Wi-Fi Band Research Articles

Compact Defected Ground Structure Microstrip Patch Antenna for Wi-Fi Applications

In recent years microstrip patch antennas having minute size is an exciting topic for many researchers and design engineers. In this paper a novel miniaturized microstrip patch antenna for Wi-Fi applications is proposed. The concept of defected ground plane (DGS) is used for achieving miniaturization. The prototype is designed and analyzed by CST Microwave Studio. Low cost FR-4 substrate having thickness of 0.8 mm is used for the design of the antenna. The antenna is having compact size of 16 × 17 mm2. The simulated results demonstrate that the antenna has bandwidth of 2.02% (49 MHz) with -41.46 dB reflection coefficient at resonating frequency. The antenna has bidirectional radiation pattern. The proposed design provides a size reduction of 75.46% in comparison to conventional patch. The proposed antenna is having compact size and is low cost which makes it a suitable candidate for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band.

Nanocomposite Embedded Electric and Magnetic Material Enhancing Antenna Radiation by Linear Relation in Radiators

The main and auxiliary radiating elements are linked by linear mathematical relation and coated with nanocomposite (NC) materials to enhance radiation characteristics. Nanocomposite-based electric material (NE) and nanocomposite-based magnetic material (NM) coated on auxiliary radiating elements to enhance the electromagnetic radiation of the proposed antenna. The radiating elements coated with NE graphene oxide (GO) and NM barium ferrite (BF) have higher electric field and magnetic field distribution respectively. The linear relation of main and auxiliary elements is verified by two substrates FR4, Teflon with correlated results. This proposed NC-coated antenna produces a bandwidth of 4.15 GHz, 4.02 dBi average gain and radiation efficiency of 95.17%, being superior to the antenna without NC coating. Fabricated antenna has 1.56–5.71 GHz bandwidth that includes 2.4/5.2 GHz WLAN, 2.5/3.5 GHz WiMAX, 2.4 GHz ISM, 5G SUB-6 GHz, 5G NR 78 and 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi bands.

Quantum Rectification Based on Room Temperature Multidirectional Nonlinearity in Bi2Te3.

Recent interest in quantum nonlinearity has spurred the development of rectifiers for harvesting energy from ambient radiofrequency waves. However, these rectifiers face efficiency and bandwidth limitations at room temperature. We address these challenges by exploring Bi2Te3, a time-reversal symmetric topological quantum material. Bi2Te3 exhibits robust room temperature second-order voltage generation in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. We harness these coexisting nonlinearities to design a multidirectional quantum rectifier that can simultaneously extract energy from various components of an input signal. We demonstrate the efficacy of Bi2Te3-based rectifiers across a broad frequency range, spanning from existing Wi-Fi bands (2.45 GHz) to frequencies relevant to next-generation 5G technology (27.4 GHz). Our Bi2Te3-based rectifier surpasses previous limitations by achieving a high rectification efficiency and operational frequency, alongside a low operational threshold and broadband functionality. These findings enable practical topological quantum rectifiers for high-frequency electronics and energy conversion, advancing wireless energy harvesting for next-generation communication.

A Scalable, Wide-Angle Metasurface Array for Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting.

A metasurface array for electromagnetic (EM) energy harvesting for Wi-Fi bands is presented in this paper; the metasurface array consists of a metasurface unit, a rectifier, and a load resistor. Each row of unit cells in the array is interconnected to form an energy transfer channel, which enables the transfer and concentration of incident power. Furthermore, at the terminal of the channel, a single series diode rectifier circuit and a load resistor are integrated in a coplanar manner. It is used to rectify the energy in Wi-Fi bands and enables DC energy harvesting across the load. Finally, a 5 × 7 prototype of the metasurface array is fabricated and measured for the verification of the rationality of the design. Testing in an anechoic chamber shows that the prototype achieves a 72% RF-DC efficiency at 5.9 GHz when the available incident power is about 7 dBm.

Modeling of Schottky diode and optimal matching circuit design for low power RF energy harvesting

This work designs and implements a single-stage rectifier-based RF energy harvesting device. This device integrates a receiving antenna and a rectifying circuit to convert ambient electromagnetic energy into useful DC power efficiently. The rectenna is carefully engineered with an optimal matching circuit, achieving high efficiency with a return loss of less than −10 dB. The design uses a practical model of the Schottky diode, where both RF and DC characteristics are derived through extensive experimental measurements. The results from both experiments and simulations confirm the effectiveness of the design, showing its proficiency in efficient RF energy harvesting under low-power conditions. The antenna produced operates in the wifi band with a gain close to 4 dBi and a bandwidth of 100 MHz. With a load resistance of 1600 Ω, the proposed device achieves an impressive RF-to-DC conversion efficiency of approximately 52% at a low incident power of −5 dBm. These findings highlight the potential and reliability of rectenna systems for practical and efficient RF energy harvesting applications. The study significantly contributes to our understanding of rectenna-based energy harvesting, providing valuable insights for future design considerations and applications in low-power RF systems.

Energy harvesting system using broadband textile antennas

Taking advantage of the benefits provided by the energy harvesting from ambient radio frequency sources, a multiband receiver is designed and manufactured using broadband antennas constructed with textile materials to be adapted into a Tshirt. The antennas connected to the rectifier allow to capture energy from the environment from four mobile bands: 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 MHz, and from the 2400 MHz WiFi band.

Performance enhancement of low-cost microstrip patch antennas through 3D-printed conductive geometric forms

With the development of new wireless communication systems, antennas will require excellent characteristics, including high gain, wide bandwidth, and low losses. 3D printing creates structures through an additive process, layer by layer, which enables the manufacturing of antennas with 3D shapes in a cheaper, faster, and more flexible manner. This paper presents a new design for a 3D-printed microstrip patch antenna in the Wi-Fi band with the objective of improving the performance of planar 3D-printed patch antennas. The antenna is fabricated using PLA (Polylactic Acid) as the substrate, Electrifi conductive filament and cooper tape ground. In order to improve the radiation characteristics and overall efficiency of the antenna, two different three-dimensional forms (pyramid and frame) are employed to optimize key parameters, contributing to improved radiation characteristics and overall efficiency. A comparative analysis is presented, highlighting the advantages of the proposed design over traditional two-dimensional counterparts. The experimental results demonstrate enhanced bandwidth and gain, showcasing the potential of the 3D microstrip patch antenna for advanced wireless communication applications.

Triple-band and polarization-insensitive rectifying metasurface with flexible substrate

A flexible triple-band and polarization-insensitive rectifying metasurface (RMS) is presented in this article. The surface consists of three parts: a periodic metal unit with integrated diodes, a DC filter composed of series inductor and parallel capacitor, and a load resistor. Due to the direct integration of rectifying diodes and interconnected branches within and between the units, complex matching networks can be eliminated and the overall structure is simplified. A 6 × 6 array is fabricated and measured. The results show that at a low input power of 0 dBm, the RMS has efficiency of 51.81%, 44.25%, and 42.01% at 2.9 GHz, 5.2 GHz, and 5.77 GHz, respectively. The efficiency remains consistent under different polarization angles, demonstrating the polarization insensitivity property of RMS. Additionally, the flexible substrate enables high efficiency in the S-band and Wi-Fi bands even under a certain range of bending, revealing its superior flexibility and adaptability. Therefore, it is well suited for ambient energy harvesting and wireless self-powered miniaturized internet of things devices.

Optical transparent metasurface lenses and their wireless communication efficiency enhancement

This paper presents the design of an optically transparent metasurface tailored for the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band. It is optically transparent and attaches to both sides of the glass to improve communication efficiency. The shape of focusing region is a rectangle with an area of 5 cm by 5 cm and a length of 10 cm. The metasurface attaches to both sides of the glass and realizes area focusing. To meet the requirements for area focusing, the metasurface possesses a double-layer structure of a Jerusalem cross and a circle, and the conductive thin film is a conductive and optically transparent copper mesh. The spatial distribution of field strength in a microwave unreflected chamber is scanned to verify the regional focusing effect of the metasurface. Compared with ordinary glass, the metalens achieves field enhancement of more than 7.3 dB in the designed aggregation region, with an average download speed increasing 20.2 Mb/s. Subsequently, the download speed and network speed stability in different scenarios are tested. The standard deviation is used to calculate the dispersion of the download speed. The results demonstrate that in the focusing area, comparing with ordinary glass, the average download speed of the signal across is increased by 13.8 Mb/s in the indoor environment, accompanied by a reduction in the standard deviation by 0.5. In the stairwell, the average download speed of the signal across of the metalens is observed to increase 12.1 Mb/s, accompanied by a reduction in the standard deviation by 1.4. In conclusion, the metasurface lens demonstrates the better ability to significantly reduce the standard deviation of download speed data in both indoor and stairwell test environments than in air and ordinary glass. This results in the effective smoothing out of the speed uctuations and the enhancing of signal transmission stability. Therefore, the ability of metalens to effectively reduce the amplitude of download speed fluctuations in various indoor environmental contexts confirms its key role in adapting to complex environments and improving the wireless communication performance. Moreover, the download speed of signals passing through the metalens is increased by more than 12 Mb/s in both test environmentsthan that of ordinary glass. This effectively improves not only the signal strength but also the communication efficiency. Concurrently, the designed optically transparent metasurface lens is straightforward in structure and user-friendly, and at the same time, it is moveable and can be positioned according to the needs of communication enhancement. The optically transparent metasurface lens scheme proposed in this study provides a potential solution to the high penetration loss problem currently encountered in indoor wireless communication.

Research on 2.45 GHz Weak Energy Wireless Transmission with Tilted Groove Schottky Diodes

Energy conversion efficiency is a key index to evaluate microwave wireless energy transmission system, which indicates the capacity to transform microwave energy into direct current (DC) energy. In this paper, the primary component of the rectifier circuit design, Ge Schottky Diode (SBD), is optimized and designed from a structural standpoint in the context of wireless energy collection in the weak energy density of 2.45 GHz Wi-Fi band, with the aim of enhancing the efficiency of the rectifier circuit in the presence of weak Wi-Fi energy density. The PSPICE parameters of the designed SBD were extracted using the parameter extraction tool, and the Spice model of the developed SBD was built. Utilizing this model, the rectifier circuit was simulated using ADS to enhance its efficiency and confirm the effectiveness of the intended devices. The findings indicate a notable enhancement in the energy conversion efficiency of the new Ge Schottky diode within the weak energy working region.

Design for SAW Antenna-Plexers with Improved Matching Inductance Circuits.

This study designs antenna-plexers, including a surface acoustic wave (SAW) extractor and an upper- and mid-high band (UHB + MHB) diplexer, for LTE 4G and 5G bands using carrier aggregation. The SAW extractor combines a bandpass filter (BPF) and a band-stop filter (BSF) in a single unit that consists of eight modified Butterworth-van Dyke (mBVD) resonators that resonate in parallel with an inductor and SAW resonators. This BSF behaves as a high-pass filter at frequencies lower than the designed WIFI band and as a capacitor at higher frequencies. The SAW extractor meets product specifications in the frequency range 0.7 to 2.7 GHz. The UHB + MHB diplexer, which is composed of a microwave filter, a SAW filter, and a simple matching inductor, uses frequency response methods to create an RF component for 2.4 GHz + WIFI 6E applications. The design uses a SAW's interdigital transducer (IDT) structure, and the experimental results are in agreement with the simulation results, so the design is feasible.

CRLH‐TL‐loaded metamaterial antenna with frequency band and polarization reconfigurability

SummaryIn this communication, an asymmetric co‐planar waveguide (ACPW)–fed composite right–left‐handed transmission line (CRLH‐TL)–based frequency band and polarization reconfigurable antenna (RA) is presented. The reconfigurability is achieved by using a PIN diode. When the diode is in OFF state, meander line works as part of ground. Hence, the antenna is like a circular patch antenna working at 5.15 GHz. In the ON state, the antenna works as a CRLH‐TL‐based antenna with an additional lower band resonating at 2.45 GHz. The antenna also has circular polarization (CP) property. The lower 2.4 GHz band is covering for IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ax/be applications, whereas the higher band is covering the WiFi bands of IEEE 802.11a/h/n/ac/ax/be applications with CP radiation (upper band). This antenna is effective in a scattering environment such as in urban areas and indoor communication.

Design of a Circular Concentric Microstrip Patch Antenna Array for WI-FI Band Energy Harvesting

Design of a Circular Concentric Microstrip Patch Antenna Array for WI-FI Band Energy Harvesting

A Compact Stacked RF Energy Harvester with Multi-Condition Adaptive Energy Management Circuits.

This paper presents a compact stacked RF energy harvester operating in the WiFi band with multi-condition adaptive energy management circuits (MCA-EMCs). The harvester is divided into antennas, impedance matching networks, rectifiers, and MCA-EMCs. The antenna is based on a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) substrate using the microstrip antenna structure and a ring slot in the ground plane to reduce the antenna area by 13.7%. The rectifier, impedance matching network, and MCA-EMC are made on a single FR4 substrate. The rectifier has a maximum conversion efficiency of 33.8% at 5 dBm input. The MCA-EMC has two operating modes to adapt to multiple operating conditions, in which Mode 1 outputs 1.5 V and has a higher energy conversion efficiency of up to 93.56%, and Mode 2 supports a minimum starting input voltage of 0.33 V and multiple output voltages of 2.85-2.45 V and 1.5 V. The proposed RF energy harvester is integrated by multiple-layer stacking with a total size of 53 mm × 43.5 mm × 5.9 mm. The test results show that the proposed RF energy harvester can drive a wall clock (30 cm in diameter) at 10 cm distance and a hygrometer at 122 cm distance with a home router as the transmitting source.

Metamaterial Adaptive Frequency Switch Rectifier Circuit for Wireless Power Transfer System

In this paper, a novel metamaterial adaptive frequency switch (MAFS) rectifier circuit is proposed to expand the operating frequency range of the rectifier circuits for wireless power transfer (WPT) systems. Due to the nonlinearity and complex input impedance of the rectifying circuit, the MAFS technology is introduced to improve the matching performance of the rectifier circuit working in different bands. We can use MAFS technology to achieve independent regulation of a single rectifier circuit at different bands, simplifying the rectifier's topology and complexity. A dual-band rectifier circuit and a broadband rectifier circuit are designed to verify the feasibility of the structure. The experimental results show that the designed dual-band rectifier circuit has high conversion efficiency (more than 50%) in two broad bands, 3.2-3.6 and 5.2-6.2 GHz, for 5G and Wi-Fi bands. In addition, the conversion efficiency of the designed broadband rectifier circuit from 4.7 to 6.2 GHz is higher than 50% at 13 dBm. The fractional bandwidth is expanded by 10% compared to the multiplexed rectifier circuit structure. Therefore, the proposed rectifier circuit structure can significantly broaden the operating frequency range and has a simple design, which can be widely used in a wireless power transfer system.

A Co-Planar Waveguide Ultra-Wideband Antenna for Ambient Wi-Fi RF Power Transmission and Energy Harvesting Applications

This study proposes an ultra-wideband antenna for ambient radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting applications. The antenna is based on a co-planar waveguide (CPW) transmission line and incorporates a rectangular slot as an antenna harvester. The proposed antenna utilizes an evolutionary design process to achieve impedance matching of the 50 Ω CPW feeding line over the desired frequency bands. A parametric study investigates CPW elements and rectangular slot size. The harvester antenna is then connected to the primary rectifier circuit of the voltage doubler to examine the signal characteristics. The antenna covers the Industry, Science, and Medicine (ISM) Wi-Fi bands of 2.45 GHz and 5 GHz, achieving a realized gain of 3.641 dBi and 4.644 dBi at 2.45 GHz and 5 GHz, respectively. It exhibits a relatively broad frequency ranging from 2.16 GHz to 6.32 GHz, covering the ultra-wideband fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 105%.

Multiband and Low-Specific-Absorption-Rate Wearable Antenna With Low Profile Based on Highly Conductive Graphene Assembled Film

A flexible tri-band antenna with low profile and low specific absorption rate (SAR) based on highly conductive graphene assembled film (GAF) is proposed. The antenna incorporates GAF with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to provide the flexibility for wearable applications. To reduce the effect of backward radiation on human body, a new multi-band artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) reflector is proposed, which consists of several circular patches. The measured operating bandwidths of GAF antenna include 2.26-2.46 GHz (WiFi band), 3.52-3.68 GHz (5G n77 band) and 4.94-5.26 GHz (5G WLAN band). Correspondingly, the realized gain varies from 5.7-7.9 dBi. The proposed GAF antenna shows good flexibility and radiation stability when loaded on human body. The simulated SAR peak value is 0.51 W/kg at 2.36 GHz, 0.61 W/kg at 3.6 GHz and 0.562 W/kg at 5.1 GHz when the tissue is 1 g, which meets the international standard. All results demonstrate that the proposed flexible GAF tri-band antenna is suitable for integrating in wireless wearable communication system.

Design and Characterization of a Compact Four-Element Microstrip Array Antenna for WiFi-5/6 Routers

The WiFi-5 band was the most popular WiFi band until the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a new spectrum of 6 GHz WiFi (5.925–7.125 GHz) for unlicensed users. Our proposed work is about to cover both the 5 GHz and 6 GHz WiFi bands. These two bands have a great impact in the wireless communication field. A low-loss Rogers RT 5880 material is used as the substrate layer, which helps us to make the antenna compact ( 23 × 40 × 0.79 mm3) keeping a good performance profile over the latest high-speed WiFi-5/6 band. The proposed antenna covers a huge bandwidth (simulated BW: 2.85 GHz ranging from 4.50 to 7.35 GHz and measured BW: 2.83 GHz ranging from 4.50 to 7.33 GHz), which can be used for the latest WiFi-5 and WiFi-6 routers. The antenna also has omnidirectional properties. Besides that, the gain and directivity of the antenna are quite good, and the measured results buttress the simulated results. The presented different detail parametric studies indicate the antenna’s optimization level, which is excellent. The minimum values of reflection coefficient and voltage standing wave ratio make it a compatible candidate for the implementation of high-speed WiFi-5/6 routers.

A multiband SSr diode RF rectifier with an improved frequency ratio for biomedical wireless applications

This paper described a four-band implantable RF rectifier with simplified circuit complexity. Each RF-rectifier cell is sequentially matched to the four operational frequencies to accomplish the proposed design. The proposed RF rectifier can harvest RF signals at 1.830, 2.100, and white space Wi-Fi bands between 2.38 to 2.68 GHz, respectively. At 2.100 GHz, the proposed RF harvester achieved a maximum (radio frequency direct current) RF-to-DC power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 73.00% and an output DC voltage V_{DC} of 1.61 V for an RF power of 2 dBm. The outdoor performance of the rectenna shows a V_{DC} of 0.440 V and drives a low-power bq25504-674 evaluation module (EVM) at 1.362 V. The dimension of the RF-rectifier on the FR-4 PCB board is 0.27lambda _{g}times 0.29lambda _{g}. The RF-rectifier demonstrates the capacity to effectively utilize the frequency domain by employing multi-band operation and exhibiting a good impedance bandwidth through a sequential matching technique. Thus, by effectively controlling the rectenna’s ambient performance, the proposed design holds the potential for powering a range of low-power biomedical implantable devices. (BIDs).

Personal exposure from free Wi-Fi hotspots in downtown Mexico City.

In 2019, the Government of Mexico City implemented actions that allowed citizens to approach a free Wi-Fi hotspot, where more than 13000 points have been installed throughout the city. In this work, we present the results of the measurements of personal exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields carried out in Plaza de la Constitución, better known as Zócalo located in the center of Mexico City. The measurements were taken by one of the researchers while walking on a weekday morning and afternoon, in different microenvironments (on the street, on public transport: subway, at the Zócalo, and finally, at home). We also carry out spot measurements in the center of the Zócalo. Subsequently, we carried out a comparative analysis of the different microenvironments, through box plot and violin plot, and we elaborate georeferenced and interpolated maps with intensity levels through the Kriging method, using the Geographic Information System. The Kriging interpolation gives us a good visualization of the spatial distribution of RF-EMF exposure in the study area, showing the highest and lowest intensity levels. The mean values recorded at the measured points in the Zócalo were 326 μW/m2 in the 2.4- to 2.5-GHz Wi-Fi band and 2370 μW/m2 in the 5.15- to 5.85-GHz Wi-Fi band. In the case of the mean values recorded on the street, they were 119 μW/m2 in the 2.4- to 2.5-GHz frequency band and 31.8 μW/m2 in the 5.15- to 5.85-GHz frequency band, like the values recorded at home, 122 μW/m2 and 33.9 μW/m2, respectively. All values are well below the reference levels established by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.