High gain and large beamwidth Rotman-Lens-based and mm-wave energy harvester systems and associated methods

A flexible energy harvesting system comprising:

• a flexible substrate comprising a Rotman-based rectenna architecture comprising:
• a Rotman Lens having a beam port side and a transceiver side, the transceiver side configured to be in electrical communication with a transceiver;
• and
• a rectifier network in electrical communication with the beam port side of the Rotman Lens.

An energy harvesting system comprising:

• one or more antennae;
• a Rotman Lens having a beam port side and an antenna side, the antenna side in electrical communication with the one or more antennae;
• a rectifier network in electrical communication with the beam port side of the Rotman Lens;
• and
• a power combining network in electrical communication with the rectifier network;
• wherein the rectifier network comprises rectifiers, each rectifier comprising a rectifying diode, with the rectifier network comprising a total number N of rectifying diodes;
• wherein the power combining network comprises one or more bypass diodes;
• and
• wherein the number of bypass diodes of the power combining network is selected from the group consisting of 2*N and 2*(N−1).

An energy-autonomous, self-powered harvesting system configured to provide wide angle coverage at at least 28 GHz comprising:

• a Rotman Lens having a beam port side and a transceiver side, the transceiver side configured to be in electrical communication with a transceiver;
• and
• a rectifier network in electrical communication with the beam port side of the Rotman Lens;
• wherein the system is further configured to transition between an initial unpowered state and a powered state, the system having no access to power in the initial unpowered state and the system having access to power via wireless power harvesting in the powered state;
• and
• wherein components of the system including the Rotman Lens and the rectifier network present a planar form factor where the components are on the same plane on a substrate.

An electronic device comprising:

• a memory;
• a transceiver comprising an antenna array;
• a load;
• an energy harvesting system comprising:
• a Rotman Lens having a beam port side and a transceiver side;
• a rectifier network in electrical communication with the beam port side of the Rotman Lens;
• an energy harvesting processor, wherein the transceiver side of the Rotman Lens is in electrical communication with the antenna array of the transceiver;
• and
• a power combining network in electrical communication with the rectifier network and having an output;
• a first power source in electrical communication with the energy harvesting system;
• and
• a second power source in electrical communication with the energy harvesting system;
• wherein the energy harvesting system is an energy-autonomous, self-powered harvesting system configured to transition between an initial unpowered state and a powered state, the system having no access to power in the initial unpowered state and the system having access to power via wireless power harvesting in the powered state;
• and
• wherein the first power source and the second power source are connected to the energy harvesting system via a switch.

A method of manufacturing a flexible, energy-autonomous, self-powered harvesting system comprising:

• printing, on a first flexible substrate, a Rotman-based rectenna architecture comprising:
• a Rotman Lens having a beam port side and a transceiver side;
• and
• a rectifier network in electrical communication with the beam port side of the Rotman Lens.