Rectennas for Thermal-Energy Conversion

Pan, Yi; Powell, Catrin; Balocco, Claudio

doi:10.1109/irmmw-thz.2014.6956198

Rectennas for Thermal-Energy Conversion

Pan, Yi; Powell, Catrin; Balocco, Claudio

Authors

Yi Pan

Catrin Powell

Professor Claudio Balocco claudio.balocco@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

We demonstrated the conversion of thermal energy in the form of far- and mid-infrared using a micro rectenna, consisting of a spiral antenna coupled to an ultra-fast nanodiode, the so-called self-switching device (SSD). A maximum efficiency of 0.02 % was measured at a 973 K (700 °C) using a calibrated black-body radiator illuminating the rectenna. The relatively low efficiency was due to the impedance mismatch between the diode and the antenna, and can be reduced by designing a suitable matching structure. The fabrication of larger rectenna array could be exploited, for example, to harvest wasted thermal energy from exhaust pipes and industrial machinery.

Citation

Pan, Y., Powell, C., & Balocco, C. (2014). Rectennas for Thermal-Energy Conversion. In 2014 39th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz 2014). Proceedings of a meeting held 14-19 September 2014, Tucson, Arizona, USA (1-2). https://doi.org/10.1109/irmmw-thz.2014.6956198

Conference Name	39th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and THz Waves
Conference Location	Tucson, AZ, USA
Online Publication Date	Nov 20, 2014
Publication Date	Nov 20, 2014
Deposit Date	Oct 15, 2014
Publicly Available Date	Feb 4, 2015
Pages	1-2
Series ISSN	2162-2027
Book Title	2014 39th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz 2014). Proceedings of a meeting held 14-19 September 2014, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1109/irmmw-thz.2014.6956198

Files

Accepted Conference Proceeding (312 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
© 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.