A follow-up study on wireless power transmission for unmanned air vechicles [sic vehicles]

Abstract

This thesis was a continuation in part of a NPS project relating to microwave wireless power transmission for micro air vehicles (MAVs). The concept of using microwaves for transferring power in free space has existed since the beginning of the 20th century. The emphasis of this thesis is the experimental study of powering micro air vehicles via the use of using a microstrip rectenna (rectifying antenna) at 10 GHz. A microstrip rectenna was built and experiments were conducted to measure the efficiency of the rectenna elements. The conversion of radio frequency (RF) power into usable DC power was performed by a rectenna. Its function could be broken down into the following four stages: reception of radio frequency (RF) power, prerectification filtering, rectification, and post-rectification filtering. A rectenna model based on past research by NPS students was simulated, built, and tested. The analysis and findings of the rectenna model were presented, with suggested improvements highlighted.