Novel Antenna Designs for Wireless Information and Power Transfer Systems

The global machine-to-machine (M2M) connections market is expected to reach 5.3 billion units by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 12.7% during the forecast period. Due to the high demand for massive-device systems, rectifying antenna (rectenna) technology has emerged as an effective and sustainable solution for harvesting energy from ambient electromagnetic waves. This technology powers low-power ubiquitous IoT devices and wireless sensors connected via 5G and beyond 5G (B5G) wireless ecosystems, especially in environments where it is difficult or impossible to change batteries and where the exact location of the devices may be unknown. The receiving terminals are powered through an antenna that receives incident electromagnetic waves in the gigahertz frequency range, couples the energy to a rectifier circuit, which charges a storage device through an efficient power management circuit, and powers the entire low-power terminal platform. For low incident power density levels, co-design of the RF powering and power management circuits is required for optimal performance. In this thesis, we propose new paradigms for low-power far-field wireless power and information transfer devices for IoT and wireless sensor systems. In these devices, the wireless data and power transfer modules can be integrated into a single device. We will design, model, fabricate, and characterize various wireless data and power transfer devices, including but not limited to: (i) compact, low-profile transparent antennas for multiband and multirange wireless power transfer, (ii) wideband simultaneous wireless information and power transfer devices in the IMS band, (iii) compact, wide-angle, high-gain, and bandwidth-enhanced rectennas for radiative energy harvesting systems, and (iv) travelling-wave-antenna-enabled wide angular and multi-polarization wireless information and power transfer. This research is expected to pave the way for next-generation energy harvesting systems that can be connected via IoT and wireless sensor networks.