Dual-Band Rectenna for RF Energy Harvesting in GSM 900 and GSM 1800 Bands for IoT Applications

This paper presents a dual-band rectenna designed for RF energy harvesting in GSM 900 and GSM 1800 frequency bands, targeting the sustainable powering of low-power devices such as wireless sensor nodes, wearable electronics, and IoT sensors. The antenna features a double-sided printed dipole, double-sided parallel strip line, microstrip feed line, reflector, and parasitic dipole elements. The fabricated antenna covers the impedance bandwidth of both target frequency bands, with half-power beam widths of 150° at 0.945 GHz and 230° at 1.84 GHz based on measured H-plane radiation patterns. A stacked two-branch rectifier circuit is developed to rectify signals within the desired bands, incorporating Schottky diodes, matching networks, a power divider, and a DC-pass filter. Single-stub and double-stub matching networks optimized with high-impedance transmission lines enhance the bandwidths for GSM 900 and GSM 1800 bands, respectively. The rectifier achieves a maximum efficiency of 44.8% and 46.5% at -5 dBm for 920 MHz and 1766 MHz, respectively. The fabricated rectenna delivers a maximum DC output voltage of 673 mV at a 4.7 kΩ load in outdoor conditions, demonstrating its potential for powering low-power devices in sustainable IoT and energy-harvesting applications.