A wideband composite right/left hand rectenna for UHF energy harvesting applications

We present the design of a wideband composite right/left (CRLH) rectenna for energy harvesting. The frequencies of operation are in the lower UHF frequency band from 700 MHz to 1 GHz. In the UHF band, the wavelength is long and therefore energy harvesting schemes using traditional antennas are typically large. Utilizing the CRLH antenna adds an additional degree of freedom trading size with gain. The total size of the rectenna is 164 mm × 37 mm.