Novel Design of Rectenna Array Using Metasurface for IoT

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel rectenna array using a metasurface to deliver electric power to IoT terminals by wireless power transfer. Each element that composes this rectenna array receives the electric power for IoT terminals like sensors from the wave source, and at the same time, it also acts as a director of the Yagi-Uda antenna and transmits the electric power to adjacent elements. However, the Yagi-Uda antenna generally has restrictions on the element spacing and shape, and the elements cannot be arranged freely. In order to address this issue, a metasurface is used as the reflector for the Yagi-Uda antenna to control the direction of the reflected wave and to propagate the electric power towards the element set at an arbitrary position. The wireless power transmission efficiency of each element of the proposed rectenna arrays was clarified using electromagnetic field analysis.