Design and analysis of high efficiency rectenna

Abstract

On average, a medium-sized satellite consists of almost 500 sensors, where powering these sensors in space in such an unreachable environment is critical. Backing this, a compact energy harvester for powering up distant sensors is proposed is the purpose of this research. This research is targeted towards designing and analyzing the X and Ku bands receiving antenna using the Code Blocks software and Advanced Design System simulation tool for energy harvesting in order to satisfy the energy needs of autonomous wireless sensors on board of geostationary satellite for Structural Health Monitoring of the satellite panels, where weight, cost, size and efficiency are the principal space antenna parameters accounted. In this research, a compact, wideband semi-ellipse patch antenna backed with defected ground structure is proposed. The antenna compactness is obtained by truncating the elliptical patch to form a semi-ellipse patch without compromising the band of interest which reduces from launching weight and cost. The designed rectenna makes use of a compact wideband receiving antenna operating at the targeted frequency band from 8 to 18 GHz. It also consists of a simple dual diode rectifier topology with a matching circuit, BPF and a resistive load to convert the received radio frequency energy into usable Direct Current voltage. The proposed antenna covers X and Ku bands for voltage standing wave ratio and#8804; 2 with a maximum return loss of 28.75 dB, the efficiency of 95 %, the gain of 9.6 dBi and directivity of 14 dBi, which makes the proposed antenna compatible to use with the rectifier in order to satisfy the energy needs of wireless sensors. A maximum DC voltage of 1.8 V and 5-10 mV is harvested from rectifier and rectenna when 20 dBm power is transmitted from the transmitting antenna operating at X and Ku band which is feasible to power the wireless sensors in a structural health monitoring system using multiple rectennas newline