High Frequency Microwave Power Transmission System Design for Space Application

Paper number

IAC-17,C3,2,4,x38092

Author

Mr. Yazhou Dong, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China

Coauthor

Dr. Shi-wei Dong, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China

Coauthor

Mrs. Wenli Fu, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China

Coauthor

Ms. Ying Wang, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China

Coauthor

Mr. Ge Zhu, China Academy of Space Technology, China

Coauthor

Dr. Xiaojun Li, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China

Year

2017

Abstract

Power problem is one of the major issues that every space system will be facing. Microwave power transmission (MPT) can provide more flexible power supplying for various applications such as daughter-mother spacecrafts, distributed satellite system and so on. Due to strictly limits of size and weight in space application, the operating frequency of MPT system should be higher than traditional MPT frequencies 5.8 GHz and 2.45 GHz. Moreover, the transmitting sites often have fewer restrictions on resources and volume, on the contrary the receiving site is strictly restrained of size and weight. So the rectenna may be smaller than transmitting antenna. Because of microwave beam diffusion, the microwave power transmission system must operate in focusing mode to improve the transmission efficiency.
This paper presents several design considerations of X/Ka band microwave power transmission system design for space application including focused antenna array design, high frequency microwave power amplifier design, and high frequency rectifier design.
The spherical phase distribution is applied in transmitting antenna array to generate focusing effect. The effect of focused system is analyzed with comparison of non-focused system. The beam collecting efficiency of the proposed focused system can be higher than 50\%. If the focusing procedure is not implemented, the beam collecting efficiency will be much smaller corresponding to the sizes of transmitting antenna and rectenna array. 
Taking account of the combination of MPT and communication system in the future, the power amplifier is designed in AB class with considerations to both the power converting efficiency and the linearity. An X band power amplifier is designed and manufactured with 46\% drain efficiency and -27.5 dBc suppression at second harmonic frequency.
The high frequency rectifier design is based on diodes and microstrip filters. The chosen rectifying diode in X band is HSMS8101 manufactured by Avago. The rectifying efficiency is about 40\% at 10 GHz.

Abstract document

IAC-17,C3,2,4,x38092.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-17,C3,2,4,x38092.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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