Performance characterization of flexible dipole rectennas for smart actuator use

The concept of power transmission by a microwave is envisioned as the best option for alleviating the complexity associated with hard-wired control circuitry in controlling smart actuators and robots such as micro-aerial vehicles, biomimetic robots and space vehicles to produce remotely maneuverable capability. A flexible dipole rectenna array is conformably adaptable on the complex structure of vehicles used for practical applications of wireless power. For these applications, various flexible dipole rectennas and arrays were designed, fabricated and characterized over a frequency range of 9-12GHz with 20W and 200W amplifiers through laboratory testing. The irradiance of the microwave power was measured. Also the irradiated power, the output power and the efficiency of the rectenna arrays were evaluated along with the microwave power and frequency. The maximum voltage of 65 V_DC was observed from a series connected dipole rectenna array and the maximum current of 2.50mA was obtained from a parallel connected rectenna array. The efficiency of dipole rectenna arrays ranges from 20% to 50% depending on the input power and the pole configuration. It was also demonstrated that the voltage, current and power output from a dipole rectenna array can be tailored by configuring the dipole rectenna elements in serial and parallel mode connections.