Miniaturized antenna and integrated rectifier design for remote powering of wireless sensor systems

The design methodology of a miniaturized tag antenna and an integrated rectifier for remote powering of wireless sensor systems operating at 2.45 GHz ISM band is presented. To maximize the power transfer the antenna input impedance is matched to the conjugate of the rectifier impedance. The overall efficiency of the rectenna is evaluated through the combination of the simulations and experimental results with the antenna-rectifier chain (rectenna) and the radiating source antenna (transmitter) respectively. A 16×8mm 2 tag antenna placed 12 cm apart from a transmitter having 2W of P{EIRP} provides maximum output power of 560 µW. The efficiency of rectenna is analyzed considering CMOS process variations affecting the rectifier.