BASIC COMPONENTS OF TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING PARTS OF A MICROWAVE ORBITAL POWER CHANNEL

摘要

The paper is aimed to the improvement of the characteristics of the energy transmission channel main components designed for transmission onto the earth's surface of the energy produced by photovoltaic conversion on the orbital platform and then converted into microwave radiation. The computer simulation on the base of the diffusion-drift model has shown that the choice of silicon, as a semiconductor material, for the lower cascade of a GaInP/GaAs/Si-type solar cell with a larger band-gap than that of germanium in the GaInP/GaAs/Ge type structure and, therefore, with a higher open-circuit voltage, results in an approximately 20% increase of the total solar cell efficiency. The results of computer simulation of a multi-junction n ~( + ) –p–p ~( + ) structure with vertical p–n junctions at a silicon wafer thickness of 150 μm for each n ~( + ) –p–p ~( + ) structure and a carrier lifetime of 20 microseconds show that the efficiency and short circuit current density are equal 11.9% and 25.8 mA/cm ~( 2 ) , respectively. The base element of the radiating antenna array, optimized for the frequency corresponding to the second atmosphere transparency window, is modeled using the CST Microwave Studio software package: it is shown that the angular width of the directional diagram of such a radiator at a level of 3 dB is 38.9 degrees, and the efficiency reaches a maximum of 93.2% near the 95 GHz frequency. The applicability of the absolute negative resistance mode in multivalley semiconductors (of the n-GaAs type) for converting microwave radiation into direct current has been analytically investigated and experimentally tested. It is established that such a device is able to convert microwave radiation near the 500 kW power level (in case of installation of semiconductor structure in a reduced-section waveguide – 90 × 22.5 mm ~( 2 ) for a frequency of 2.45 GHz).