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[8] N. H. Noordin, W. Zhou, A. O. El-Rayis, N. Haridas, A. T. Erdogan,
and T. Arslan, “Single-feed polarization reconfigurable patch antenna,”
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0018-926X © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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5.8-GHz Stacked Differential Rectenna Suitable for
Large-Scale Rectenna Arrays With DC Connection
Tatsuki Matsunaga, Eisuke Nishiyama, and Ichihiko Toyoda
Abstract—In this communication, a novel stacked differential rectenna
is proposed and its characteristics are experimentally investigated. The
proposed rectenna can effectively convert RF power to dc due to its dif-
ferential operation. The conversion efficiency of 44.1% was obtained when
the received power density was as low as 0.041 W/m2 . The proposed
rectenna can easily achieve large-scale rectenna arrays effectively using
its simple structure. The rectenna array with DC connection provides
almost the same conversion efficiency and incident angle characteristics
in comparison with a single rectenna.
Index Terms—Differential operation, large-scale rectenna array,
rectenna, stacked structure, wireless power transmission.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Recently, wireless power transmission has become an attractive
application of the microwave technology [1]–[3]. A rectenna which
receives an RF wave and converts it into dc power is one of the most
essential devices for the wireless power transmission systems [4], [5].
In such an application, improving conversion efficiency is strongly
required. Various kinds of rectenna have been proposed to solve the
issue. In 1998, a dipole rectenna achieved 82% conversion efficiency
at 5.8 GHz when the input power was 50 mW [6]. The rectenna has
a harmonic rejection filter which reduces second harmonics by 21 dB.
A rectenna using an artificial magnetic conductor has 61.4% conver-
sion efficiency for −8 dBm input power at 2.4 GHz [7]. Differential
operating rectennas that provide an excellent dc conversion efficiency
have been reported [8], [9]. We have also proposed a novel differential
rectenna unit, which achieves a good RF-to-dc conversion efficiency
even under low power conditions by applying the received RF waves to
the rectifying diode in antiphase, i.e., differential operation [10], [11].
When a large dc power that is sufficient to drive devices is required,
an array configuration is employed [8]–[13]. The two types of rectenna
arrays such as an RF-array and dc-array have been investigated [13].
In the case of the dc-array, a series, parallel and cascaded connections
have been discussed. Advantages and disadvantages of the each array
have been explained.
In this communication, a novel stacked differential rectenna is
proposed suitable for large-scale rectenna arrays that are a series con-
nection, a parallel connection, and a series–parallel connection of
rectenna units [14]. Design and features of the proposed rectenna are
described. A 30-element rectenna array (3-element rectenna × 10) is
also demonstrated as an example of the large-scale rectenna array.
Manuscript received February 13, 2014; revised May 26, 2015; accepted
September 07, 2015. Date of publication October 15, 2015; date of current ver-
sion November 25, 2015. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI under
Grant 24560465.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saga
University, Saga 850-8402, Japan (e-mail: matsunaga@ceng.ec.saga-u.ac.jp;
nisiyama@ceng.ec.saga-u.ac.jp; toyoda@cc.saga-u.ac.jp).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are
available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2015.2491319
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015 5945

II. R ECTENNA D ESIGN

A. Rectenna Structure
Fig. 1 shows the structure of the proposed stacked differential
rectenna and the stacked structure concept. The rectenna consists of
three microstrip patch antennas, two diodes, four shorted stubs, and
two capacitors. The ground planes of the microstrip antennas are sep-
arated by slits between them. The capacitors act as dc storage and
also connect the separated ground planes in RF. The λ/4 shorted stubs
which are connected to the ground plane by via holes are attached at
the anode and cathode of the diodes. They suppress the even harmonics
generated by the diodes and also form circuits to charge the capacitors.
The shorted stubs do not affect the input impedance of the anten-
nas at the fundamental frequency because they are quarter-wavelength
shorted stubs. This stacked structure provides a series connection of
two rectennas that are #1–#2 elements and #2–#3 elements differen-
tial rectennas as shown in Fig. 1(b). DC output voltage is obtained
between terminals T1 and T2 that are shown in Fig. 1. Schottky diodes
(MSS-20145-B10D, Metelics) and 3-pF capacitors are mounted on the
obverse and reverse side of the substrate, respectively.
When the polarity of the received RF wave is forward for the diodes,
the diodes become in ON state. In this state, dc current flows through
the diodes and stubs. Then the capacitors are charged. On the con-
trary, when the polarity of the RF wave is reverse for the diodes,
they become OFF state. Hence, this structure acts as a half-wave recti-
fier. Each diode is driven by the antiphase RF waves received by two
microstrip antennas and twice of its voltage is applied to the diodes
as shown in Fig. 2. This differential operation effectively improves
the RF-to-dc conversion efficiency under low power conditions
[10], [11].
The newly proposed structure shown in Fig. 1 provides a higher
voltage than a conventional differential rectenna by stacking two
differential rectennas. Furthermore, the compact structure has been
achieved with the center patch shared by two differential rectennas.

B. Equivalent Circuit
Fig. 3 shows an equivalent circuit of the proposed stacked rectenna.
A pair of RF sources corresponds to the two microstrip anten-
nas connected to a diode. The microstrip line (MSL) between the
diode and RF source is a feeder line of the antenna. The quarter-
Fig. 1. Structure and concept of the stacked differential rectenna. (a) Proposed
wavelength transmission lines (E = 90◦ .) shown in Fig. 3 are the
rectenna structure. (b) Stacked structure concept.
shorted stubs connected at the anode and cathode of the diodes. Source
power of each RF source is determined by the received RF power at
each microstrip antenna. RF power received by the center patch is
divided to two RF sources because the center patch has two output
ports.

C. Simulated Performance
Fig. 4(a) shows the simulated conversion efficiency defined in (1)
versus the input impedance of the patch antenna. The conversion effi-
ciency reaches a maximum at Zin = 160 Ω, where the total input
power is −11 dBm and the frequency is 5.8 GHz. The maximum
conversion efficiency is 23.5%.
Fig. 4(b) and (c) shows the output voltage, output current and con-
version efficiency as a function of the load resistance RL , respectively.
The output dc voltage increases and current decreases as the load resis-
tance increases. The conversion efficiency of 23.6% is obtained at the
load resistance of 1140 Ω. In this simulation, Agilent Technologies’
ADS is used.
Fig. 2. RF voltage applied to the diode. Twice of RF voltage is applied to each
diode.
D. Antenna Design
Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows 1-port and 2-port simulation models of the
microstrip patch antennas, respectively. The 2-port model is simulated
in a half region using a perfect electric conductor (PEC) plane due to
its symmetrical structure. The quarter-wavelength shorted stub is also
included in the model. The patches #1 and #3 are simulated as the 1-
port model. The shared center patch #2 having two ports is simulated
as the 2-port model. The patch is 17.05 mm square and the size of
the notch is designed to change the antenna impedance. Teflon fiber

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5946 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015
Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit of the proposed stacked differential rectenna.
Fig. 4. Simulated results of equivalent circuit at 5.80 GHz. (a) Conversion effi-
ciency versus input impedance of patch antenna. (b) Output dc voltage and
current versus load resistance. (c) Conversion efficiency versus load resistance
(input power = −11 dBm).
substrate (εr = 2.15, thickness = 0.8 mm) is used in this design. The
design frequency is 5.8 GHz. Agilent Technologies’ ADS momentum
and EMPro (FEM) are used in this design.
Fig. 5(c) and (d) shows the simulated reflection coefficient and
antenna directivity, respectively. The reflection is better than −20 dB
at 5.8 GHz. The radiation patterns of the two antennas are almost
identical.
III. L ARGE -S CALE R ECTENNA A RRAY
A. Concept
There are two ways to achieve a high-voltage/large-current
rectenna. Using a high-gain array antenna is one way. Here, RF waves
received by each antenna element are combined in RF and the com-
bined wave is applied to a diode. In this rectenna, the diode works well
because high RF voltage can be applied to the diode [13]. However,
the configuration requires a high breakdown diode and it may limit
the applications because the input power of the diode cannot be higher
than its breakdown voltage. Furthermore, the directivity becomes very
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Fig. 5. Antenna design. (a) 1-port model. (b) 2-port model. (c) Simulated
reflection coefficient. (d) Simulated directivity of antennas.
Fig. 6. Concept of the large-scale rectenna array. (a) Single-diode rectenna
(N = 1). (b) Stacked rectenna (N = 2). (c) Large-scale rectenna array.
narrow due to the high-gain antenna with large aperture. Another way
is a dc connection. Because output dc voltage is obtained between
separated ground planes in the proposed structure, the dc connection
can be achieved by simply connecting these ground planes. Hence, we
chose the dc connection which allows us to use low breakdown diodes
and also provides a wide angle reception.
B. Method of Large-Scale Array
Fig. 6 shows the concept of a large-scale rectenna array employing
the proposed stacked rectenna. Fig. 6(a) shows a single-diode rectenna
(N = 1) which is the basic element of the large-scale rectenna array
[10], [11]. Fig. 6(b) shows the proposed stacked rectenna (N = 2)
which integrates two rectifying diodes and three patch antennas.
Fig. 7(a) and (b) shows the output voltage and conversion effi-
ciency of the rectennas (N = 1 and 2). The stacked structure, i.e.,
N = 2, provides a higher voltage than the single-diode rectenna.
This is because the stacked rectenna has three microstrip patch anten-
nas and receives more RF power than the single-diode rectenna [14].
On the other hand, the maximum RF-to-dc conversion efficiencies
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015 5947

Fig. 7. Performance comparison of the proposed rectenna (N = 2) and

single-diode rectenna (N = 1) (Frequency = 5.80 GHz). (a) Output volt-
age (PPD = 0.036 W/m2 ). (b) Conversion efficiency versus power density
when the optimum load was chosen for each power density (RL = 510 −
910 Ω for N = 1, RL = 1000 − 2700 Ω for N = 2).

of the proposed stacked rectenna and the single-diode rectenna are

almost same as shown in Fig. 7(b), where the optimum load resis-
tance was chosen for each power density. This means that the proposed
stacked structure provides a higher voltage without a significant con-
version efficiency degradation. The maximum conversion efficiency Fig. 8. Fabricated 5.8-GHz rectenna (120 mm × 40 mm, Zin = 160 Ω).
was around 25% when the power density was 0.055 W/m2 . It is possi-
ble to increase the output voltage by simply increasing the number of
diodes. The proposed rectenna can provide more current by connecting
the ground planes in parallel as shown in Fig. 6(c). Furthermore, it is
also possible to increase the output voltage by connecting the ground
planes in series. Therefore, a large-scale rectenna array can be simply
achieved by the stacked structure and series and/or parallel dc con-
nection of the rectennas’ ground planes. The efficiency of the stacked
rectenna (N = 2) is lower than the single-diode rectenna (N = 1)
by about 1%. Ideally, these stacked rectennas (N > 1) should have the
same conversion efficiency as the single-diode rectenna (N = 1) due
to the dc series connection as shown Fig. 1(b). However, increasing the
number of diodes to increase the output voltage in practice may not Fig. 9. Comparison of the simulated and measured results for Zin = 160 Ω.
result in maintaining the same power conversion efficiency especially (a) Output voltage versus load resistance. (b) Conversion efficiency versus load
under low power conditions because the element #2 is reconfigured for resistance. (PPD = 0.036 W/m2 ).
the stacked structured and three patches drive two diodes for N = 2,
whereas two patches drive one diode for N = 1. Furthermore, a
large-scale array is also affected more than the single rectenna by
fabrication errors as described in Section IV. B. Measured Results
Fig. 8 shows the photo of the fabricated 5.8-GHz stacked differ-
ential rectenna. The size of the rectenna is 120 × 40 mm. The input
IV. M EASURED R ESULTS
impedance of the antenna is 160 Ω and the element interval is 0.8λ0 .
A. Definition of Conversion Efficiency Fig. 9(a) and (b) shows the measured output voltage and conversion
The RF-to-dc conversion efficiency η is defined in efficiency which are compared with the schematic simulated results,
respectively. The RF power density PPD is 0.036 W/m2 which corre-
η = PDC /Prec (1) sponds to an input power of −11 dBm. The output voltage increases as
the load resistance increases. However, the conversion efficiency has a
where PDC is the output dc power measured at the load resistance
maximum value of 24.6% when the load resistance is 1200 Ω. Good
connected to the dc output terminals of the proposed rectenna. Prec
agreement is obtained. The difference between the measurement and
is the available RF power received by the rectenna and determined as
simulation is only 1% at the load resistance RL = 1200 Ω.
follows:
Fig. 10 compares the measured and simulated maximum conver-
Prec = PPD × Aer sion efficiency as a function of the input impedance Zin of the patch
  antenna. Four prototype rectennas for each of the input impedance of
= PPD × Grec × λ2 /4π (2)
100, 120, 140, and 160 Ω are fabricated and measured. Average effi-
where Aer , Grec , and PPD are the effective antenna aperture, antenna’s ciencies for each of the impedances are shown as a solid line. Optimum
gain, and RF power density calibrated at the receiving plane using load resistance is around 1200 Ω for all prototypes. The average con-
a standard horn antenna (10.2 dBi at 5.8 GHz), respectively. The version efficiency of the measured result is more than 24.0% when the
antenna’s gain Grec is evaluated as 10.6 dBi because the gain of the sin- input impedance of the patch antenna is 120 and 140 Ω. In this case,
gle patch antenna is 5.8 dBi. The gains of the stacked rectenna arrays only the resistive part of the diode’s impedance is considered for the
are estimated from combination of the gains of 1-port and 2-port ele- impedance matching. Better conversion efficiency is expected by con-
ments as shown in Fig. 5(a) and (b). The detail of the measurement sidering the reactive part of the diode impedance. On the other hand,
setup is described in [10]. simulated conversion efficiency for Zin = 140 Ω is 23.3%.

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5948 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015
Fig. 10. Conversion efficiency versus input impedance Zin in compari-
son with the measured and simulated results (frequency = 5.80 GHz, PPD =
0.036 W/m2 ).
Fig. 11. Photo of the fabricated 5.8-GHz rectenna array (Zin = 140 Ω).
Fig. 12. Measured conversion efficiency versus frequency of 1-, 5-, and
10-unit rectennas (PPD = 0.041 W/m2 ). The load resistance is chosen to
obtain the maximum conversion efficiency at designed frequency of 5.80 GHz
in each case.
C. Large-Scale Rectenna Array
Fig. 11 shows the fabricated ten units of 3-element stacked differen-
tial rectenna with the input impedance Zin of 140 Ω. These rectennas
can be connected in series and parallel at back side of the rectennas.
So, the large-scale rectenna array can be easily realized.
Fig. 12 shows the measured conversion efficiency of the fabricated
rectennas as a function of frequency. Series or parallel connections of 5
and 10 units are compared with single unit, where the received power
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Fig. 13. Measured performance of the proposed rectenna arrays. (a) Output
voltage versus load resistance in series connection. (b) Output cur-
rent versus load resistance in parallel connection (frequency = 5.81 GHz,
PPD = 0.041 W/m2 , Zin = 140 Ω).
Fig. 14. Performance distribution of the fabricated 1-unit recten-
nas and their series/parallel connections (frequency = 5.81 GHz,
PPD = 0.041 W/m2 , Zin = 140 Ω).
density is 0.041 W/m2 . The load resistance is chosen to obtain the
maximum conversion efficiency at designed frequency of 5.80 GHz
in each case. The maximum conversion efficiency is obtained at
5.81 GHz.
Fig. 13(a) shows the output voltage of 1-, 5-, and 10-unit recten-
nas connected in series. The measured frequency was 5.81 GHz where
the maximum conversion efficiency was obtained. The received power
density was 0.041 W/m2 . Fig. 13(b) shows the output current of 1-, 5-,
and 10-unit rectennas connected in parallel. The output dc voltage and
current increase by the series and parallel connection, respectively. The
10-unit rectenna array connected in series provides about eight times
of output voltage in comparison with a single-unit rectenna when the
load resistance is 100 kΩ which is considered as open circuit. The 10-
unit rectenna array connected in parallel also provides about 10 times
of output current when the load resistance is 10 Ω which is considered
as short circuit.
The output voltage and current increase as the number of units
increases. However, the conversion efficiency of the 10-unit rectenna
array is less than 1- or 5-unit rectennas by about 6% as shown in
Fig. 12. The fabricated stacked differential rectenna units are not
exactly identical due to the unavoidable fabrication errors including
a diode performance variation. In dc series and parallel connection,
due to differences of output voltages and current of each rectenna
units, the performance of the rectenna array degrades according to the
increasing of the array number. Fig. 14 shows the maximum conver-
sion efficiency of each connection and 1-unit rectenna. The conversion
efficiency of 1-unit rectennas distributes from 32.9% to 44.1% and the
average is 38.9% at 0.041 W/m2 . This is consistent with the results of
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 63, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015
Fig. 15. Characteristic of incident angle in comparison with 1-unit rectenna
and 10-unit rectenna array (frequency = 5.81 GHz, PPD = 0.041 W/m2 ,
Zin = 140 Ω).
5- and 10-unit rectenna arrays. Fig. 14 also shows that the optimum
load resistance depends on the connection and the number of units.
The performance variation of 1-unit rectennas causes the performance
difference as shown Fig. 12.
Fig. 15 shows the normalized output dc power versus incident angle.
As shown in this figure, the incident angle characteristics are almost
the same even though the output power is different, i.e., it does not
depend on the number of rectenna units. This is because of the dc
connection.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this communication, a stacked differential rectenna is proposed
to simply achieve large-scale rectenna arrays. This rectenna provides
high conversion efficiency even under low power conditions due to its
differential operation. The proposed rectenna is operated at 5.8 GHz
and the maximum conversion efficiency was 44.1% at the power
density of as low as 0.041 W/m2 . The proposed stacked differential
rectenna can be easily connected in series and/or parallel to achieve
large-scale rectenna arrays. The conversion efficiency of the rectenna
array is almost the same in comparison with a single rectenna.
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0018-926X © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Downloaded on July 12,2022 at 12:56:47 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
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Dual-Cap Mushroom-Like Metasurface Used in CP
Reconfigurable Monopole Antenna for Performance
Enhancement
Y. F. Cao, S. W. Cheung, and T. I. Yuk
Abstract—A dual-cap mushroom-like metasurface (MS) is proposed.
The proposed MS is called dual-cap mushroom-like MS because each unit
cell has a simple patch with a centered via on one side of the substrate
and a meandered slot on the other side, while conventional mushroom-
like MS has one side of the substrate being a plain conducting plate. The
meandered slot on the other side of the substrate introduces inductive
effects to lower down the operating frequency and increases the oper-
ating bandwidth of the unit cells. Comparison is made with other unit
cells. The proposed MS is then used as a reflector in the design of a pla-
nar circular-polarization reconfigurable (CPR) monopole antenna for the
global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Simulation results show that,
by placing at only 0.09λ0 from the antenna, the MS can increase the
boresight gain and the operating bandwidth from 0.4 to 6.6 dBi, and
1.46–1.79 GHz to 1.42–1.88 GHz, respectively.
Index Terms—Circular polarization (CP), metasurface (MS), monopole
antenna, reconfigurable.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Metasurface (MS) is a two-dimensional (2-D) equivalent of meta-
material and can be implemented using small unit cells [1]. With
the succinct planar structure, MS can be used in the design of pla-
nar antennas with improved performances. For example, in [2] and
[3], an MS was placed in front of a patch/slot/monopole antenna to
improve the boresight gain or convert linear polarization (LP) to cir-
cular polarization (CP). In [4]–[12], an MS was placed at the back of
Manuscript received May 21, 2015; revised September 14, 2015; accepted
October 07, 2015. Date of publication October 12, 2015; date of current version
November 25, 2015.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong (e-mail:
yfcao@eee.hku.hk; swcheung@eee.hku.hk; tiyuk@eee.hku.hk).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are
available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2015.2489682