A Novel 24-GHz Miniaturized Flexible Rectifier for Wireless Energy Harvesting

In this research article, the design and fabrication of a miniaturized flexible rectifier at 24 GHz for wireless power transfer to wearables is presented. The proposed circuit consists of a shunt topology rectifier including a single stub impedance matching network. Conventional PCB fabrication technique is used for the prototyping of the proposed flexible rectifier. It has a total footprint of 5.29 cm
²
. The proposed rectifier exhibits a good trade-off between compactness and RF-to-DC conversion efficiency. The implementation on a very thin substrate (130 µm) makes it durable for wearables applications. Experimental results of the proposed rectifier show an output DC voltage of 2.0 V across an optimal load resistance of 250 Ω and measured RF-DC conversion efficiency of 23% for an input power of 17 dBm at 24 GHz.