Ultra-thin flexible rectenna integrated with power management unit for wireless power harvester/charging of smartwatch/wristband

This paper proposes a circularly polarized ultra-thin flexible antenna with a flexible rectifier and power management unit (PMU) for smartwatch/wristband applications. The flexible antenna is compact (0.17λ₀ × 0.20λ₀ × 0.0004λ₀) and has a stepped ground plane. A parasitic element is used at the substrate bottom to reduce the specific absorption rate (SAR) and enhance the gain up to 3.2 dBi, at the resonating frequency of WLAN/Wi-Fi (2.45 GHz). The SAR of the proposed design is also analysed at the resonating frequency, and it satisfies the guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and IEEE C95.1–2019 human safety standards. An impedance matching circuit is used between the antenna and the RF energy harvester to improve conversion efficiency. Polarization mismatch is avoided with the help of circular polarization, achieved by tuning stubs of size 0.02λ₀ × 0.044λ₀. The integration of the antenna and rectenna results in a good conversion efficiency of 78.2% at − 5 dBm of input power with a load resistance of 2 KΩ. The availability of RF signals allows the user to charge the smartwatch/wristband by connecting the PMU circuit with the RF energy harvester.