Design of a frequency selective structure with inhomogeneous substrates as a thermophotovoltaic filter

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 53; no. 7; pp. 2282 - 2289
• Main Authors: Kiziltas, G., Volakis, J.L., Kikuchi, N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.07.2005; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antennas; Applied sciences; Composite materials; Density; Design engineering; Design methodology; Design optimization; Dielectric materials; Dielectric substrates; Dielectrics; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Filters; Frequency selective structures (FSS); Frequency selective surfaces; Linear programming; material design; Nonlinearity; Optimization; Periodic structures; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Sensitivity analysis; Studies; Thermoelectric, pyroelectric devices, etc; Thermophotovoltaics; thermophotovoltaics (TPVs); Topology; Frequency selective surfaces; Circuit design; Frequency selective structures (FSS); thermophotovoltaics (TPVs); topology; material design; Thermophotovoltaic device; High pass filter; Optimization; Periodic structure
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2005.851352

In this paper, the design of a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) filter with high-pass characteristics is presented. The filter is in the form of a frequency selective structure (FSS) with cascaded inhomogeneous dielectric substrates. The goal is to allow for more design flexibility using dielectric periodic structures to deliver a sharper filter response. Therefore, the primary focus is to design a periodic material substrate composition (supporting FSS elements) using a topology optimization technique known as the density method. The design problem is formulated as a general nonlinear optimization problem and sequential linear programming is used to solve the optimization problem with the sensitivity analysis based on the adjoint variable method for complex variables. A key aspect of the proposed design method is the integration of optimization tools with a fast simulator based on the finite element-boundary integral method. The capability of the design method is demonstrated by designing the material distribution for a TPV filter subject to pre-specified bandwidth and compactness criteria.