A Compact High-Efficiency RF Rectifier for Ambient RF Energy Harvesting

In this paper, a compact broadband microwave rectifier for ambient RF energy harvesting is proposed. In the proposed structure, the impedance matching in a wide frequency band is realized only by using the L-shaped impedance matching network of two transmission lines, thereby reducing physical size of the rectifier and achieving a compact design of the rectifier. Through theoretical analysis and simulation, the rectifier shows good bandwidth performance. The rectification efficiency is greater than 40 % in the range of 1.23 ~ 2.69 GHz (a bandwidth of 50%) at 0 dBm. The efficiency of the rectifier is more than 60 % in the range of 1.37 ~ 2.44 GHz at 8 dBm, and the maximum conversion efficiency is 73.3 %.