Rectifying antennas for energy harvesting from the microwaves to visible light: A review

Rectifying antennas are often prensented as a potentiel technological breakthrough for energy harvesting. First theorized in the 1970’s, the downsizing of an antenna coupled with a rectifier has become technologically achievable with the progresses of fabrication techniques such as electron beam or photolithography. However, reaching infrared or visible region of the electromagnetic spectra still entails challenges on the integration of a rectifier operating in the terahertz range. New bottom up approaches are likely to bring a promising solution to this issue. To improve our understanding of the key points of rectifying antennas’ design for the infrared and visible light, and the challenges of device fabrication, this work reviews the progresses of this technology, going back from the first historical RF energy harvesting systems and covering the most innovative trends to this date.