Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Wireless Technology

Efficient, Compact, Wireless Battery Design

Jeroen A.C. Theeuwes#1, Huib J. Visser#*^2, Martijn C. van Beurden*3, Gert J.N. Doodeman#4
#

TNO Science & Industry

P.O. Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Phone: +31 40 265 0891, Fax: +31 40 265 0305
1

jeroen.theeuwes@tno.nl
2
huib.j.visser@tno.nl
4
gert.doodeman@tno.nl

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology

Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Phone: +31 40 247 3462
2

h.j.visser@tue.nl
m.c.v.beurden@tue.nl
^

Holst Centre
P.O. Box 8550, 5605 KN Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2

visser@ieee.org

Abstract Wireless batteries or rectennas rectifying antennas

are conceived for converting wireless RF power into DC power.
Although power conversion efficiencies exceeding 80% have been
reported for high (20dBm) rectenna input power levels, wireless
batteries will be most beneficial at large distances from sources
that will radiate at power levels limited by national and
international regulations. Therefore, the challenge is in
maximizing the power conversion efficiency of wireless batteries
for low input power levels, say 0dBm and below. By directly
conjugate matching a rectifying circuit to a microstrip patch
antenna, the need for a matching network between the two no
longer exists. Thus the efficiency of the wireless battery will
improve. Moreover, this matching technique automatically
suppresses the reradiation of harmonics by the microstrip patch
antenna since the harmonics will be mismatched. Thus, the
impedance matching and filtering network encountered in
traditional wireless battery designs has become obsolete. With
the aid of analytical models developed for antenna and rectifier,
single-layer, internally matched and filtered PCB rectennas have
been designed for low input power levels. An efficiency of 52%
for 0dBm input power has been realized at 2.45GHz for a
wireless battery realized on FR4, showing an improvement next
to the size and complexity reduction - of more than 10% over a
traditional rectenna design. A series connection of these wireless
batteries is shown to be able to power a standard household wall
clock.

I. INTRODUCTION
A wireless battery or rectenna is used to convert wireless
RF power into DC power. Therefore a rectifying circuit is
connected to an antenna. The rectifying circuit in general
consists of one or more diodes. A diode becomes a more
efficient rectifier at higher input power levels. In [1], a
rectenna power conversion efficiency is reported exceeding
80%, but for an input power level of 20dBm. Whenever a
physical connection for feeding an application is not possible
and distance is not critical, i.e. the radiating source will be

978-2-87487-003-3 2007 EuMA

close to the rectenna, such a high-input-power solution is

preferred. For feeding wireless applications on larger
distances however, using ISM frequency bands that are
restricted in allowed transmitting powers, the challenge is to
maximize power conversion efficiency for low rectenna input
power levels while at the same time minimizing dimensions of
the wireless battery. In the remainder we will discuss how we
have accomplished solutions for both parts of the challenge. In
section II, we will discuss the traditional wireless battery
design and means to improve this design. In section III, the
analytical models developed for antenna and rectifier will be
discussed, followed, in section IV, by the verification of the
models. In section V, a 2.45GHz wireless battery design will
be discussed as well as the application of eight of these
batteries in series to power a household wall clock.
II. TRADITIONAL WIRELESS BATTERY DESIGN
A traditional wireless battery or rectenna design consists of
a receiving antenna that is connected to a rectifier (diode)
through a matching network that also acts as a filter. The
filtering suppresses the reradiation of harmonics, generated by
the diode. Fig. 1 shows the PCB lay-out of a rectenna in
microstrip technology, [2].

Fig. 1 PCB lay-out of a planar microstrip rectenna. The antenna is probe-fed,

the microstrip patch and the microstrip network share a common ground plane.

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October 2007, Munich Germany

A first improvement consists of employing a microstrip

edge feed instead of a probe feed. Thus, the whole structure
reduces to a single, grounded layer PCB. Next, the diode is
directly conjugate matched to the microstrip patch antenna.
This will make the impedance matching network redundant.
Besides, the higher order harmonics, generated by the diode,
will be mismatched to the small-band microstrip patch
antenna and therefore will not be reradiated. Thus also the
need for a filtering network has been eliminated.
Since the characteristics of the individual parts of a wireless
battery are very critical with respect to the overall system
performance, a need exists for accurate, yet easy to implement
models for the wireless battery parts.

packaging. The current flowing through the diode d is given

by

III. ANALYTICAL MODELS

Analytical models have been developed both for the
antenna and for the packaged diode.

where a single input frequency is being assumed. Rg is

the source internal resistance.
The circuit of Fig. 2 is described by the following three
first-order differential equations

A. Microstrip Patch Antenna Model

The rectangular microstrip patch antenna employed in the
wireless battery is being analysed by employing a cavity
model, [3], [4]. The fringe fields of the microstrip patch
antenna are taken care of by virtue of employing an effective
length and width. These effective dimensions are calculated
first, using empirical relations found for an open-end
transmission line, [3]. Next, by performing one iteration only
with a full-wave electromagnetic analysis program, over a
limited frequency range, these effective dimensions are
corrected. The corrected effective dimensions result in an
improved-accuracy cavity model over the frequency range of
interest.
B. Packaged Diode Model
The equivalent electric circuit for a packaged (Schottky)
diode is shown in Fig. 2, embedded in a circuit for
determining the diode impedance. The diode will be employed
in the wireless battery with a capacitance placed in parallel
over the diode.

Fig. 2 Packaged diode model, consisting of a diode model d, with a

conductance as described in (1), a junction capacitance Cj, a series resistance
Rs and parasitic capacitance and inductance Cp and Lp, respectively.

The junction capacitance Cj is inversely proportional to the

square root of the voltage Vd over diode d. Cp and Lp are,
respectively, parasitic capacitance and inductance due to

q
I d = I s exp( nkT
Vd ) 1

(1),

where Is is the saturation current, q is the electron charge, n

is the diode ideality factor, k is Boltzmanns constant and T is
the temperature.
The source voltage is

Vg = Vg cos(t )

Vg = L p

I g
t

+ Vd + Rg I g + Rs C j

V
I g = I s e nkT d 1 + C j

X =

(2),

Vd
t

Vd
t

+ Cp

Vg
t

V
+ Rs I s e nkT d 1

C p Rg

I g
t

C p Lp

X
t

I g
t

(1)
A fourth-order Runge-Kutta routine is being employed to
solve for the packaged diode voltage and the generator current,
subject to the condition that at t=0, Ig(0)=0 and Vd(0)=0, [5].
Next, an FFT is used to transform these time-domain
parameters to the frequency domain, where for each harmonic
a (packaged) diode impedance is determined for a fixed
frequency and incident power level.
IV. MODEL VERIFICATION
The models developed for the microstrip patch antenna and
the packaged Schottky diode have been verified by
comparison with full-wave analysis results and measurements.
A. Improved Cavity Model Verification
In Fig. 3a and Fig. 3b, the real and imaginary part of the
input impedance of a rectangular microstrip patch antennas as
function of frequency are shown as calculated by the
improved cavity model and as calculated by Ansofts
Ensemble. The width and length of the patch are,
respectively 27.7mm and 30.8mm. The substrate is 1.6mm
thick FR4, having a relative permittivity of 4.28 and a loss
tangent of 0.016. The feed is positioned at 0.4mm from the
corner on the short side.
Since measurement results are nearly identical to the fullwave calculation results, they are not shown in the figures.
Fig. 3a and Fig. 3b clearly show the validity of our
improved cavity model, the difference with full-wave
calculations being only a few percent which is good enough
for a wireless battery design.
Indicated in the impedance curves are the real and
imaginary part of the input impedance for a frequency of

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2.45GHz. The reason for this will become clear in the next
section.

packaged diode with accuracy within a few percent at the

frequencies of interest. This accuracy is enough to be able to
design a wireless battery.

b
Fig. 4 Real (a) and imaginary (b) part of the simulated and measured input
impedance of a HSMS-2852 Schottky diode.

Simulations and measurements of the wireless battery

subcircuits have shown that our analytical models are accurate
within a few percent, which is sufficient for design purposes.
b
Fig. 3 Real (a) and imaginary(b) part of the simulated input impedance of an
edge-fed rectangular microstrip patch antenna. Width: 27.7mm, length:
30.8mm, thickness 1.6mm, relative permittivity: 4.28, loss tangent: 0.016,
feed position: 0.4mm from corner on short side.

B. Packaged Diode Model Verification

Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b show the real and imaginary parts of the
simulated and measured packaged fundamental diode
impedance as function of the frequency for a 0dBm input
power level. The diode is an Agilent diode type HSMS-2852.
Measurements have been performed taking only the
fundamental frequency into account.
The HSMS-2852 package contains two diodes that share
one pin. The floating pin of the second diode that has not been
used in the measurements, gives rise to a capacitive coupling.
The measurement data as presented in Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b has
been corrected for this capacitive coupling that was estimated
to have a value of 0.3pF.
The noise that is visible on the measurement data is the
result of the fact that the network analyzer is not able to fully
suppress the higher harmonics on its input. Nevertheless, we
see that we are still able to predict the input impedance of the

V. WIRELESS BATTERY DESIGN

In the final wireless battery design we will not use a single
diode, but a pair in a voltage doubler configuration, see Fig. 5,
[6].

Fig. 5 Voltage doubler diode rectifier.

In the above figure, ZL is the load impedance of the wireless

battery. We see that at microwave frequencies, the capacitor C
is a short-circuit and that the input impedance of the rectifier
is that of an (anti-) parallel pair of diodes. Thus, by halving
the input impedance as calculated for the circuit of Fig. 2, we
obtain the input impedance of the voltage doubler rectifying
circuit. For DC, the diodes act as sources that are connected in

235

series and therefore the output voltage is doubled in

comparison to a single-diode rectifying circuit.
So, the design of the virtual battery starts with calculating
the input impedance of a packaged diode at the fundamental
frequency for a fixed input power level. Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b
show the results of this exercise for a HSMS-2852 diode
having a 0dBm input power level.
Next, the impedance values are halved to obtain the input
impedances for the voltage doubler rectifying configuration of
Fig. 5. From Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b, we find at a frequency of
2.45GHz, that this impedance is equal to (80-j90).
Then, we design a microstrip patch antenna with an edge
feed, having an input impedance at 2.45GHz that is equal to
the complex conjugate of the input impedance of the voltage
doubler rectifying circuit, i.e. (40+j45) . The crosses in Fig.
3a and Fig. 3b indicate that for this particular patch antenna
the dimensions are such that this requirement has been
fulfilled.
To suppress the presence of the fundamental frequency and
to a lesser extent the presence of higher harmonics in the
output signal, it is common practice to add a stub after the
rectifying circuit, see for example Fig. 1. Measurements have
shown however, that this stub may be omitted without
significantly decreasing the performance of the system. This,
finally, results into a wireless battery that is hardly larger than
the microstrip patch antenna, see Fig. 6.

b
Fig. 7 Front view (a) and back view (b) of a common household electric wall
clock powered by eight 2.45GHz wireless batteries in series. The additional
circuit in b is a voltage protection circuit.

Using a 20dBm transmitter and a 5dB gain horn antenna in

the focal point of a 51cm diameter parabolic dish, resulted in
getting the clock to operate up to 6m from the antenna.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
A cavity model for rectangular microstrip patch antennas
has been improved using a single full-wave simulator iteration.
Solving the differential equations that describe diode current
and voltage has led to the determination of a diode input
impedance. Both models have been successfully employed to
design a compact, integrated, efficient, low-cost wireless
battery in a very time-efficient way.
Fig. 6 Single-layer, grounded PCB rectenna consisting of a microstrip patch
antenna with a diode voltage doubler and SMD capacitor connected
immediately to the edge of the patch.

The optimum load resistance for this wireless battery,

operating at 2.45GHz, turned out to be 900. For this
optimum load resistance, the power conversion efficiency, for
a 0dBm power level received by the antenna, turned out to be
52%. This efficiency is a more than 10% improvement over a
traditionally designed wireless battery operating at the same
frequency, having the same input power level, [2].
The rectenna as shown in Fig. 6 has been employed in a
series circuit of eight elements to power a common household
electric wall clock, see Fig. 7a and Fig. 7b.

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