Evaluation of Recycled Cardboard Paper as an Eco-Friendly Substrate for Rectenna and Ambient Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting Application

Abstract

Developers of electronics for the Internet of Things are considering nonstandard substrate materials like recyclable, low-cost, and eco-friendly cardboard paper. From this perspective, this article reviews the design and experimental results of a 2D-rectenna for scavenging radio-frequency energy at 2.45 GHz on various cardboard paper substrates for both the antenna and rectifier. Four types of recycled cardboard material, each with different thicknesses, air gaps, and surface roughness, are selected for characterization. A linearly polarized rectangular microstrip patch antenna with microstrip transmission feeding is adopted for ease of fabrication. At 2.45 GHz, the antenna has a simulated and measured global gain of 2.98 dB and 2.53 dB, respectively, on a 2.2 mm thick cardboard material. The rectifying element consists of a voltage-doubler configuration connected through a T-matching network to the antenna. At low RF input power (−10 dBm), the maximum available DC output power is experimentally evaluated at 1.73 μW, 7.5 μW, and 8.5 μW for HSMS-2860, HSMS-2850, and SMS7306-079L diodes, respectively. The respective rectifiers with diodes SMS7306-079L, HSMS-2850, and HSMS-2860 exhibit optimal load values of 2 kΩ, 2.6 kΩ, and 8 kΩ. The rectifier designed using the SMS7306-079L diode experimentally reaches a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.2% at −5 dBm input power when the optimal load value is 1.5 kΩ.