Tavares J, Lacik J, Pinho P, Raida Z, Alves H
INESC MN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal.
Brno University of Technoloy, Brno, Czech Republic.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 8;15(1):24429. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-09966-0.
The growth of IoT and wearable electronics demands sustainable energy solutions beyond short-lived, waste-generating batteries. RF energy harvesting offers a self-powered alternative by capturing ambient RF energy. However, implementing this technology on textile substrates remains challenging due to material incompatibility, ink toxicity, substrate porosity, and scalability constraints. This study addresses these challenges by developing optimized fabrication techniques for printed textile rectennas operating at 2.45 GHz. It focuses on conductive ink formulations tailored for textiles, scalable integration methods such as screen-printing and doctor blade techniques, and improved attachment methods for lumped components, ensuring full integration of a microstrip patch antenna and rectifier circuit onto fabric. The research systematically examines the impact of substrate porosity, ink adhesion, material losses, mechanical deformation, dielectric variability, and surface roughness on energy harvesting efficiency. Additionally, it promotes environmentally sustainable solutions by reducing reliance on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and complex fabrication processes. Electromagnetic simulations and experimental validations confirm the rectenna's capability to harvest 2.4 GHz ISM band energy, despite challenges such as dielectric sensitivity and conductive ink losses. This work establishes a scalable, cost-effective framework for next-generation wearable and IoT applications, advancing flexible electronics and self-sustaining smart textiles.
物联网和可穿戴电子产品的发展需要可持续的能源解决方案，以取代寿命短且会产生废弃物的电池。射频能量采集通过捕获环境射频能量提供了一种自供电的替代方案。然而，由于材料不相容、墨水毒性、基材孔隙率和可扩展性限制，在纺织基材上实现这项技术仍然具有挑战性。本研究通过开发针对工作在2.45GHz的印刷纺织整流天线的优化制造技术来应对这些挑战。它专注于为纺织品量身定制的导电油墨配方、诸如丝网印刷和刮刀法等可扩展集成方法，以及改进的集总元件附着方法，确保将微带贴片天线和整流电路完全集成到织物上。该研究系统地考察了基材孔隙率、油墨附着力、材料损耗、机械变形、介电常数变化和表面粗糙度对能量采集效率的影响。此外，它通过减少对挥发性有机化合物（VOC）和复杂制造工艺的依赖，推广环境可持续的解决方案。电磁模拟和实验验证证实了整流天线采集2.4GHz工业、科学和医疗（ISM）频段能量的能力，尽管存在诸如介电敏感性和导电油墨损耗等挑战。这项工作为下一代可穿戴和物联网应用建立了一个可扩展、经济高效的框架，推动了柔性电子和自给自足的智能纺织品的发展。
