Rectenna for Full-Duplex and MIMO Simultaneous Wireless Information and
Power Transfer (SWIPT)
Abstract
Owing to the mobility of a wearable antenna and the unpredictable
body-centric communications environment, dual-polarization antennas are
essential for both communications and energy harvesting. This paper
presents a dual-polarized four-port textile antenna/rectenna for
wearable simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT)
applications. The proposed antenna utilizes dual ports for both off-body
communication and energy harvesting from horizontal and vertical
polarizations. The antenna maintains a 100 MHz bandwidth with an S11
under -10 dB around 2.4 GHz in the presence and absence of the human
body, and at least 10~dB small-signal and large-signal
isolation between all ports. The antenna maintains a 70-88% measured
total efficiency and 8.4–9.6 dBi gain for various on-phantom positions
across both communication ports. The measured mutual coupling is under
-10 dB between co-polarized rectenna/antenna ports, and under
-16~dB between orthogonally-polarized ports. A high RF
to DC peak power conversion efficiency of over 70% (+-5%) is achieved
with a broadside harvesting pattern. Based on the proposed antenna’s
performance, SWIPT microstrip antennas can be adopted for both
full-duplex and MIMO applications, significantly reducing the complexity
of future battery-free networks for both wearable and non-wearable
applications.