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Lightweight and Compact Rectenna Array with 20W-Class Output at C-Band for Micro-Drone Wireless Charging

Nobuyuki TAKABAYASHI, Bo YANG, Naoki SHINOHARA, Tomohiko MITANI

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Summary :

Drones have been attractive for many kinds of industries, but limited power supply from batteries has impeded drones from being operated for longer hours. Microwave power transmission (MPT) is one of the most prospective technologies to release them from the limitation. Since, among several types of drones, micro-drone has shorter available flight time, it is reasonable to provide micro-drone with wireless charging access with an MPT system. However, there is no suitable rectenna for micro-drone charging applications in preceding studies. In this paper, an MPT system for micro-drone was proposed at C-band where a lightweight and compact rectenna array with 20-W class output power was developed. Under illumination of a flat-top beam with 203 mW/cm2 of power density, a 16-element rectenna array was measured. The 16-element rectenna was formed with the aid of a honeycomb substrate for lightness and GaAs Schottky barrier diodes for high output. It was 37.5 g in weight and 146.4 mm by 146.4 mm in size. It output 27.0 W of dc power at 19.0 V at 5.8 GHz when radio frequency power of 280 W was generated by the injection-locked magnetron and 134 W was transmitted from the transmitting phased array. The power-to-weight ratio was 0.72W/g. The power conversion efficiency was 61.9%. These numbers outperformed the rectennas in the preceding studies and are suitable for an MPT system to micro-drone.

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics Vol.E105-C No.10 pp.509-518
Publication Date
2022/10/01
Publicized
2022/04/21
Online ISSN
1745-1353
DOI
10.1587/transele.2022MMP0004
Type of Manuscript
Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Technologies)
Category

Authors

Nobuyuki TAKABAYASHI
  Kyoto University
Bo YANG
  Kyoto University
Naoki SHINOHARA
  Kyoto University
Tomohiko MITANI
  Kyoto University

Keyword