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Progress of Rectenna Arrays for Microwave Power Transmission Systems

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Abstract

Microwave power transmission (MPT) technology has been proposed to supply power to the long-reached systems, such as high altitude airships, unmanned vehicles, and far-reached wireless sensor networks, etc., and it is also the key technology of the solar power stations (SPS). Rectenna array, receiving the microwave (MW) and convert it into the direct current (DC) power, is one main component of an MPT system. In this paper, the development of rectenna arrays are reviewed. Second, the recent research work of rectennas and rectenna arrays at C-, X- and Ka-bands at Shanghai University are illustrated. Thirdly, based on the experimental results and reasonable evaluation, the designs of rectenna arrays for 1 kW DC power at different bands are evaluated and analyzed. Finally, prospects and challenges of rectenna array and MPT technology are discussed.

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Abbreviations

MPT:

Microwave power transmission

SPS:

Solar power stations

MW:

Microwave

DC:

Direct Current

EM:

Electromagnetic

BCE:

Beam collection efficiency

PCB:

Printed circuit board

ETHER:

Energy Transmission toward High-altitude long endurance airship ExpeRiment

MILAX:

MIcrowave Lifted Airplane eXperiment

SMA:

Sub-miniature version A

CPW:

CoPlanar Waveguide

SIW:

Substrate integrated waveguide

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant Number 62171270.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Fan Yu & Xue-Xia Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Specialty Fiber Optics and Optical Access Networks, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Xue-Xia Yang

Authors
  1. Fan Yu
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Correspondence to Xue-Xia Yang.

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Yu, F., Yang, XX. Progress of Rectenna Arrays for Microwave Power Transmission Systems. Adv. Astronaut. Sci. Technol. 5, 49–58 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42423-022-00100-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42423-022-00100-0

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