Comparison of Output Voltages from Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting System with Textile Microstrip Single-Element and Array Antennas as Receiving Antennas

Abstract

Textile antennas, critical electronic devices in radio frequency(RF) energy harvesting systems for wearable products, are increasingly preferable in recent years. In order to investigate the collection performance of RF energy harvesting system based on textile antennas, in this study, the textile microstrip single-element antenna and the textile microstrip array antenna were designed and prepared with polyester felts as the substrate. To build up a complete RF energy harvesting system, the combination of the signal generator, the power amplifier, the transmitting antenna and the above-designed textile microstrip antenna as the receiving antenna connected with the rectifier circuit was made. The results show that the maximum gain of the array antenna is 5.35 dB higher than that of the single-element antenna. The final output voltage shows the effectiveness of the RF energy harvesting system. As the input power increases or the receiving distance decreases, the output voltage increases. The highest output voltage through the single-element antenna is 39.2 mV, and the highest output voltage through the array antenna is 72.7 mV due to the higher gain of the array antenna. This study will bring more research ideas to this field.

Keywords

radio frequency(RF) energy harvesting / textile / microstrip single-element antenna / microstrip array antenna / rectifier circuit

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