National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan

Morio Shimizu

Hironori Sahara

Yukio Hayakawa

This electromagnetic wave concentrator having high rigidity and flexibility is suitable for communications and is produced by molding using stress relaxation in thin-film material. An ultra-lightweight electromagnetic wave concentrator is obtained by increasing the rigidity by forming a thin-film curved body of an electromagnetic wave reflective surface having a paraboloid shape. Reinforcing grooves in the reflective surface increase rigidity. To form the reflective surface shape and the reinforcing grooves, pressure is applied to the thin-film material with a molding die, or the thin-film material is attached to the molding die by pressure while heating the thin-film material with a heating device, such as a thermostatic chamber.

Ultra-lightweight electromagnetic wave concentrator and method for manufacture thereof

The electromagnetic wave focusing device has a mirror group consisting of a focal-line type primary reflective mirror and secondary reflective mirror which have a unique parabolic cross-sectional shape. Incident light rays are primarily reflected by the primary reflective mirror and are then secondarily reflected by the secondary reflective mirror, so that solar rays are focused at one point. The electromagnetic wave focusing device can be made extremely thin and light-weight, and can be folded without causing great loss of precision or great increase in mass. Consequently, the mirror bodies can be folded into a compact form and loaded inside the restricted space of a rocket or the like; thus, the device can be transported into aerospace, and a sunlight focusing device having high focusing performance can be reproduced on-site with a high precision.

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Chofu, Japan

Morio Shimizu