Hybrid FSS and Rectenna Design for Wireless Power Harvesting

This communication presents a hybrid frequency selective surface (FSS) and rectenna design for wireless power harvesting. To this extent, the center of the original FSS structure acts as a probe-fed patch antenna and an additional layer was added to the rear of FSS structure to mimic the required antenna ground plane, while minimizing its impact on FSS performance. The proposed hybrid solution yields a bandpass frequency response at GSM 900-MHz frequency band, with band reject behavior at 2.4 GHz and, on the other hand, act as a energy harvesting system through the antenna element at the 2.4-GHz ISM band, e.g., for recycling ambient Wi-Fi energy. The developed prototype, consisting of an array of 12 unit cells, was able to power a 56-mW LED at a 2-Hz rate from an incident power level of -10 dBm, resulting in an average output power of 300 μW and an unit cell RF-DC conversion efficiency of 50%.