2020 2nd International Workshop on Human-Centric Smart Environments for Health and Well-being (IHSH)

Broad Band Rectenna Based on Antipodal Vivaldi

Antenna and NULT Rectifier
2020 2nd International Workshop on Human-Centric Smart Environments for Health and Well-being (IHSH) | 978-1-6654-4084-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IHSH51661.2021.9378735

Ali BENAYAD Mohamed TELLACHE

Laboratory of Instrumentation (LINS) Laboratory of Instrumentation (LINS)
Faculty of Electronics and Computer Faculty of Electronics and Computer
Science, University of Science and Science, University of Science and
Technology Houari Boumediene Technology Houari Boumediene
Algiers, Algeria Algiers, Algeria
abenayad@usthb.dz mtellache@usthb.dz

Abstract— In this research paper, we study the performance of illustrates the combination between two technologies to form an
an innovative broad band rectenna that has been designed based efficient RF power harvesting rectenna. The remainder of this
on the combination of an antipodal Vivaldi broad band antenna paper is structured into four sections. Section 1 outlines the
and an efficient NULT RF-DC rectifier. The antenna have showed theoretical approach overviewing the simulation results of the
a directive pattern and an ultra-wide bandwidth of 1.66 GHz antenna. The non-uniform transmission lines ( NULT) rectifier
stating from 0.8GHz to 2.45GHz. The realized rectenna can is reported in section 2, section 3 analyses results and discussion.
harvest the ambient power of 4 major used frequency bands (0.8, Section 4 draws the conclusions of this work.
1.8, 2.1 and 2.45 GHz). The realized antenna is followed by a
NULT impedance matching and rectifier in which the use of SMS
7630 Schottky diodes was essential to transform the harvested
radiofrequency power into a useful DC power. The NULT
prototype has shown an acceptable harvesting efficiency results at
3 of our frequency bands of interest. Due to the lack of access to
professional test equipment caused by the major lockdown by
COVID-19, the rectenna prototype was tested in uncontrolled
environment and it was able to harvest 0.9 V at the distance of 3
m from 4 cell phones during communications.

Keywords—Broadband, Energy Harvesting, Schottky,

Radiofrequency, wireless, non-uniform transmission line
Introduction
Throughout history, providing a clean and a costless energy
has been human’s top priority. Along this journey, mostly every
possible energy source (water, fire, motion…) has been explored
with view to provide an optimal solution that is both
environment friendly and efficient. Recently, harvesting the
ambient radiofrequency (RF) energy via rectenna has emerged
as a tempting solution for supplying low consumption sensors in
the remote areas. The idea revolves around using an antenna to
harvest the ambient RF power, and the harvested energy will be
filtered then rectified by an RF-DC rectifier in which we
essentially match between the antenna and the rectifier
impedances. In the end, the converted RF-DC power will be
used to supply a resistive load. Researchers over the globe have
devoted their time to explore this option starting by harvesting
the power of one frequency band [1],[2], the resulted harvesting
efficiency of this approach usually reaches an acceptable level
at the expense of the extensive overall size of the rectenna. More
frequency bands have been explored for the purpose of
increasing the harvesting efficiency either separately as in [3],
[4] and [5], in which the rectenna realization cost is relatively
high, or simultaneously as in harvesting RF power using broad
bands rectennas [6]–[8]. Figure 1 depicts the different methods
utilized in rectenna applications. This work focuses on
harvesting the power at a broad frequency band starting from 0.8
GHz to 2.45GHz, in this frequency spectrum, we are able to
harvest four main ambient frequency bands that are, 0.8-0.9 , 1.8
GHz for GSM Applications, 2.1 GHz for UMTS applications,
and 2.45 GHz for harvesting WIFI signal power. The paper
Fig. 1. Energy harvesting methodes
I. THE DESIGN OF THE ANTIPODAL VIVALDI ANTENNA
The Vivaldi antenna is an exponentially tapered slot antenna, it
has been utilized in arrays forms for radar applications and
communication for many years. In theory, its operating
frequency range is unlimited and a stable beam width over its
operating frequency range. However, its practical operating
bandwidth is determined by the shape of the feed line transition
in addition to the dimensions of the antenna. Its broadband
characteristic offers a remarquable and a promising Ultra wide
band (UWB) radars and communication applications[9].
Antipodal vivaldi antennas are an exponential progressive
transition antennas (TSA), they were elaborated by
W.NESTER in 1985 and F.Gazit in 1988[10]. Unlike the
conventional Vivaldi design, the elliptical shaped slots are
utilized to feed the transition line and the tapered slot. The
transition line is also used to transform the 50 Ω microstrip line
into a parallel line with the aim to feed the exponentially tapered
slot. The combination between the microstrip line and the
elliptical tapered ground plate as full functioning configuration

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 2020 2nd International Workshop on Human-Centric Smart Environments for Health and Well-being (IHSH)

displays a remarkable behavior in shorter length and reduced Frequency bands 0.8 1.8 2.1 2.45
overall antenna size. The conducting parts on either side of the (GHz)
substrate are splayed on the opposite directions in order to creat
Gain ( dB) 1.31 6.11 6.41 5.85
the tapered slot, the outer and inner edges of the conducting
parts follow the shape of the ellipses with different major to
minor ration[9], [11]. The realized antipodal antenna was
inspired from[12], it was printed on FR substrate with a
permittivity of 4.3, 1.58mm thickness and an overall size of 100
X 100 mm². The slot placements on both radiating elements of
the antenna was an ingesting solution to reduce the size of the
antenna, as current flows in the radiating elements, the inserted
slots can create new resonances, the choice of the slot’s size
and shape determines the antenna’s operating frequencies and
input impedance. The front and back shape of the antipodal
Vivaldi antenna contains two symmetric exponentially tapered
patches placed on either side of the substrate. Each of antenna
sides is defined by the opening rate K and two points P1(X1,
Y1) (the center of the chamfer edge with the radius k1) and
P2(X2, Y2) the center of the chamfer edge with radius k2). P1
and P2 are the start and end points of each exponential taper. The
design equations for the exponentially tapered edge are given by
(1)-(3)[13]: Fig. 2. The Antipodal vivaldi antenna design schema

∗ ∗
(1)

∗ ∗ (2)

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
∗ ∗ (3)

The antenna was designed and simulated using CST

microwave studio, as depicted in figure 3. The antenna reflection
coefficient reaches under -10 dB starting from 0.8 GHz to 2.46 Fig. 3. Simulated reflecion coefficient of the simulated antipodal vivaldi
GHz with a frequency bandwidth of 1.66 GHZ. The antenna antenna as funcion of the frequency
bandwidth-radiating specter includes four ambient frequency
bands (0.8-0.9, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, and 2.45 GHz) that will be
harvested and later rectified and used to supply low power
consuming devices. The reflection coefficient reaches its best
value (-27 dB) at 2.1 GHz. The antenna design’s dimensions are
presented in table I.

TABLE I. DIMENSION OS THE ANTENNA STRUCTURE.

Parameter Dimension Parameter Dimension

L 100 mm T 5 mm
W 100 mm h1 10 mm
L0 5 mm (X1, Y1) (40,50) mm
L1 15 mm (X2, Y2) (0,-35) mm
d 4.1 mm (X3, Y3) (14.40) mm
d1 4 mm (X4, Y4) (4,-35) mm
n 7 mm (X5, Y5) (30,-30) mm
m 16 mm K 30

The simulated antenna gain values are presented in Table II,

and as illustrated in figure 4, we notice that the designed
antipodal Vivaldi follows mostly a directive pattern in which the
antenna radiate.

Fig. 4. Directivity pattern on both H plane and E plane of the designe

antipodal Vivaldi antenna

TABLE II. SIMULATED ANTENNA GAIN VALUES AT THE FREQUENCY BAND OF

INTREST

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 2020 2nd International Workshop on Human-Centric Smart Environments for Health and Well-being (IHSH)

II. NULT RECTEFIER DESIGN

The non-uniform microstrip transmission lines ( NULT) is a
new method that has been introduced by [14] whose objective
was to exploit NULT to ensure a match between two arbitrarily
complex frequency-dependent impedances in a broadband or a
multiband application. The utility of the proposed method has
been well explained and verified in [14] that by citing some
examples ( broadband and double-band matching between two
resistors with and without capacitors), moreover, In [15],
authors have used NULT to feed a rectangular microstrip patch
antenna to satisfy the ultra-wideband matching. The key
element of the RF-DC voltage double rectifier design is the
Schottky diode, for our application, SMS 7630 has been selected
due to its low threshold voltage and fast transit time, which
serves perfectly our application. The rectifier’s design was
inspired from the work of [16] where we have tuned the (a)
proposed design using Keysight Advanced Design System
(ADS) to reach a suitable matching bandwidth without
compromising the rectifier’s efficiency. Figure 5 illustrates the
layout of the designed rectifier.

Fig. 5. NULT rectefier Layout

TABLE III. NULT DESIGN PARAMETERS VALUES

Parameter Values(mm) Parameter Values(mm) (b)
W1 4.222 L1 19.999 Fig. 7. (a) Simulated NULT voltage doubler Efficiency as function of
W2 3.76 L2 9.72 frequency at 3 dBm, (b) Simulated NULT voltage doubler Efficiency as
W3 25.5 L3 31.115 function of the RF input power.
W4 30 L4 19.83
W5 2.86 L5 14.675 As we can see in figure 7, the NULT voltage doubler have
W6 8.47 L6 8.624
achieved a satisfactory efficiency results at three frequency
W7 0.9 L7 10.3
W8 25 L8 22.743
bands of our interest, where, with a 58% efficiency peak at 1.8
W9 1.7007 GHz.
III. RESULTS AND SICUSSION
As depicted in figure 6, the NULT voltage doubler rectifier
Both of the antenna and NULT rectifier were Printed on
was well matched at three of our frequency bands of interest,
and as we can see, the reflection coefficient of the design has FR 4 substrate with 4.3 permittivity and a thinness of 1.58
reached -14.68 dB at 1.790 GHz, -11.64 dB at 2.21 GHz and - mm. Unfortunately, Due to the pandemic of COVID-19 we
11.64 dB at 2.45 GHz. have not been able to verify the simulation experimentally and
that was the result of the major lockdown that we have been
through. However, the full rectenna linked by a 50 Ω coaxial
cable and was tested in an uncontrolled environment, where it
could harvest 0.9 V at the distance of 3 m from a 4 cell phones
during their communication.

Fig. 6. Simulated NULT voltage doubler rectefier reflection coefficient as Fig. 8. Both sides of the realised antipodal vivaldi antenna
function of the frequency

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 2020 2nd International Workshop on Human-Centric Smart Environments for Health and Well-being (IHSH)

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