An efficient rectifier for an RDA wireless power transmission system operating at 2.4 GHz

Abstract

This paper describes the design and measurement of a full-bridge rectifier and a receiving antenna array operating at 2.4 GHz for wireless power transmission system applications, and with motivations to wirelessly charge an electronic device in the radiating near-field. A retrodirective antenna array (RDA) was also used in the system with high power gain to boost the overall received RF power at the input of the rectenna. In particular, the RDA offered automatic tracking of the rectenna module in 3D space by employing phase conjugating mixers. The diode rectifier of our rectenna, which is the focus of the present work, offers full-wave-rectification and exhibits a 76% efficiency for an RF input power of 26 dBm and 74% at 27 dBm, while also providing more than 60% of RF-to-DC conversion efficiency at 2.4 GHz when considering an input RF power level ranging from 15 dBm to 29 dBm.