A Novel Design of a Microstrip Antenna Array for Wireless Power Transfer Applications

Abstract

In this article, a new 1 × 4 microstrip antenna array operating at 2.45 GHz for wireless power transfer (WPT) applications is proposed. Besides the array configuration, and for maximum power transfer to the load, the performed design puts into contribution three other design techniques which are: defected ground structure, electromagnetic band gap and multilayer topology. The suggested antenna, printed on an FR-4 dielectric substrate, achieves significantly improved directivity and gain of 13.30 dBi and 10.90 dBi, respectively. Furthermore, an input reflection coefficient around − 38 dB, a frequency bandwidth of about 180 MHz and a side lobe level (SLL) below − 20 dB are obtained. It is also observed that the antenna gain is close to its maximum performance across the entire operating frequency band (2.36–2.54 GHz). A prototype of the performed design is fabricated and tested. Experimental results show a good agreement between simulated and measured input reflection coefficients. The achieved performances make the developed structure highly suitable for WPT systems.