An Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna with Elliptical Slots for Low-Cost Rectenna Applications

Abstract

In this paper, a low-cost rectenna based on an antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA) with elliptical slots (AVA-ES) is developed and analyzed. The design of AVA-ES, when compared to a reference AVA, presents significant improvements in directivity and gain (58% at 2.45[Formula: see text]GHz for both), evidencing its advantages for using in rectennas. The proposed rectenna prototype presents satisfactory results at 2.45[Formula: see text]GHz, such as conversion efficiency for low-power input levels (27% at [Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text]dBm) and maximum output voltage (550[Formula: see text]mV), that supports its use for radio-frequency energy harvesting (RFEH).