Ultralight Energy Converter Tile for the Space Solar Power Initiative

• Published in: 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC) (A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC & 34th EU PVSEC) pp. 3357 - 3359
• Main Authors: Kelzenberg, Michael D., Espinet-Gonzalez, Pilar, Vaidya, Nina, Warmann, Emily C., Naqavi, Ali, Loke, Samuel P., Saive, Philipp, Roy, Tatiana A., Vinogradova, Tatiana G., Leclerc, Christophe, Gdoutos, Eleftherios E., Royer, Fabien, Fikes, Austin, Bohn, Florian, Abiri, Behrooz, Hashemi, Mohammed R., Gal-Katziri, Matan, Hajimiri, Ali, Pellegrino, Sergio, Atwater, Harry A.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.06.2018
• Subjects: Conferences; Microwave antenna arrays; Microwave FET integrated circuits; Microwave integrated circuits; Microwave theory and techniques; Radio frequency
• DOI: 10.1109/PVSC.2018.8547403

We have fabricated a functional prototype of an ultralight power converter tile; a modular building block for a space-based solar power system. The tile is \sim 10\mathrm \times 15 cm in area, and weighs \sim 1.5 kg/\text{m}^{\mathbf {2}}. It comprises a photovoltaic (PV) solar energy collector, a radio-frequency (RF) power converter, and an array of transmission antennas. The PV collector subassembly utilizes \sim 15\mathrm {x}, 1D parabolic trough reflective concentrators with triple-junction (3J) solar cells. It has areal mass of \sim 0.8 kg/\textbf{m}^{\mathbf {2}}, 74% optical efficiency, and a peak specific power of \sim 230\mathrm {W} /kg. We demonstrated wireless power transmission over a distance of \sim 50 cm in our lab. Analysis of the sources of mass and inefficiency suggest a path towards achieving dramatically higher performance with future designs.