The Rectenna Array for Minecart Fed by Leaky Wave Waveguide for Microwave Snow Melting

Abstract

A microwave snow-melting system has been studied in which snow-melting microwaves leaking from a slotted waveguide are applied to wireless power transmission to drive a minecart (snow-melting robot). In order to make effective use of the snow-melting microwaves continuously transmitted from the waveguide, this paper proposes a method to improve the characteristics by arraying the rectenna along the travel direction and combining the power obtained from each rectenna, and analyses the wireless power transmission efficiency of the arrayed rectenna. The results show that, by arraying the rectenna, multiple power can be supplied to a single power receiver and each element works effectively with respect to the antenna characteristics.