New energy harvesting technologies have drawn interest in recent years for both military and commercial applications. We present complete analysis of a novel device technology based on nanowire antennas and very high speed rectifiers (collectively called nanorectenna) to convert infrared and THz electromagnetic radiation into DC power. A nanowire antenna can receive electromagnetic waves and an integrated rectifier can convert them into electrical energy. The induced voltage and current distributions of nanowire antennas for different geometric parameters at various frequencies are investigated and analyzed. Also, nanowire antenna arrays with different geometries and distributions are examined. Moreover, novel nanoantennas are proposed for broadband operation and power conversion. All numerical computations are conducted using Ansoft HFSS. An incident plane wave was used to excite each device and simulations were carried out for frequencies between 0 and 200 THz. A voltage is induced in each device and it is measured in the thin oxide layer. Finally, optimum geometries of nanowires are proposed in order to maximize the amount of infrared power that is harvested.

Date Published: 5 May 2010
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7679, Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications II, 76792L (5 May 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.855193

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7679:
Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications II
Thomas George; M. Saif Islam; Achyut Kumar Dutta, Editor(s)