Multiband Dual-Polarized Hybrid Antenna With Complementary Beam for Simultaneous RF Energy Harvesting and WPT

A novel hybrid antenna for simultaneous RF energy harvesting (RF-EH) and dedicated wireless power transfer (WPT) is proposed. The hybrid antenna consists of a multiband dual-polarized omnidirectional antenna element (covering GSM-1800, UMTS-2100, ISM-2400/5800, 5G-3500, and wireless local area network (WLAN) bands) and a 2.4 GHz dual-polarized high-gain directional patch array element. In the WPT band (ISM-2400), directional beams locate at the null of omnidirectional beams, and a pair of spatially complementary beams is obtained. The omnidirectional beams are capable of capturing the ambient RF energy from low-elevation space for low-power circuits, while the directional beams receive the power from a dedicated source to activate high-power modules. Also, the spatially complementary feature contributes low mutual couplings between ports that support the independent operation of WPT and RF-EH. For validation, an outdoor RF-EH test and an indoor WPT test are conducted. The measured results agree with the simulated ones.