Rectifier antenna for wireless solar power transmission: efficiency analysis across multiple frequency bands

Rectifier antennas play an important role in wireless energy transfer and space-based solar power (SBSP) systems, as they directly convert incident microwave energy into useable DC power. This paper is a comparative simulation study of rectennas under four frequency bands: 0.9 GHz, 2.45 GHz, 5.8 GHz, and 10 GHz. Analysis of rectification efficiency and DC output power as functions of the RF power is performed using MATLAB-based modeling. The findings indicate that rectenna efficiency can be sensitive to frequency, with the 2.45 GHz band realizing overall maximum performance (a 70 percent efficiency). A system-level comparison between rectennas and terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) systems underscores the advantage of rectennas in providing continuous, stable power, overcoming PV’s intermittency due to weather and nighttime unavailability. The results show that the rectennas at similar 2.45 GHz ISM band offer a viable solution to high-conversion-efficiency, large-scale wireless power transport.