A Dual-Polarized Omnidirectional Rectenna Array for RF Energy Harvesting

In this paper, a dual-polarized omnidirectional rectenna array using a hybrid power-combining scheme is proposed for the applications of RF energy harvesting. In the antenna design part, two omnidirectional antenna subarrays are created to receive horizontally polarized electromagnetic (EM) waves and a four-dipole subarray is produced to receive vertically polarized incoming EM waves. The two antenna subarrays of different polarizations are combined and optimized, so as to reduce the mutual influence between them. In this way, a dual-polarized omnidirectional antenna array is realized. In the rectifier design part, a half-wave rectifying structure is adopted for converting the RF energy into DC energy. Based on the Wilkinson power divider and 3-dB hybrid coupler structure, a power-combining network is designed to connect the whole antenna array and rectifiers. The proposed rectenna array is fabricated and measured under different RF energy harvesting scenarios. All simulated and measured results are in good agreement, which verifies the capabilities of the designed rectenna array.