An ultra-broadband absorber of light is proposed by using periodic array of ultra-thin metallic ribbons on top of a lossless quarter-wavelength dielectric spacer placed on a metallic reflector. We propose a fully analytical circuit model for the structure, and then the absorber is duly designed based on the impedance matching concept. As a result, normalized bandwidth of 99.5% is realized by the proposed absorbing structure in mid-infrared regime. Performing a numerical optimization algorithm, we could also reach to normalized bandwidth of 103%. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.