Efficient single and broadband microwave rectifiers for RFEH/WPT enabled low power 5G sub-6 GHz devices

In recent years, the enormous innovation in the wireless system has escalated the demands of fifth-Generation (5G) enabled RF Energy Harvesting (RFEH) and Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) systems. With this motivation, the proposed work introduces two efficient rectifier configurations for potential implementation in both RFEH and WPT systems covering global Sub-6 GHz 5G bands. The Design-1 presents a single-band rectifier covering 3.3–3.7 GHz sub-6 GHz 5G band. A dual Transmission Line (TL) based Matching Network (MN) is used to improve the rectifier performance. At 0 dBm, Design-1 achieved maximum Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) of 76 % at 3.5 GHz and 4kΩ load. The Design-2 presents a 3.3–5 GHz broadband rectifier circuit that covers the entire sub-6 GHz 5G bands. A MN based on multi-stepped TL is used to improve the rectifier performance for the broad frequency band and achieved a PCE greater than 35 % and 50 % at 0 and 9 dBm, respectively at a load value of 1kΩ. For validation, prototypes of both rectifiers are fabricated and a very good agreement between simulated and measured results is achieved. The proposed rectifier configurations hold immense potential for implementation across nations and offer a global solution to self-sustainable low-powered 5G battery-less devices.