Optimal Matched Rectifying Surface for Space Solar Power Satellite Applications

In this paper, we propose a microwave energy reception approach for space solar power satellite applications based on the concept of artificial perfectly matched layer. By embedding rectifying diodes into well-designed metamaterial cells, the obtained rectifying surface simultaneously exhibits a nearly perfect impedance matching to the air and the rectifying circuits, and a strong impedance mismatching to the air at harmonic frequencies, leading to a simple structure that can be implemented using commercial multi-layer printed circuit board technology. The fabricated sample shows that, with a thickness of nearly 1/40 of the free-space wavelength, this rectifying surface has an experimental power absorption rate of 99.92% under normal incident power density of 0.1 mW/cm
²
, and a 56.16-dB suppression to the second-order harmonic. The measured rectifying efficiency complies well with the theoretical expectation. By introducing an additional layer of passive power combiner network, the proposed approach can also be used in applications of harvesting weak ambient RF and microwave energy. We expect a wide range of applications to emerge from this novel concept in the future.