Translayer optimized co-design of in-space microwave based wireless power transfer

In space applications, system designs involve a particularly thorough assessment of performance, reliability and stability, as failure cost increases very significantly at each design stage. This effort has to be stressed when evaluating the feasibility of an innovative concept such as an In-Space Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) link. In this context, this work addresses modelling/characterizing the relationships between the input design variables at subsystem level upon complete system-level performance metrics, thereby stablishing a translayer bridge between different system levels of a WPT link based on microwave RF power. The proposed design-oriented modelling framework allows to derive optimum design, which is of particular interest if a comparison of different alternative WPT methods is to be eventually addressed. The microwave WPT link is finally designed by solving the convex optimization problem of maximizing a set of target performance metrics compressed in a single merit figure, considering as the input design space the open design variables associated to the subsystem descriptions. The presented approach yields a design showing the feasibility of the WPT link with a required power of 100W from 0 to 100 meters with an efficiency range from 15% to 45%.