Dual-Band Compact Rectenna for UHF and ISM Wireless Power Transfer Systems

A dual-band UHF/industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) compact rectenna with wideband UHF matching (855-935 MHz) covering all, EU, U.S., and Chinese UHF radio frequency identification (RFID), standards is presented. The proposed design consists of a compact single-port, dual-band antenna, a three-port dual-branch matching network, and two voltage doubler rectifiers implemented with Schottky diodes and terminated with a common 10 kΩ load. For each band, the measured RF-to-dc efficiency is around 60% for a -5 dBm unmodulated signal. The wideband behavior of the rectenna supports harvesting of multitone signals. The use of a six-tone signal increases the maximum RF-to-dc efficiency of the dual-band rectifier, from approximately 60% for a single-tone UHF signal (890 MHz) to 80% for a six-tone signal for a received RF power of -5 dBm in both cases. A signal generator is used to generate a six-tone signal of equally weighted and equally spaced (10 MHz separation) monochromatic tones, with a total bandwidth of 50 MHz. The measurement results demonstrate that the dc voltages rectified from the two separate RF signals are effectively superimposed on the load, providing a clear advantage compared to single-band rectennas. The single-layer, compact design with a size of 80×45 mm2, with a high RF-to-dc efficiency, is an excellent candidate for wirelessly powered RFID tags.