Optimal Design of Rectennas for IR Energy Harvesting

In this work, we present a novel approach to design efficient rectennas for the infrared (IR) energy harvesting applications. The rectenna is composed mainly of a rectifying element, i.e. diode, and an antenna. In the IR regime, the ultra-high frequency ac signal captured by the antenna terminals has to be efficiently transformed into a useful dc signal. Owing to the ultra-fast quantum tunneling as a conduction mechanism, metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diode represents the best candidate to operate at these IR ranges. The impedance matching between the antenna and the diode, the diode nonlinearity, and the capacitance effect on the device’s cutoff frequency represent challenges to achieve an efficient rectenna. An optimization algorithm is carried out to improve the rectenna’s performance taking into consideration the aforementioned challenges.