volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

A novel flexible hybrid rectenna for simultaneous RF energy harvesting (RF-EH) and dedicated wireless power transfer (WPT) is proposed. The rectenna comprises a notched broadband omnidirectional microstrip antenna (2.8-6.3 GHz with a 4.7 GHz notch) and a 4.7 GHz directional dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) located on the microstrip antenna. At the 4.7 GHz notch band, electromagnetic energy is confined around an L-shaped strip and a split-ring slot of the microstrip antenna, exciting a TM₂₀₁^z resonant mode in the DRA that produces a narrow radiation beam at 4.7 GHz. This enables a frequency-domain complementary operation: ambient energy is harvested across the broadband region for low-power applications, while dedicated power is efficiently received at 4.7 GHz for high-power operation. A broadband rectifier employing a dual-channel impedance matching architecture is further proposed, in which two parallel branches cooperatively extend the rectification bandwidth. Measurements demonstrate that the rectenna achieves efficiencies above 45% across 2.8-6.3 GHz, with a peak efficiency of 57.9%. In addition, the use of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the substrate provides high flexibility and excellent conformability. These features make the proposed rectenna well-suited for powering electronics on curved surfaces, compact devices, and curved-surface Internet-of-Things (IoT) nodes, such as robots, drones, in-vehicle applications and industrial robotic arm units, enabling reliable conformal deployment on non-planar equipment and distributed IoT systems.

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Dr. Lei Li

Dr. Yang Hu

Dr. Yuting Jia

Dr. Xiaomeng Wang

Dr. Yanting Wang

Dr. Enxin Zhao

Dr. Shulin Li

Dr. Jingchang Nan