Highly Efficient, Aperture‐Loaded Planar Dual‐Band Rectenna for Energy Harvesting in IoT Applications

ABSTRACT This paper presents an efficient dual‐band rectenna for energy harvesting in IoT applications at the 5G (3.6 GHz) and Wi‐Fi max (5.8 GHz) bands. The rectenna consists of a dual‐band antenna, an impedance‐matching network (IMN), and a rectifier circuit designed on the FR4 substrate to make the system economical. The antenna is optimized on the substrate of a compact area equal to . A heptagonal patch with a heptagonal slot and tuning stubs provides proper impedance matching and bandwidth. The partial ground design yields a measured gain of 4.97 and 7.07 dBi at 3.6 and 5.8 GHz, respectively. The proposed antenna exhibits an omnidirectional radiational pattern with improved radiation efficiency. The received EM signal is then rectified using an HSMS‐2860 Schottky diode‐based rectifier circuit. The circuit is connected to the antenna via an IMN. The proposed IMN reduces the rectenna complexity by utilizing minimum transmission lines for dual‐frequency operation. It shows the maximum measured power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 54% and 46% at 3.6 and 5.8 GHz, respectively. The output DC voltage of 1.64 and 1.25 V is measured for 3.6 and 5.8 GHz, respectively, at a 1‐Kload resistance.