A Folded Rectenna on a Flexible Substrate for 5G Energy Harvesting Applications

Abstract

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and measurement results of a flexible folded dipole rectenna for 5G technology. The proposed rectenna is a single-sided structure fabricated on a flexible Kapton substrate with a maximum RF to DC conversion efficiency close to 53% for an input power of -9 dBm at 3.5 GHz with 3-k. Moreover, the measured results show that the conversion efficiency is above 40% across a broad range of input power levels (from -14 to -8 dBm). The paper discusses the prototype's design and simulation results, fabrication steps, and measurement results. The proposed rectenna is compact, low-cost, and flexible, making it suitable for wearable applications.