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Analysis and design of a solar rectenna

Conference Paper · July 2010

DOI: 10.1109/ISIE.2010.5637486

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Analysis and Design of a Solar Rectenna
M. Bozzetti, G. de Candia, M. Gallo, O. Losito, L. Mescia, F. Prudenzano
Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica ed Elettronica, Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy
email: bozzetti@poliba.it.
Abstract— This paper presents an antenna that works in the
infrared frequencies band to collect solar energy for supplying a
resistive load. The designed antenna, named “rectenna”, is a
golden rectangular spiral printed on a SiO2 layer with a ground
plane on the back. Two configurations of spiral antennas were
investigated in order to design a structure able to supply the
maximum output current. An array configuration was proposed
to improve the single antenna performance.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE commercial solar panels exhibit a low energy
conversion efficiency and are strongly dependent on the
weather conditions. The use of optical and sub-optical devices
seems to be a valid alternative to solar panels. In particular, the
rectenna, i.e. a structure constituted by an antenna and a
rectifier, is a possible way to collect the solar energy at
different frequencies for generating electricity with a high
efficiency conversion. By an inspection of Fig 1, it can be
observed that these antennas could be used to absorb energy at
wavelengths between 0.4-1.6 µm, because this range includes
about the 85% of the solar radiation spectrum [4]. Moreover,
in order to collect the energy radiated by the earth during the
night, the rectenna can be used in the infrared frequency range
of solar spectrum by absorbing energy at wavelengths around
10 µm. Nevertheless, some disadvantages of this technology
have not been yet overcome, so power fading and fabrication
technology complexities, due to the micrometers size of the
antenna, can occur.
Fig. 1 The solar radiation spectrum versus wavelength
. purposes, when extremely fine resolutions are needed for
978-1-4244-6391-6/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE
1
Fig. 2 Schematic block diagram of “rectenna” system with resistive load.
As illustrated in Fig. 2, a rectenna that works in a
microwave band consists of a system which include a
microwave antenna, a lowpass filter (LPF), a rectifier diode, a
direct current (DC) pass filter [2-3]. The resistive load must be
included in the scheme because it may affect the output
voltage and then the rectenna efficiency. The filter allows to
pass the generated THz signal and it stops the reflected higher
order harmonics of the signal. The rectifier diodes convert the
AC power in DC power. The conversion efficiency of the
diode is a key factor of the rectenna performance. The DC pass
filter is used to tune out the reactance of the diode and to
prevent the unwanted signals applied on the resistive load.
The configuration of Fig 2 is well known and has been used
for ground-to-ground, ground-to-space, and space-to-space
transmission.
Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) is a periodic
arrangement of resonant structures which works as radiating
element and exhibits filtering properties [6-9]. In particular,
the resonant frequency of these structures, i.e. as antennas, can
be changed by properly varying the structure layout and/or
material properties. Therefore, due to their filtering properties
and the capability to control the propagation of
electromagnetic wave the FSS can be considered as the LPF
block of Fig 2. A periodic repetition of some configuration of
antennas can also behave as FSS structures.
The major technological limit of the rectenna system is the
difficulty in operating at THz frequencies without large loss
power. This loss is a result of the junction capacitance
(parasitic capacitance) of the p-n junction diodes, which can
effectively operate only at frequencies of few THz. Therefore,
alternative diodes need to be used for efficient power
conversion. In recent rectenna devices, metal-insulator-metal
(MIM) tunneling diodes were used [10] but they still present
low performances at THz frequencies. Another drawback of
rectennas is the high production cost since they have to be
fabricated using electron beam (e-beam) lithography.
Typically, e-beam lithography is only used for research
2001

minimum size requirement.
However, even if slow and relatively expensive, it
represents the more utilized technique to built nanodevices,
making possible the production of antennas at optical
frequencies.
Fig 3 The square spiral design of rectennas: a) self-complementary;
b) non self-complementary.
The main advantage of optical rectenna is the wide spectrum
of light that it can receive compared to a conventional
photovoltaic cell. In fact, a photovoltaic cell works only if the
photon energy is significantly above the bandgap. As result, in
order to absorb different wavelength bands of solar light,
photovoltaic cells should have different bandgaps or tunable
bandgaps.
In this paper, the design of two different spiral antennas
working in the infrared band is reported. In particular, the
feasibility of this kind of antenna to collect solar energy has
been successfully demonstrated with simulations and an
optimal configuration has been identified. Finally, a linear
array configuration is also presented in order to increase the
single antenna performance.
II. RECTENNA DESIGN
The conversion efficiency of the entire system shown in Fig
2 strongly depends on the antenna capability in collecting solar
energy.
The proposed structure is a spiral antenna printed on a
substrate of 500x200 µm² with permittivity 4.86 and thickness
of 1.2 µm. Spiral antennas are travelling wave structures well-
known for their wideband performance. The ground plane and
antenna arms are constituted by a gold film having thickness of
150 nm. The numerical analysis was performed with a
commercial full-wave 3-D electromagnetic simulator CST
Microwave Suite 2009 [5].
The proposed antenna allows the channelling of the received
Electric field in the central gap where it can be converted in
electric current to supply a resistive load.
The total length of the antenna was 10.6 µm. This dimension
makes possible the collection of the solar radiation in the
infrared frequency band. Even if this part of the solar spectrum
contains a low irradiance, the designed antenna can be used to
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2
accumulate thermal energy from the earth allowing the system
to work during the night. As a consequence, it is important to
design an antenna that harvests as much solar radiation as
possible due to the losses that the system presents in the
rectifier.
Fig 4 The Electrical field pattern of square non self-complementary spiral
antenna.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
As shown in Fig 3, two different configurations of optical
antennas with a square spiral shape have been analyzed. The
considered spiral antennas were defined as self-complementary
(SC) antenna when the distance between the arms is identical
and non self-complementary (NSC) antenna otherwise. The
spiral antenna effectively radiates when the total length of the
spiral equals one wavelength. Actually, there are inductive and
capacitive effects on the antenna structure, due to the folded
arms, that affect the resonant frequency and contribute to give
a broadband antenna. Each element of the spiral antennas
depicted in Fig 3 is constituted by 8 arms. The optimized arm
width in each spiral antennas, that enables to concentrate the
maximum value of the received E field, was 0.2 µm.
In the simulations the antennas were irradiated by a
circularly polarized plane wave with an arbitrary amplitude of
1000 V/m at a frequency of 28.3 THz. Fig 4 shows the
distribution of the electrical field on the antenna surface and it
can be observed the field concentration in the gap. In
particular, the electric filed value in the gap is much higher
than the plane wave value and, as shown in Fig. 5, it is
uniform, too.
In order to increase the E field accumulated in the gap, a
parametric study of the gap thickness, g1 and size, g2, has been
performed for both SC and NSC configurations. In particular,
Fig 6 depicts the modulus of the electric field versus g1 for the
NSC configuration. The optimum values are g1=0.079 µm and
g2=0.084 µm for the NSC and g1=g2=0.047 µm for the SC
structure. Moreover, it has been observed that the substrate
size can affect the value of E field in the gap. In fact, if the
substrate is too small, the fringing fields at the borders cannot
be neglected. The optimal size of the substrate are 18.9x18.9
 3

µm2 for the NSC and 8.9x 8.9 µm2 for the SC spiral. solution because the half power beam is narrower and the
The NSC and the SC structures collect two different values antenna can collect solar radiation just in few angular
of E field that were 62525 V/m and 56814 V/m, respectively. directions. This is the reason why an antenna with 8 arms has
been considered in this paper.

Fig 6: E field gap in the optimization process of the gap sizes for non self
complementary.
Fig 5 The E field-line in the gap of the rectennas.

Nevertheless, even if the E field of the NSC is higher than IV. ARRAY CONFIGURATION
the E field of the SC, the structure requires a more complicated In order to collect a higher energy and supply a higher DC
manufacturing process and a bigger quantity of metal for both output, a rectenna array has to be designed. A rectenna array
the antenna and the ground plane. can be made by using a suitable interconnection of different
From the numerical investigation it can be observed that, rectenna elements [11]. A linear array has been analyzed by
due to the lowest impedance, the better place to collect energy using as element array the optimal NSC configuration having
is the gap. In fact, by considering that a quantification of the the highest output current (see Fig 7a).
collected E field can be expressed in terms of an output current As shown in Fig. 7b, the array was fed by a microstrip
generated from the antenna, current values of 0.03 mA, for the inserted in the middle of the substrate. The width of the
SC structure, and 0.08 mA, for the NSC structure, has been microstrip is 0.45 µm and the length depends on the number of
calculated. A summary of the differences between the two the antenna elements. Many simulations have been performed
configurations is shown in Tab I. by considering an array constituted by two and four elements.
By numerical results an improvement of the output current was
observed by increasing the number of the array elements. In
TABLE I
particular, when the array is constituted by 2 and 4 elements,
Antenna Self Complementary Non Self Complementary a the microstrip length is 25 µm and 28 µm, respectively, while
Number of arms 8 8
when the microstrip feds a single spiral antenna its length is 21
g2 (gap size) 0.047 µm 0.079 µm
µm. Also in the case, the computation was performed by
g1 (gap size) 0.047 µm 0.084 µm
Arms width 0.2 µm 0.2 µm
illuminating antenna array with a circularly polarized plane
Board sizes 8.9x8.9 µm2 18.9x18.9 µm2 wave with an arbitrary amplitude of 1000 V/m at a frequency
Max E field gap 56814 V/m 62525 V/m of 28.3 THz.
Output Current 0.03 mA 0.03 mA

In order to increase the antenna performance and the value of

the E field concentrated in the gap, a parametric study for the
NSC structure has been also performed. In particular, an
improvement of the electric field from 62525 V/m to 100040
V/m has been calculated by varying the number of arms from 8
to 16. In fact, a higher number of arms has led to an
improvement of the gain and directivity and, as a consequence,
a)
an enhancement of the energy sun collection can be obtained.
In addition, the numerical analysis has shown an enhancement
of the E field for a even number of arms, so it is important to
have a symmetric structure. Nevertheless, it is necessary to get
a trade-off between the required antenna gain and the antenna
size. Moreover, an antenna with a high directivity is not a good
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MICROSTRIP LINE
b)
Fig 7: a) Linear array of NSC rectennas. b) A sketch of the 3D structure fed
by a microstrip line merged into the substrate.
The output current was collected at the microstrip input
through a 50 Ω lumped impedance and the calculated values
are summarized in table II. The obtained results show that the
output current increase by increasing the number of array
elements. In addition, a longer array leads to a narrower half-
power beam and a higher gain.
TABLE II
OUTPUT CURRENT OF A RECTENNA ARRAY
Number of antennas in the array Output Current
1 0.08 mA
2 0.13 mA
4 0.30 mA
In order to reduce the size, a planar array can be considered
as shown in Fig 8. This array could be considered as 4 linear
sub-arrays, each constituted of four rectenna elements. The
sub-array may be fed by four microstrip lines with in phase
signals. The output current may be collected at the input of
each sub-array and summed in order to increase the total
output current.
Fig 8 An examples of a rectenna planar array.
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V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, two kinds of optical antenna configurations
have been presented. The simulated antennas were printed on a
layer of SiO2 with a gold ground plane on the back. These
antennas were designed to operate in the mid-infrared
frequency range allowing the development of a
electromagnetic system able to convert the solar energy into
electric current.
In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the rectenna for
realistic applications a linear antenna array has been analyzed.
In particular, remarkable improvement in the output electric
current with respect to the single element has been calculated
by considering a linear array of four elements. Further
investigations are required to evaluate and identify the better
performance of a planar array.
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