A 2.45 GHz RF Power Harvesting System Using Textile-Based Single-Diode Rectennas

In this paper, a fully-flexible, low-cost and lightweight rectenna arrays suitable for wearable applications is presented. Textile-based antenna and rectifier were optimized to operate at 2.45 GHz. The latter exhibited an RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of 70 % at 8 dBm input power. Arrays of single elements resulting from the integration of antenna and rectifiers were implemented on shirts for power transfer applications. The measurement results demonstrate up to 600 μW of DC-power that was extracted from the array, allowing powering of low-power wearable electronics devices. A validation of the proof-of-concept was realized by lighting up three LEDs connected in parallel at distances of up to 60 cm from the source.