  We investigate the possibility of spatially and spectrally controlling the
thermal infrared emission by exploitation of the Yagi-Uda antenna design.
Hybrid antennas composed of both SiC and Au rods are considered and the
contributions of emission from all the elements, at a given equilibrium
temperature, are taken into account. We show that the detrimental effect due to
thermal emission from the not ideal parasitic elements drastically affect the
performances of conventional thermal Au antennas in the 12 micrometers
wavelength range. Nevertheless, our results show that the hybrid approach
allows the development of efficient narrow-band and high directivity sources.
The possibility of exploiting the Yagi-Uda design both in transmission and in
reception modes, may open the way to the realization of miniaturized,
efficient, robust and cheap sensor devices for mass-market applications.
