Dual-Band Dual-Mode Textile Antenna/Rectenna for Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT)

Abstract

This paper presents a textile antenna for dualband Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT). The antenna operates as a 2.4 GHz off-body communications antenna and a sub-1 GHz (785-875 MHz) broadbeam rectenna. Incorporated within the broadside microstrip antenna is a high-impedance rectenna for sub-1 GHz power harvesting. Utilizing antenna-rectifier co-design, the rectenna eliminates the rectifier matching network. The textile antenna is fabricated on a felt substrate and utilizes conductive fabrics for the antenna. At 2.4 GHz, the antenna achieves a realized gain of 7.2 dBi on a body phantom and a minimum radiation efficiency of 63%, with and without the rectifier. The rectenna achieves a best-in-class RF to DC efficiency of 62% from 0.8 µW/cm 2 , representing over 25% improvement over stateof-the-art textile rectennas and demonstrating that SWIPT does not detrimentally affect the energy harvesting or communications performance. The antenna/rectenna occupies an electrically-small area of 0.213×0.19λ 2 0 . This antenna is the first dual-band, dualmode antenna demonstrated on textiles for SWIPT applications and the first dual-band matching network-free SWIPT rectenna.

Wireless Ice Detection and Monitoring Using Flexible UHF RFID Tags

“…Following the formation of full ice layer on the tag's surface, the input impedance of the antenna is measured using a two-port Rohde and Schwarz ZVB4 VNA to understand the ice influence on the tag's matching, and for validating the simulated results in Section I. The differential input impedance was measured using a balanced coaxial jig connected to the VNA's imbalanced ports using a widely known method detailed in [26], widely used for complex impedance antennas for RFID and Schottky-base rectennas [27]. The balanced jig is soldered on the tag prior to freezing with the coaxial connector protruding from the ice to enable VNA measurements postfreezing.…”

Wireless Ice Detection and Monitoring using Flexible UHF RFID Tags

“…Following the formation of full ice layer on the tag's surface, the input impedance of the antenna is measured using a two-port Rohde and Schwarz ZVB4 VNA to understand the ice influence on the tag's matching, and for validating the simulated results in Section I. The differential input impedance was measured using a balanced coaxial jig connected to the VNA's imbalanced ports using a widely known method detailed in [26], widely used for complex impedance antennas for RFID and Schottky-base rectennas [27]. The balanced jig is soldered on the tag prior to freezing with the coaxial connector protruding from the ice to enable VNA measurements postfreezing.…”

2 × 2 Textile Rectenna Array with Electromagnetically Coupled Microstrip Patch Antennas in the 2.4 GHz WiFi Band

“…Apart from works already included in Table 1, [26,27] present two almost pure textile rectennas working at 0.8 GHz, with peak PCE of up to 63.9% at sub-µW/cm 2 power density levels, providing extremely promising results especially for Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) applications.…”