Design and modeling of a wearable textile rectenna array implemented on Cordura fabric for batteryless applications
Yu‐Jen Chi, Chih-His Lin, Chien‐Wen Chiu
Abstract
This paper presents a wearable rectenna array fabricated using Cordura textile material for harvesting low-power radio frequency (RF) energy. The dielectric properties of the textile were thoroughly investigated for circuit and antenna design. The rectenna element comprises a linearly polarized patch antenna and a single-stage full-wave Greinacher rectifier. The proposed stack topology helps reduce the size of the elements in the rectenna array. An RF choke is added to the array to prevent impedance mismatch due to changes in load impedance, and a foam with a shielding ground is inserted between the rectifier circuit and the human body to eliminate the body-proximity effect. A maximum output voltage of 1.05 V is achieved when the 2 × 2 rectenna array attached to a human body and 150 cm from the indoor Wi-Fi access point whose output power is 20 dBm and the antenna gain is 5 dBi.