A circularly polarized implantable antenna integrated with a voltage-doubled rectifier (abbr., rectenna) is investigated for microwave wireless power transfer in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band of 2.4-2.48 GHz. The proposed antenna is miniaturized with the dimensions of 7.5 mm × 7.5 mm × 1.27 mm by etching four C-shaped open slots on the patch. A rectangular slot truncated diagonally is cut to improve the circular polarization performance of the antenna. The simulated impedance bandwidth in a three-layer phantom is 30.4% (1.9-2.58 GHz) with |S11| below -10 dB, and the 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth is 16.9% (2.17-2.57 GHz). Furthermore, a voltage-doubled rectifier circuit that converts RF power to DC power is designed on the back of the antenna. The simulated RF-to-DC conversion efficiency can be up to 45% at the input power of 0 dBm. The proposed rectenna was fabricated and measured in fresh pork to verify the simulated results and evaluate the performance of wireless power transfer.
Keywords: RF energy harvesting; circular polarization; implantable antenna; rectenna; rectifier; wide band; wireless power transfer.