UHF Wearable Rectenna on Textile Materials

A wearable rectenna for operation in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band is presented. The proposed device consists of a compact patch antenna and a full-wave bridge rectifier, both fabricated with textile materials. The patch antenna has been realized by using an adhesive conductive fabric on a bi-layer substrate made of pile and jeans. As for the rectifier, it is on a layer of jeans on the back-face of the antenna. Experimental data referring both to the patch antenna and to the rectenna are reported and discussed. From measurements performed with an incident power density of 14 μ/cm², it is demonstrated that the rectenna here presented exhibits a conversion efficiency higher than 20% over the frequency range 860-918 MHz with a maximum of about 50% at 876 MHz.