Polarization-Insensitive Metasurface for Harvesting Electromagnetic Energy with High Efficiency and Frequency Stability over Wide Range of Incidence Angles

In this paper, a polarization-insensitive metasurface, harvesting electromagnetic (EM) energy with high efficiency and frequency stability over a wide range of incidence angles, is proposed. The previously reported metasurfaces suffer from their maximum efficiencies shifting with the frequency when the incidence angle increases. By introducing a square-shaped metal via ring around the elements, the mutual coupling among adjacent cells is reduced so that the proposed metasurface can maintain maximum efficiency at the fixed operation frequency over a wide range of incidence angles. Furthermore, with one single harvesting via in the proper position for the connection of a harvesting load, the metasurface can collect EM energy effectively with both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations in one single harvesting load. Compared with the reported metasurfaces, this proposed metasurface has a higher efficiency and fixed operation frequency within a wide incidence range. The energy distribution, harvesting efficiency, and surface current are simulated to investigate the operation mechanism of the proposed metasurface. The simulation results show that the maximum harvesting efficiency is 91% at 5.8 GHz for both TE and TM polarizations at the normal incidence. When the incident angle increases to 75°, the maximum efficiency is achieved at 5.79 GHz (0.19% shift), and the maximum efficiencies of TM and TE polarizations are 91% and 68%, respectively. A 5 × 5 array is fabricated and tested. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulated ones.