An experimental study of a high-gain, wideband circularly polarized printed antenna array at 2.45 GHz in the ISM band for wireless power transmission applications

An enhanced wideband circularly polarized printed antenna array (CPPAA) is designed, analyzed, fabricated, and discussed in this paper. The proposed CPPAA structure is printed on a Flame Retardant (FR-4) material as a commercially available substrate. This CPPAA structure is simulated using two software which are CST MWS (Computer Simulation Technology Microwave Studio), and HFSS (High-Frequency Structure Simulator). The main goal behind these two solvers is to prove the effectiveness of this CPPAA. Then, it was fabricated and experimentally measured via the PNA-X Network Analyzer. The presented CPPAA operates at 2.45 GHz with the measured gain values of 7.80 dBi, the measured bandwidth is 290 MHz around 2.45 GHz (from 2.2844 GHz to 2.5744 GHz), and the measured efficiency is about 80.83 %. The VSWR of the fabricated prototype does not exceed the need of 1.5. The suggested CPPAA design can be suitable for energy harvesting and wireless power transmission applications, especially in rectenna systems construction.