A compact and efficient graphene FET based RF energy harvester for green communication

Abstract

This paper presents a graphene field effect transistor (FET) based rectenna with substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) broadband approach for RF energy harvesting application. The proposed structure of integrated rectenna consists of a graphene FET rectifier and an SIW antenna operating in the (S<inf>11</inf> < ?10 dB) range of 29–46 GHz. The peak gain of the SIW antenna observed is 8.12 dBi. In addition, a new matched circuit consisting of microstrip line and butterfly stub (without using any lumped elements) is designed. The matched circuit provides a miniaturized block by reducing the size and eliminating parasitic reactance in the integrated rectenna. The proposed rectenna is implemented and fabricated using two superimposed layers: RT/duroid 5880 and graphene substrate with a compatible approach. A measured conversion efficiency of 80.32% is obtained. The dimensions of the proposed antenna and rectifier are 3.2 × 3.2 × 0.4 mm3 and 3.2 × 10 × 0.4 mm3, respectively. The proposed rectenna covers Ka- and Q-band applications and could be a potential candidate for contemporary energy harvesting systems. © 2019 Elsevier GmbH