power was diffused
to all directions with 150 kHz radio waves whose wave length was 21 km. Hence, the core facility was
never fully operational and was not completed due to economic problems (Cheney, 2001).
To concentrate and focus on the transmitted power and to increase the power transmission efficiency
(PTE), a higher frequency than that used by Tesla is required. In the 1930s, much progress in generat-
ing high-power microwaves, 1-10 GHz radio waves, was achieved by invention of the magnetron and
the klystron. After World War II, high power and high efficiency microwave tubes were advanced by
development of radar technology. As a result, a power can be concentrated and delivered to receiver with
microwaves. Wireless Power Transmission using microwaves is called microwave power transfer (MPT).
On the Bases of the development of the microwave tubes during the World War II, W. C. Brown
started the first MPT research and development in the 1960s. First of all, Brown developed a rectenna,
rectifying antenna which he named, for receiving and rectifying microwaves.The Raytheon Company
did the first successful WPT experiment in 1963.The efficiency of the first rectenna developed was
50% at output 4W-DC and 40% at output 7W-DC, respectively(BROWN, 1984). With the rectenna, he
succeeded in MPT experiments to wired helicopter and to a free-flied helicopter at an altitude of fifty
feet in 1968 (Figure 8).
Further, Brown tried to increase DC-RF-transmission-RF-DC total efficiency with 2.45 GHz micro-
wave. Eventually in 1970, he was achieved only 26.5% DC-DC total efficiency at 39W-DC in Marshall
Space Flight Center. In 1975, DC-DC total efficiency was finally 54% at 495W-DC with a magnetron
in Raytheon Laboratory (Figure 9).
In parallel, Brown and his team succeeded in the largest MPT demonstration in 1975 at the Venus
Site of JPL Goldstone Facility (Figure 10a). The distance between a transmitting parabolic antenna,
whose diameter was 26m, and a rectenna array, whose size was 3.4 m×7.2 m, was 1 mile. The transmit-
ted microwave from klystron was 450 kW at 2.388 GHz and the achieved rectified DC power was 30
Figure 7. (a): Tesla’s Colorado springs lab, (b): Wardenclyffe tower (Tesla tower)
326

Figure 8. (a): The basic elements of microwave-powered helicopter system, (b):Close-up view of mi-
crowave-powered helicopter showing combination antenna and rectifier,rotor,and motor, (c): View of a
microwave-powered helicopter in flight
Figure 9. MPT Laboratory Experiment in 1975 by W. Brown
Figure 10. (a):First Ground-to-Ground MPT Experiment in 1975 at the Venus Site of JPL Goldstone
Facility, (b):MINIX rocket experiment in 1983
327

kWDC with 82.5% rectifying efficiency. In 1968 and based on the Brown’s work, P. E. Glaser proposed
a Solar Power Satellite (SPS) (Glaser et al, 1983).
In the 1980s, Japanese scientists progressed the MPT technologies and research. In 1983 and 1993,
Hiroshi Matsumoto’s team carried out the first MPT experiment in space. The rocket experiment were
called MINIX (Microwave Ionosphere Nonlinear Interaction eXperiment) in 1983 (Figure 10b) and
ISY-METS (International Space Year - Microwave Energy Transmission in Space) in 1993, respectively.
They focused nonlinear interaction between intense microwave and ionospheric plasmas. They used
in the MINIX experiment, a cooker-type of magnetron microwave transmitter with 800W at 2.45GHz
(Matsumoto et al, 1992).
After the 1990s, many MPT laboratory and field experiments were carried out all over the world.
In 1987, a Canadian group succeeded fuel-free airplane flight experiment with MPT which was called
SHARP (Stationary High Altitude Relay Platform). They transmitted at 2.45 GHz,10 kW microwave
signal to a model airplane, having a total length of 2.9 m and a wing span of 4.5 m, flying more than
150 m above ground level (Figure 11a) (Schlesak,Alden, 1988). In Japan, several field MPT experiments
such as fuel-free airplane flight experiment with MPT phased array with 2.411 GHz in 1992 (Figure 11b)
(Matsumoto et al, 1993), ground-to-ground MPT experiment with power company and universities in
1994-95 (Figure 11c) (Shinohara & Matsumoto, 1998) with 2.45 GHz, fuel-free airship light experiment
with MPT in 1995 (Kaya, Ida, Fujino, & Fujita, 1996).
In Europe, some unique technologies are presently being developed. Researchers had planned ground-
to-ground MPT experiments on Réunion Island (Figure 12a). The Grand Bassin project (Celeste, Jeanty,
& G. Pignolet, 2004) will supply electricity to a remote isolated mountain village. The project supported
by the French space research center (CNES), aims to beam electrical power to the tourist village of
Figure 11. (a):The Canadian SHARP flight experiment and the 1/8 model airplane in 1987, (b): The
MILAX project airplane experiment showing the model airplane and the phased array used in Japan in
1992,(c): Ground-to-Ground MPTexperiment in Japan in 1994-1995
328

Grand Bassin on the island of La Reunion. Grand Bassin lies at the bottom of one of the deep canyons
on the island. MPT will be used to preserve the beautiful scenery of the valley. The plan was to build a
microwave link down the side of the canyon, operating at 2.45 GHz over a distance of 700 meters and
delivering 10kW with an overall efficiency of 57%. The system will work in combination with PV panels,
charging batteries of the system when the power is not being used directly. A prototype was build and
the cost of the project was estimated to be one million dollars for 10 kW for this reason the project has
not yet been carried out and it was stopped.
In May 2008, a long-range MPT demonstration was realized on one of the islands of Hawaii (Figure
12b). The demonstration was organized by Managed Energy Technologies of the U.S. and involved
the wireless transmission of energy over a distance of 148 kilometers. Although the amount of power
transmitted, 20 watts, is barely enough to power a small compact fluorescent light bulb, and most of
it was lost in transmission, the system was limited by the budget, not the physics. Then they could do
much better possibly up to 64% efficiency if they had been able to afford more solar panels, more phased
array transmitters and better receivers (NSS, 2008). The costs of the whole project were less than one
million dollars.
One exciting application of MPT is wireless charging of an electric vehicle. Recently a great deal
of research has been done through the MPT mechanism, and show it can be used for charging electric
vehicles, specifically a system for charging electric trucks. As shown in Figure 13 an electric truck has
a rectenna on its roof, and an MPT system can be created such that when an electric truck parks be-
neath the microwave transmitter, the rectenna converts the microwave radiation to DC power to charge
the vehicle. In particular, the transmitter emits 10kW power through microwaves at 2.45 GHz, and the
rectenna converts those microwaves with an efficiency of greater than 80%, yielding more than 7kW to
the electric vehicle. Accounting for other losses through the charging of the system, the battery is able
to receive more than 5kW power (Shinohara et al., 2013).
Figure 12. (a):Grand Bassin, Reunion, France and their prototype rectenna, (b): Hawaii demonstration
in 2008
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Figure 13. MPT charging of electric vehicle
Description of a MPT System
In fact, a MPT system converts direct current (DC) power to microwaves, transmits that microwave radia-
tion to a target, and the target converts the microwave radiation back to DC power. Figure 14 below shows
a block diagram of the MPT system. First, the Microwave generator converts the DC power produced by
the solar cells and to radiated RF output. It consists of a DC-RF conversion oscillator, which is typically
low-power and followed by a gain stage and finally a power amplifier (Popovic et al., 2008). Typically
Figure 14. The block diagram of MPT system
330

the microwave generating devices are classified as microwave tubes (e.g klystron, magnetron, TWT etc)
or semiconductor MW devices. But generally, a Phase and Amplitude Controlled Magnetron is preferred.
2.45GHz or 5.8GHz of ISM band are the microwave transmission frequencies that are most often used.
A comparison between klystron and magnetron (Whitaker, 2000) is given in the following Table 1.
Thereafter the generated radiation then passes through the Coax-Waveguide Adapted, which in turn
passes through the waveguide circulator, a device that reduces the radiation to exposure from outside
power. Finally, the radiation passes through the tuner and directional coupler device, which separates the
signal according to signal propagation direction. The radiation is then transmitted over the air through
a transmitting antenna that might be dipoles, slot antennas, or any other type of antenna, even parabolic
antennas.
In addition, the transmitting antenna radiates the power uniformly through free space to the rectenna.
In the receiving side, a rectenna receives the transmitted power and converts the microwave power into
DC power. The impedance matching circuit and filter is provided to setting the output impedance of a
signal source equal to the rectifying circuit. The rectifying circuit consists of Schottky barrier diodes
whose are preferred due to the lowest voltage drop and highest speed. This diode converts the received
microwave power into DC power.
Bio-Effects of MPT
In recent years, there have been considerable discussions and concerns about the possible effect on hu-
man health by RF and microwave radiation. Especially, there have been many research and discussions
about effects at 50/60 Hz and over GHz (microwave).
Since 1950, there have been thousands of papers published about microwave bio-effects. The scientific
research indicates that heating of humans exposed to the radiation is the only known effect. There are
also many claims of low-level non-thermal effects, but most of these are difficult to replicate or show
unsatisfying uncertainties. Large robust effects only occur well above exposure limits existing anywhere
in the world (Osepchuk, 1996). The corresponding exposure limits listed in IEEE standards at 2.45 GHz
or 5.8 GHz are 81.6 W/m2 and 100 W/m2 averaged over 6 minutes, and 16.3 or 38.7 W/m2averaged over
30 minutes respectively, for controlled and uncontrolled environments (IEEE Standards Coordinating
Committee 28, 2006). This low compared to average solar radiation of 1000 W/m2. The controlled and
uncontrolled situations are distinguished by whether the exposure takes place with or without knowl-
Table 1. 2.45. GHZ RF tube comparison
Parameter Klystron Magnetron

Amplifier output 50 W 4.39 KW
Power
Overall efficiency 74% 87.5%
81.7%
Carrier-to-noise ratio 120 dB @ 10 kHz 110 dB @ 10kHz
135 dB @ 1 MHz 137 dB @ 1MHz
140 dB @ 20 MHz 160 d @20MHz
160 dB @100MHz 196 dB 50MHz
Lifetime 25 years 51 ears
331

edge of the exposed individual, and is normally interpreted to mean individuals who are occupationally
exposed to the microwave radiation, as contrasted with the general public.
The overall conclusion of bio-effects research is that microwave exposures are generally harmless
except for the case of penetrating exposure to intense fields far above existing exposure limits (IEEE
Standards Coordinating Committee 28, 2006; Osepchuk, 1996). Further discussions about the maximum
microwave power density are necessary. Further in future MPT system, researchers have to keep the
safety guideline outside of a rectenna site. Inside the rectenna site, there remains discussion concerning
the keep out area, controlled or uncontrolled area.
Compatibility with Other Radio Services and Applications
It is assumed that WPT systems working with microwaves use frequency bands around 2.45 GHz or 5.8
GHz. These bands are already allocated in the ITU-R radio regulation to a number of radio services.
They are also designated for industrial science and medical (ISM applications). The ISM band is, as
presently defined, for local use only. The 2.45 GHz is furthermore used for radio LAN and microwave
ovens. The 5.8 GHz is also used heavily for various applications like Radiolocation service and DSRC
(Dedicated Short-Range Communications). Conversely speaking, there is no allowed frequency band
for the MPT; therefore, researchers used the ISM band. The bandwidth of the microwave for the MPT
do not need a wide band and it is enough quite narrow. Since an essentially monochromatic wave is
used without modulation because the carrier used only of the microwave as energy. The power density
for the MPT is a few orders higher than that for the wireless communication. So more investigation is
needed to consider and to get an image of the possible influencing between the systems, and dissolve
interferences between the MPT to the wireless communication systems (URSI, 2007).
Comparison between WPT Techniques
Through these presented survey and demonstration it seems that all the presented WPT techniques show
different specifications and performances in term of the power transmission method also in distance
range, efficiency, safety, and commercial cost. The following Table 2 summarizes with comparison way
all the WPT techniques presented in this section.
RECTENNA THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
As defined before in sub-section (Microwave Power Transmission), the word rectenna is composed of
rectifying circuit and a receiving antenna. The rectenna and its word were invented by W. C. Brown in
1960’s. The rectenna can receive and rectify a microwave power to DC power; It is a passive element
with a rectifying diode, operated without any power source. Figure 15 shows the basic block diagram
of a typical rectenna.
The antenna of rectenna can be any type such as dipole (McSpadden et al., 1998; Huang et
al.,2013),microstrip antenna (Sennouni et al., 2013), monopole (Monti, 2012),coplanar patch (Nie et
al., 2015), spiral antenna (Hagerty et al., 2004) or even parabolic antenna (Fujino & Ogimura, 2004).
332

Table 2. Comparison between characteristics of WPT techniques
Method’s Comparison Parameter

Type
Field Power range Distance Efficiency Commercial Biological effect
range cost
Inductive Magnetic field High, Short to Up to 45% Not Not reported
and and Resonance up to 60 medium, have been expensive any harmful
Magnetic (electric, watts has up to 8 times of reported effect (Fisher et al.,
resonance magnetic, or EM) been reported the transmitter (Kurs et al., 2007)
coupling (Kurs et al., 2007) and the 2007)
receiver (Kurs
et al., 2007)
Laser Laser beam Low to high Short to High, Expensive If the wave
Up to several Medium, up to up to 54% parameters
hundreds kw 1 km has has been don’t increase so
has been been reported reported much more than
reported (Summerer (Summerer & (NASA, 2014) the usual doesn’t
& Purcell, 1999) Purcell, 1999) have harmful effects
(Mohammed et al.,
2010)
Microwave Electromagnetic Low to high, Scientists are Low to high, Expensive If the wave
(EM) up to 100kw studying on up to 54% parameters
feasibility transmitting has been don’t increase so
study (Matsumoto, from the Moon reported much more than
2002) to the Earth (Bomber, 2006) the usual doesn’t
(Little, 2002) have harmful effects
(Osepchuk, 1996)
Figure 15. Block diagram of the rectenna
The beam efficiency between a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna of the rectenna is cal-
culated by the Friis transmission equation, and its expansion is used for calculating beam efficiency in
the near field. The Friis transmission equation is applied to the far field as follows:
2
 λ  AA
Pr = PG G 
t t r 
 = t r 2 (2.1)
 4πD 
(λD )
where Pr, Pt, Gr, Gt, Ar, At, λ, and D are the received power, transmitted power, antenna gain of the
receiving antenna, antenna gain of the transmitting antenna, aperture area of the receiving antenna,
333

aperture area of the transmitting antenna, wavelength, and distance between the transmitting antenna
and receiving antenna, respectively.
However, the Friis transmission equation cannot be used to calculate the received power in the near
field because this equation assumes a plane wave in the far field, whereas spherical waves exist in the
near field where WPT is used. Instead, the following τ parameter is used to calculate the received
power or beam efficiency η (BROWN, 1980):
Ar At
τ2 = (2.2)
(λD )
2
Pr 2
η= = 1 − e −τ (2.3)
Pt
The beam efficiencies in the far and near fields calculated using the τ parameter are shown in Figure
16. The value of τ 2 itself indicates the efficiency on the basis of the Friis equation. The beam effi-
ciency can be increased to almost 100% when τ〉2 . Further, this theoretical curve is similar to that shown
in Figure 3 for resonance coupling WPT.
Figure 16. Beam efficiency at the far field and the near field using τ parameter
334

After collecting the microwave power, it must be converted to DC power by the rectenna rectifier.
The rectenna can also take any type of rectifying circuit such as single series topology (basic rectifier)
(Zbitou et al., 2006; Hoang, Douyere et al., 2011; Yang, Jiang et al., 2012), and shunt configuration
(Falkenstein et al., 2012; He et al., 2009) which are the most used. In addition, to improve the output DC
voltage, a voltage doubler or voltage multiplier (Din et al., 2012; Olgun et al., 2010) can also be used
(Figure 17). The circuit, especially diode, mainly determines the RF-DC conversion efficiency. Silicon
Schottky barrier diodes were usually used for the previous rectennas. Also, new diode devices like SiC
and GaN are expected to increase the efficiency. Further rectennas with FET(Suh & Chang, 2005) or
HEMT (Gómez et al., 2004) appear in recent years. It can be noticed that the rectenna using the active
devices is not a passive element. Hence, the world record of the RF-DC conversion efficiency among
developed rectennas is approximately 90% at 8W input of 2.45 GHz (Brown, 1996).Other rectennas
in the literature have approximately 60–90% at 2.45GHz or 5.8GHz microwave input. The following
Table 3 shows how the rectenna efficiency changes with different semiconductor materials. Also, Table
4 shows a comparison of the rectifiers.
Figure 17. Type of rectifier: (a) Basic rectifier (b) Voltage doubler (c) Voltage multiplier
Table 3. Rectenna efficiency for various diodes at different frequencies
Frequency Schottky Calculated Measured

Diode Efficiency Efficiency
2.45 GHz GaAs-W 90.5% 92.5%
5.8 GHz Si 78.3% 82%
8.51 GHz GaAs 66.2% 62.5%
Table 4. Comparison of rectifiers topologies
Type of Rectifier Structure Rectifier Topology

Basic rectifier A diode connected in series with a load. A capacitor acts as a Half-wave rectifier, full-wave
filter to smoothen the ripple in the output. Commonly called as rectifier
single stage rectifier.
Voltage doubler Uses two stages to approximately double up the DC voltage. Villard circuit, Greinacher circuit, bridge
circuit, Dickson charge pump voltage-doubler
Voltage Converts RF energy into DC voltage using a network of Villard cascade voltage multiplier, Dickson
multiplier capacitors and diodes. multiplier, Cockroft Walton voltage multiplier
335

As shown in Figure 18a, the RF-DC conversion efficiency of the rectenna with a diode depends on
the microwave power input intensity and the optimum connected load. When the power is small or the
load is not matched, the efficiency becomes quite low. The efficiency is also determined by the char-
acteristic of the diode which has its own junction voltage and breakdown voltage, if the input voltage
to the diode is lower than the junction voltage or is higher than the breakdown voltage the diode does
not show a rectifying characteristic. As a result, the RF-DC conversion efficiency drops with a lower
or higher input than the optimum. Then for low power incident level, a measured conversion efficiency
of 21% was achieved at a power incident of 250μW/cm2 (Monti et al., 2011). Basically, there are two
approaches to increase the efficiency at the low microwave power density. The one is to increase the
antenna aperture. There are two problems for this approach. It produces a high directivity and this is
only applied for exclusive applications as SPS satellite experiment and not for low power applications
like RFID or RF energy harvesting. The other approach is to develop a new rectifying circuit to increase
the efficiency at a weak microwave input.
Moreover, the impedance transformation network is a sub-system of a rectenna as shown in Figure
15. The impedance transformation network filters higher order impedances of the diode at the operating
frequency. For this reason, only the diodes fundamental impedance at the frequency of operation may be
required for its accurate modeling in RF power transfer applications. A diode equivalent circuit model is
shown in Figure 18b for theoretical analysis, which consists of a series resistance RS, a nonlinear junc-
tion resistance Rj and a nonlinear junction capacitance Cj. For an ideal diode I-V curve in Figure 18b, Rj
is assumed to be infinity when the voltage across the diode is larger than the breakdown voltage (-Vbr)
and smaller than the built-in voltage (Vbi), and to be zero when the diode voltage is beyond this region.
Figure 18. (a): General relationship between RF-to-DC power conversion efficiency and input power
of rectenna, (b): Packaged Schottky diode equivalent circuit models
336

Due to the self-biasing nature of the shunt connected diode, Cj is dependent on the bias voltage across
the diode with its expression given by:
Vbi
C j = C j0 (2.4)
Vbi +V0
Where Cj0 is diode’s zero bias junction capacitance and V0 is the DC output voltage. Figure 18b shows
the voltage waveforms across the diode (Vin) and the diode junction (Vj). Vin consists of two components:
an input RF signal (V1) and a DC voltage (V0) produced by the diode rectification. Vj is different than Vin
due to the voltage division between the parasitic resistor and the diode itself. Furthermore, Vj is clamped
to Vbi or –Vbr when Vj is larger than Vbi or smaller than -Vbr respectively due to the diode I-Vcharacteristics.
Both Vin and Vj are explicitly expressed in (2.5) and (2.6).
Vin = −V0 +V1 cos(ωt ) (2.5)
−V +V cos(ωt − ϕ) (−V 〈V 〈V )

 j 0 j1 br j bi

Vj = Vbi

(Vj 〉Vbi ) (2.6)
−Vbr
 (Vj 〈−Vbr )
Where Vj0 is the DC voltage while Vj1 is peak RF voltage of Vj respectively; and φ is the phase dif-
ference between Vin and Vj. The approximations of Vj0 =V0 and φ= 0 are proved to be valid and used in
the following derivation.
The diode efficiency is determined by analyzing various sources of the power loss on the diode dur-
ing one period. When the input power increases to certain level such that the reverse peak voltage on
the diode exceeds the diode breakdown voltage, there exist five sources of the diode loss: the loss on
RS and diode junction when Vin>Vbi; the loss on RS when Vbr<Vin<Vbi, while the loss on diode junction
can be neglected because Rj is infinity; the loss on RS and diode junction when Vin<Vbr. Each loss (Li)
is calculated by integrating the instantaneous power over its specific non-zero interval in one period
(from θi1 to θi2) using (2.7).
θi 2
1
Li =
2π ∫ I V dθ
i i
(2.7)
θi 1
Moreover, a packaged Schottky diode may be modeled either as a nonlinear junction resistance Rj
shunted by a non-linear junction capacitance Cj. Vj is the voltage loss at the rectifying junction. RS, LS
and CP are the bulk resistance, packaging inductance and capacitance respectively(Sharma, 1984). A bare
diode may also be modeled as a voltage controlled junction current source in parallel with a controlled
capacitance (Figure 19) and a parasitic bulk resistance. IDC is the voltage controlled current source from
337

the rectifying junction. Without neglecting the bulk resistance and the package parasitics, the controlled
current source is treated as a DC source in parallel with a conductance G and a susceptance B. RD and
XD are the parallel resistance and reactance of the diode respectively. IDC, RD and XD, as in the linearized
model, are variables which depend on the diode parameters, input RF power PA, the connected DC load
and the reflection coefficient at the input of the rectifier.
From Figure 19 (Left), the admittance of a Schottky diode may be written as in (2.8), where Ydiode
is the diode admittance.
−1
 
 −jR 1 
 j
ωC j 
Ydiode = G + jB =  + Rs + j ωLs  + j ωC p (2.8)
 j 
 Rj − 
 ωC j 
Equation (2.8) can be expanded into the conductance G and susceptance B. The expression for C j
is given by (2.9). Where Q is the charge stored at the rectifying junction.
∂Q
Cj = (2.9)
∂Vj
Rj can be found using equation (2.11), which describes the current voltage relationship at the recti-
fying junction of a Schottky diode. The current voltage relationship at the rectifying junction is given
by (2.10).
  qV  

I = I s  exp  j  
 − 1 (2.10)
 
 η0KT  
Figure 19. Packaged Schottky diode equivalent circuit models
338

KT
IS is the diode reverse saturation current, α = is the thermal voltage. η0 is the diode ideality fac-
q
tor. q is the charge of an electron. T is the temperature and K is the Boltzmann constant. Since I is an
infinite series with higher order values, there are higher order values of the diode junction resistance Rj .
 ∂I 

Rj =   = η0α (2.11)
 ∂Vj  I s + I
I varies with changes in the input RF power level PA, the losses in the impedance transformation
network, rectifier impedance or connected DC load. It is easily deduced from (2.11) that the magnitude
of I also affects the junction resistance Rj and consequently the overall impedance of the diode. Due to
this, the input impedance of a diode must always be measured at a specified RF power level and DC
load conditions.
Then using the model shown in Figure 19.b, the diode’s efficiency and input impedance are deter-
mined by applying Kirchoff’s voltage law, closed-form equations. So the diode RF-to-dc efficiency is
expressed as:
1
ηd = (2.12)
1 + A + B +C
Where:
R  V 
2
  1  3 
A = L 1 + bi  θ 1 +  − tan θ  (2.13)
 on  on 
πRs  V0    2 cos2 θon  2 
Rs RLC j2 ω 2  Vbi   π − θon 

B= 1 +   2 + tan θon  (2.14)
2π  V0   cos θon 

RL  Vbi Vbi
C = 1 +  (tan θon − θon ) (2.15)
πRs  V0  V0
And ω is the angular frequency (ω=2𝜋f). The junction capacitance used in (2.14) is defined by (2.4).
Also the diode input impedance is expressed in (2.16). Assuming the reactance will be eliminated, the
diode input resistance is represented by (2.17). Hence similar to efficiency, the diode’s input resistance
is also a dynamic variable dependent on the input microwave power.
339

πRs
Zd = (2.16)
 θ  π − θ 
cos θon  on − sin θon  + j ωRsC j  on
+ sin θon 
 cos θon   cos θon 
πRs
Rd = (2.17)
 θ 
cos θon  on − sin θon 
 cos θon 
Furthermore, the relationship between V0 and the average DC voltage on the diode junction Vj,dc can
be found in (2.18).
1
2π
(R + Rs )V0
∫ Vj = −
L
Vj ,dc = (2.18)
2π 0
RL
From the voltage waveform of Vj in Figure 18.b, (2.19), (2.20) can be geometrically acquired when
Vj first reaches Vbi and Vbr
−Vj 0 +Vj 1 cos(−θon ) = Vbi (2.19)
−Vj 0 +Vj 1 cos(π − θbr ) = −Vbi (2.20)
For a given input power (Pin), the conversion efficiency (𝜂) by definition can also be expressed as (2.21).
Pout V 02
η= = (2.21)
Pin RL Pin
Under the condition of θbr= 0, the four unknowns V0; Vj1; θon and Pin can be determined using (2.18)-
(2.21). This Pin calculated is the threshold input power level at which the reverse peak voltage on the diode
starts to be larger than the breakdown voltage and the resultant conversion efficiency begins to decrease.
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RECTENNA DESIGN
Rectenna Design for High Input Power
Antenna Array Design at 2.45 GHz
As mentioned in the section above, in rectenna application, it is necessary to design antennas with very
high directive characteristics to meet the demands of long-distance links. So this can be only accomplished
by increasing the electrical size of the antenna in order to enhance the rectenna conversion efficiency by
increasing the captured microwave power at the input of the rectifier. Furthermore, planar antennas with
circular polarization are popular and more convenient compared to the non-planar antennas because they
can have a low profile, light weight and very flexible to be embedded and integrated with active devices.
the antenna array design which consisting of a 2×3 square patch antenna printed on an FR4 substrate
with a thickness of 1.58mm, a relative permittivity Ɛr of 4.4 and a tangential loss of 0.025.
In each antenna element, two methods have been applied, the first one is an inclined slot at the center
to obtain the circular polarization, which is suitable for rectenna systems to preserve a constant DC voltage
or power across the load where the transmitter or the receiver changes its direction in the space. Authors
have chosen this technique because it’s more convenient to minimize the size of the antenna; the second
one is a V-shaped slot at the corners of each antenna in order to increase the bandwidth around the oper-
ating frequency of 2.45GHz and also to improve the CP quality. Figure 20 presents the geometry shape
and a photograph of the fabricated prototype of the developed antenna array. This new arrangement in
form of a tree with a spacing angle between the elements of 90° is selected in order to achieve minimum
mutual coupling effect between the array elements in the radiation pattern and to avoid grating lobes.
Hence to achieve the developed design, several optimization processes were applied by using the
transient solver of CST Microwave Studio software. Table 5 shows the various optimized parameters of
the proposed antenna array. An experimental measurement also has been made to validate the expected
simulation results.
The performances of the CP antenna array, such as return loss, the axial ratio and the directivity of
the developed array are evaluated. It can be noticed that these performances are greatly affected by the
slots size (length and width), and the distance between the various patchs also by the feeding lines chosen
to match all elements. Figure 21 shows the effect of length and width of the inclined slot denoted by LS
and Ws respectively on the CP antenna array’s return loss (|S11|) (dB) and axial ratio.
Therefore, the optimum values of the inclined slot size were obtained at Ws=3.3mm and Ls=10mm
which can provide a good matching input impedance with a good return loss of -36.54dB at the operating
frequency of 2.45GHz. Moreover to achieve CP, the axial ratio has to be kept below 3dB, eventually, the
optimum values of the inclined slot size give a better axial ratio with a minimum of 1.36dB at 2.45GHz.
In addition, a comparison between the measured return loss and the simulated one is presented in Figure
22a. It is quite clear that there is a good agreement between the measured and the simulated return loss
of the proposed antenna array, which has been achieved from 2.442GHz to 2.457GHz with an impedance
bandwidth of 15MHz. Then the measured return loss has been achieved from 2.42GHz to 2.452GHz
with an impedance bandwidth of 32MHz.This is an 113.3% improvement over the simulation bandwidth
prediction. Although there was bandwidth improvement the resonant frequency is slightly shifted, and
matching at the center frequency suffered, it has a return loss of -13.94 dB at 2.44 GHz. A summary of
these results is shown in Table 6.
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Figure 20. (a): Geometry Shape of the proposed antenna array, (b): Fabricated prototype
Table 5. Physical dimensions of the 2×3 CP antenna array
Parameters Values (mm) Parameters Values (mm)

W 118.6 L1 26.52
Wa 3.3 L2 10
Wb 0.704 L3 8
Wc 2.123 L4 29.29
Wd 3.044 L5 33.04
We 5.12 L6 137.87
L 261.8 L7 33.04
Also in Figure 22b, the simulated variation of the antenna input impedance versus frequency of the
CP antenna array can be seen. At the operating frequency of 2.45 GHz, the average value of the resistance
(real part) is 50 Ohms and the average value of the reactance (imaginary part) is 0-Ohms which gives the
adequate input impedance matching at the desired resonant frequency. Therefore, the radiation efficiency
of the proposed antenna array is evaluated for a good prediction of the proposed design to harvest high
342

Figure 21. Simulated results of the proposed CP antenna array: (a) return loss as a function of slot’s
width (Ws),(b): axial ratio as a function of slot’s width (Ws), (c): return loss as a function of slot’s Length
(Ls),(d): axial ratio as a function of slot’s Length (Ls)
microwave power densities. Figure 22c presents the simulated radiation efficiency versus frequency of
the developed CP antenna array. From the graph, it’s clear that the antenna radiation efficiency has a
peak efficiency of 98% at 2.445GHz, which means that the proposed antenna array have the required
potential to be used in a rectenna system with a minimum power loss.
Current distribution determines how the current flows on the patches of the antenna array. Figure 23
demonstrates these results at operating frequency of 2.45GHz. From Figure 23, one can observe that a
uniform high strength of current radiates along the transmission line and the boundary of the patches of
the array. Hence, the radiation pattern is taken into account to predict the capabilities of the developed
array to harvest microwave power. Figure 24 shows the simulated and measured radiation pattern for
the developed CP antenna array in E-plan and H-plan at operating frequency of 2.45GHz. The graphs
show a good agreement between measured and simulated results, that the antenna provides a direc-
tional behavior with a half power beam width of 94° and 29.8° for E-plane and H-plane respectively,
with enhanced directivity of about 9.14dBi achieved. Further, the pattern is almost symmetric in both
E-plane and H-plane and side lobes are small. As expected from the calculated results, the array emits
no radiation behind the ground plane.
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Figure 22. (a):Simulated and measured return loss of the proposed CP antenna array, (b): Simulated
antenna impedance (Ohm) vs. frequency, (c): simulated antenna radiation efficiency vs. frequency
Table 6. Summary of simulation and measurement results of the proposed antenna array
Parameter Simulation Measurement

Return loss (dB) -37.48dB @2.45 GHz -13.94dB@ 2.44 GHz
Bandwidth (MHz) 15 32
Fractional Bandwidth (%) 0.53 1.33
Axial Ratio 1.36
Figure 23. Simulated surface currents distribution at 2.45 GHz
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Figure 24. Two-dimensional radiation pattern in E-plane and H-plane at 2.45 GHz, (a) measured results,
(b) simulated results
Consequently it’s clear from the above results presented and discussed that the proposed design has
the required performances and the potential to be investigated for a rectenna system to scavenge RF
microwave power at free ISM frequency band of 2.45GHz due to its enhanced directivity and radiation
efficiency, also to its good input impedance matching and return loss.
RF-to-DC Rectifier Design at 2.45 GHz
In order to increase the conversion efficiency and simplify the full-wave rectifier circuit, a voltage
doubler is used for rectifying circuit etched on the same FR4 substrate used for designing the receiving
antenna. From the layout of the proposed rectifier design presented in Figure 25, it consists of at least
three essential components: a single stage voltage doubler circuit based on a Zero-Bias Schottky diode
HSMS 2822, associated with an input matching circuit having a form of a T-microstrip line with short
end which can match the input impedance of the circuit to 50Ω, and an output DC pass filter. Then this
rectifier circuit can significantly increase the input voltage by using the first capacitor which charges
at the negative half wave and discharges at the positive half wave. A low pass filter which contains two
folded quarter wavelength open stubs and a T-shape and having a cutoff frequency of 1.7 GHz is applied
before the resistive load to block the harmonic frequencies produced in rectifying operation as shown
in Figure 26a.
In order to accurately predict the circuit performances and DC output, ADS software is used to build
and simulate the schematic design, and analyze the rectifier efficiency. By using Harmonic Balance
345

Figure 25. Layout of the proposed RF-to-DC microwave rectifier
Figure 26. (a): Simulation results of S-parameters responses of the DC-LPF, return loss of the proposed
rectifier (b): versus input power (HB simulation), (c): versus frequency
Simulation and Large Signal Scattering Simulation in ADS software, the nonlinear behavior of rectifier
at different incident power can be observed. The choice of load resistance was done to improve and to
get the best value of the conversion efficiency and also the maximum DC voltage delivered to the load.
The simulated return loss (S11) of the proposed rectifier versus the input power is presented in Figure
26b and versus frequency in Figure 26c. The results show that the proposed rectifier is well matched at
2.45GHz (S11< -25dB) around 5dBm input power, and a good return loss less than -15dB is obtained
from about -3 to 28dBm.
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Then the conversion efficiency is an important parameter for rectenna system to predict its ability to
be used for microwave power conversion, Figure 27a depicts the RF-to-DC conversion efficiency (defined
by equation 2.21) of rectifier versus the input power from -15dBm to 30 dBm for three resistive loads.
Also, Figure 27b exhibits the rectifier output voltage for the same loads. Due to the higher breakdown
voltage (BV = 15 V) of the HSMS 2822 diode used in the microstrip rectifier design, it is clear from
the above results that the proposed rectifier can rectify high input powers. To this regard, it can be also
noticed that the conversion efficiency increases with the increment of incident power from about -10
dBm and can reach a maximum value of 71% at 25 dBm when the resistive load has 1500Ω. Though it
decreases when the value of the resistive load is increased. Moreover, the efficiency varies slightly over
a wide range of input power between 18 to 25 dBm. In addition, with the same resistive load, the DC
output voltage can reach 10V and more than 18V at 20 dBm and 25dBm respectively.
Rectenna Design for Low Input Power
Antenna Array Design at 5.8 GHz
In this sub-section, a circularly polarized antenna array will be presented. The proposed design consists
of a 2×4 (8-elements) microstrip square patch incorporating two antenna array types: the first one is a
series feed array type that is formed by interconnecting two successive patch elements that are matched
by using quarter wavelength transformer, and the second type is corporate feed technique. This method
has more control of the feed of each element and is ideal for scanning phased arrays and multi-beam
arrays. Further, to provide the circular polarization and to reduce the array size, the corner feed tech-
nique was used. Furthermore, the combination of series feed and corporate feed are used for antenna
Figure 27. (a) Simulated RF-to-DC conversion efficiency, (b) DC output voltage
347

arrays to get benefits of both feeding networks. Then in this design, it is considered that the antenna
array is printed on the FR4 substrate (εr= 4.4, thickness = 1.58 mm, tan δ = 0.025). The overall size
of developed antenna array is about 19×16 cm2 with the geometry along the parameters of the antenna
array are shown in Figure 28. In order to achieve the best performances of the antenna array, several
optimization processes were applied by using the full-wave simulator CST Microwave Studio. Table 7
shows the various optimized parameters of the proposed antenna array.
Further Figure 29 shows the effect of increasing the number of elements of the antenna array from
two to eight on the S-parameter response, directivity, and gain. Figures 29a presents the simulated return
loss of the proposed antenna array. From the graphs, it’s clear that the reflection coefficient (|S11|) (dB)
of the proposed antenna array is found to be lower than -20 dB at 5.8GHz with a bandwidth of more
than 900 MHz which is from 5.4 GHz to 6.36 GHz. Furthermore, Figures 29b and 29c exhibit the array
directivity against frequency. It’s clear from the graphs that the proposed design provides an important
directivity of more than 13.7 dBi and a gain near to 8dB 5.8 GHz.
Figure 28. The geometry of 8-elements corporate-series feed CP antenna array
Table 7. Physical dimensions of the 2×4 CP antenna array
Parameters Values (mm) Parameters Values (mm)

L 190.32 Lp 16.95
La 12 Lg 19.1
Lb 20 W 160.32
Lc 97 Wa 3
Ld 18 Wb 5
Le 19.5 Wc= Wd 3
Lf 49 We 1
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Figure 29. Effect of antenna array number of elements on its performances (a): Simulated reflection
coefficients (|S11|) (dB), (b): Simulated directivities, Simulated gains
Moreover, the axial ratio (AR) is important criteria for CP operation. Eventually, the proposed design
provides a good axial ratio with a minimum of 2.07 dB at 5.8 GHz as shown in Figure 30a. Further, the
simulated variation of the input impedance versus frequency of the 2×4 antenna array is displayed in
Figure 30b. It can be observed from the graph that the developed antenna array is quite well matched to
50 Ω impedance; so it provides an impedance of Zin=48.44-j4.82 Ω at 5.8 GHz.
Figure 30. (a): Antenna impedance (Ohm) vs. frequency, (b): Simulated axial ratio (AR) at 5.8 GHz
349

In order to predict and verify the ability of the proposed antenna array to be investigated in a rectenna
system, the radiation pattern is an important criterion to be taken into account. The computed E-plane
(YOZ) and H-plane (XOZ) radiation pattern at 5.8 GHz is normalized and plotted in Figure 31. From
these results, it seems that the antenna array provides a directional behavior with a half-power beam
width (HPBW) of 21.7° and 29.2° for E-plane and H-plane respectively with an enhanced directivity
of about 13.8 dBi of the main lobe in E-plane. The patterns indicate at 5.8 GHz, more ripples can be
observed in both E and H-planes owing to the generation of higher-order modes.
Consequently, the qualities of the proposed design presented along these results, indicate that it has
good features and the required performances for rectenna system, to harvest microwaves power densities
efficiently at free ISM band frequency of 5.8 GHz.
a. RF-to-DC microstrip rectifier design at 5.8 GHz

In the same way, this former work focus on high efficiency but at low incident power (small signal). In
order to merge the advantages of both series and shunt topologies, a rectifier circuit is developed and
evaluated, using a combination of the packaged Schottky diode HSMS-2852 and HSMS2850. These
diodes have relatively low barrier height and high saturation current compared to externally biased
detector diodes. These features could provide a higher output voltage at low power densities levels.
As shown in the layout presented in Figure 32, the grounded input T-microstrip line matching network
have been applied to match the input impedance between the circuit and the receiving antenna array to
50 Ω impedance.
Then, by using ADS software, the design was built and an analysis approach is applied into the
schematic simulation, by using Harmonic Balance Simulation and Large Signal Scattering Simulation
in order to accurately predict the circuit performances.
Figure 31. (a): Computed E-plane, (b): Computed H-plane at 5.8GHz
350

Figure 32. Proposed rectifying circuit design
Then, the corresponding simulated reflection coefficient versus input power is presented in Figure
33a for various resistive loads. The results show that the proposed rectifier is well matched at 5.8GHz
(S11< -35 dB) around 12dBm input power, and a good return loss less than -15dB is obtained from about
-10 to 20dBm. It can be noticed that due to the nonlinear performance of diodes, the input impedance
changes with the variation of input power levels. Also, Figure 33b exhibits the output DC voltage versus
input power for three resistive loads. It seems that with the optimal load of 3KΩ the circuit provides an
Figure 33. (a): Simulated return loss versus input Power (HB simulation), (b): Simulated DC Output Volt-
age versus input Power, (c): Simulated conversion efficiency versus input Power of the proposed Rectifier
351

output DC voltage of about 3.4V where the input power is around 8dBm and 1V at 0dBm. In addition,
the simulated RF-DC conversion efficiency (𝜂) as function of input power is demonstrated in Figure
33c. It can be seen that a maximum efficiency of more than 68% has been obtained with 3KΩ resistive
load. Besides, the corresponding output voltage being 3.4V. Though it decreases when the value of the
resistive load is increased.
From these results, it’s clear that the proposed rectifier circuit presents high sensitivity among low
input power levels with important conversion efficiency and DC output voltage with a minimum power
loss. These features make the proposed circuit very suitable for a rectenna system for low RF input power
and low power consumption.
RECTENNA RECENT TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS
In recent years, major research topic in the rectenna is to research and develop new rectennas which are
suitable for a weak-wave microwave. The weak-wave means in the “micro-watt” range which can be
used in experimental power satellites and RFID. Eventually, point-to-point MPT system needs a large
receiving area with a rectenna array because one rectenna element receives and creates only a few Watts.
Especially for the SPS, developers need a huge rectenna site (diameter of over km) and a power network
connected to the existing power networks on the ground. On contrary, there are some MPT applications
with one small rectenna element such as RFID and wireless sensors.
Wireless sensor networks have become one of the most widely applied applications of rectenna. An
RF energy harvester (rectenna) can be used in a sensor node to supply energy. For example, in (Papotto et
al., 2014), the authors design an RF-powered transmitter that supports 915MHz downlink and 2.45GHz
uplink bands. Then various prototype implementations of sensor nodes powered by RF energy are also
presented in (Farinholt et al., 2009; Popovic et al., 2013). In (Kaushik et al., 2013; Seah & Olds, 2013),
a multi-hop RF-powered wireless sensor network is demonstrated through experiments. The RF-powered
devices also have attractive healthcare and medical applications such as wireless body network. Benefiting
from RF energy harvesting, low-power medical devices can achieve real-time work-on-demand power
from dedicated RF sources, which further enables a battery-free circuit with reduced size. In (Barroca
et al., 2013), the authors present a body device circuit dual-band operating at GSM 900 and GSM 1800
with a RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of 77.6 and 84% respectively. Similar implementations of body
devices can also be found in (Seguin et al., 2013; Cheng et al., 2014).
Another attracting rectenna application that has caught intensive research investigation is RFID, widely
used for identification, tracking, and inventory management. Recent developments in the low-power
circuit and RF energy harvesting technology can extend the lifetime and operation range of conventional
RFID tags. In particular, RFID tags, instead of relying on the readers to activate their circuits passively,
can harvest RF energy and perform communication actively. Research progress has covered the designs
of RFID tags with RF energy harvesting in rectenna(Olgun et al., 2010a; Hong et al., 2012; Olgun et al.,
2010b), rectifier (Kamalinejad et al., 2013; Shokrani et al., 2012), RF-to-DC converter (Scorcioni et al.,
2012; Wang et al., 2010), charge pump (Donno et al., 2013; Shabana et al., 2012) and power harvester
(Chasin et al., 2013; Costanzo et al., 2010). Furthermore existing literature has also presented many
implementations of battery-free devices powered by ambient energy from Wi-Fi (Olgun et al., 2012; Ugur
Olgun et al., 2012), GSM (Gunathilaka et al., 2012; Piñuela et al., 2013) and DTV bands (Keyrouz et al.,
2012; Nintanavongsa et al., 2013) as well as ambient mobile electronic devices (Karthik et al., 2011).
352

Additionally, RF energy harvesting can be used to provide charging capability for a wide variety of
low-power mobile devices such as electronic watches, hearing aids, and MP3 players, wireless keyboard,
and mouse, as most of them consume only microwatts to milliwatts range of power. In (Jabbar et al.,
2010), the authors present a design of an RF circuit that enables continuous charging of mobile devices
especially in urban areas where the density of ambient RF sources is high.
CONCLUSION
The focus of this chapter has been an overview of the WPT, and its aim has been to highlight the many
benefits and applications of WPT. The discussion began by describing and defining the basic WPT
techniques by defining its fundamental aspects with the theoretical background for each technique. This
was followed by a look at the many applications of WPT to wirelessly transfer power from a source
to a target, both in practical and near future applications and in theoretical applications for the future.
The limitations and potential safety concerns were also pointed out, and the mechanism of MPT was
described as an alternate method for WPT. Some contributions in the field of rectenna technology have
been presented that show good features and the capabilities to be incorporated in a global system to
assure the best power autonomy possible. Then MPT especially and WPT generally has the potential to
completely disrupt the way that mobile devices, from cellphones and laptops to cars and aerial vehicles,
operate and obtain energy. The future of energy is the untethering of devices from a power cord to real-
ize the freedom of mobile technologies. More successful demonstration projects can help the further
development and utilization of this technology. Further investigation concerning compatibility and safety
is needed to clarify these issues.
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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Antenna Array: A geometrical arrangement of antenna elements with a deliberate relationship

between their currents, forming a single antenna.
Circular Polarization: Circular polarization of an electromagnetic wave is a polarization in which the
electric field of the passing wave does not change strength but only changes direction in a rotary manner.
Energy Harvesting: Also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging is the process by which
energy is derived from external sources such as solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, captured,
and stored for small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics and wireless
sensor networks.
ISM Band: The industrial, scientific, and medical radio band (ISM band),are also called unlicensed
bands, refers to a group of radio bands or parts of the radio spectrum that are internationally reserved
for the use of radio frequency (RF) energy intended for scientific, medical and industrial requirements
rather than for communications. ISM bands are generally open frequency bands, which vary according
to different regions and permits.
360

Rectenna: This term is derived from the fact that a rectenna is comprised of an antenna coupled
with a rectifying circuit. This special type of antenna is used to convert electromagnetic energy into
direct current (DC) electricity.
RFID: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is the automatic identification technology which uses
radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to identify objects carrying tags when they come close to a reader.
Wireless Power Transfer: Wireless power transfer (WPT) or wireless energy transmission is a col-
lective term that refers to a number of different technologies for transmitting electrical energy from a
power source to an electrical load without the use of discrete man-made conductors.
Wireless Sensors: A wireless sensors are standard measurement tools and a group of specialized
transducers with a communications infrastructure for monitoring and recording conditions at diverse
locations.
361
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WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION TECHNIQUES

Wireless Power Transmission by Inductive Coupling and Resonance Coupling

Inductive and Magnetic Resonance Coupling WPT

Theory of Coupling WPT

Recent Progress and Applications of WPT by Inductive and Resonance Coupling

Figure 3. Coupling transmission efficiency of resonant coupling.

Wireless Power Transmission Via Laser

Figure 5. EADS developed, fully laser powered autonomous rover

Microwave Power Transmission

State of the Art of Microwave Power Transmission Technology

Figure 9. MPT Laboratory Experiment in 1975 by W. Brown

Figure 13. MPT charging of electric vehicle

Description of a MPT System

Figure 14. The block diagram of MPT system

Table 1. 2.45. GHZ RF tube comparison

Parameter Klystron Magnetron

Compatibility with Other Radio Services and Applications

Comparison between WPT Techniques

RECTENNA THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Table 2. Comparison between characteristics of WPT techniques

Method’s Comparison Parameter

Figure 15. Block diagram of the rectenna

Table 3. Rectenna efficiency for various diodes at different frequencies

Frequency Schottky Calculated Measured

Table 4. Comparison of rectifiers topologies

Type of Rectifier Structure Rectifier Topology

Vin = −V0 +V1 cos(ωt ) (2.5)

−V +V cos(ωt − ϕ) (−V 〈V 〈V )

Figure 19. Packaged Schottky diode equivalent circuit models

Rs RLC j2 ω 2  Vbi   π − θon 

−Vj 0 +Vj 1 cos(−θon ) = Vbi (2.19)

−Vj 0 +Vj 1 cos(π − θbr ) = −Vbi (2.20)

Rectenna Design for High Input Power

Antenna Array Design at 2.45 GHz

Table 5. Physical dimensions of the 2×3 CP antenna array

Parameters Values (mm) Parameters Values (mm)

Parameter Simulation Measurement

Figure 23. Simulated surface currents distribution at 2.45 GHz

RF-to-DC Rectifier Design at 2.45 GHz

Figure 25. Layout of the proposed RF-to-DC microwave rectifier

Rectenna Design for Low Input Power

Antenna Array Design at 5.8 GHz

Figure 28. The geometry of 8-elements corporate-series feed CP antenna array

Table 7. Physical dimensions of the 2×4 CP antenna array

Parameters Values (mm) Parameters Values (mm)

a. RF-to-DC microstrip rectifier design at 5.8 GHz

Figure 31. (a): Computed E-plane, (b): Computed H-plane at 5.8GHz

Figure 32. Proposed rectifying circuit design

RECTENNA RECENT TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Antenna Array: A geometrical arrangement of antenna elements with a deliberate relationship

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