Analysis and design of a solar rectenna

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.