Smart Material Actuator Driven by Networked Rectenna Array

The new concept, a microwave-driven smart material actuator, was introduced to wirelessly drive actuators of space antennas and reflectors. For the proof-of-concept, a multilayer piezoelectric actuator integrated with a 3×3 rectenna was set up and tested within microwave field. The test results showed that the rectenna generates up to 73 V DC for a piezoelectric actuator and demonstrates a wide controllability by allowing several control parameters. For high power requirement and effective use of incident microwave, a power allocation and distribution (PAD) circuit and a voltage up-converter (VUC) were studied in corporation with the rectenna circuitry.