A Flexible Compact Rectenna for 2.40Hz ISM Energy Harvesting Applications

This paper presents a new compact ultra-lightweight radio frequency (RF) energy harvester fabricated on a flexible substrate. The proposed rectenna is designed to operate over the 2.4GHz ISM band. The rectifier includes a dual transmission lines tapered matching network that provides a combination of compactness, flexibility and an efficiency of up to 40%. The rectifier is then integrated with a miniaturized monopole antenna to form an ultra-compact, efficient and flexible rectenna. The system is characterized in multiple bent configurations featuring high and stable performance. It is demonstrated that for different bent states, the proposed flexible harvester displays a variation in harvested power that is less than 57 %.