Low Profile Enhanced Bandwidth Optically Transparent and Semi-Transparent Meshed Patch Antennas for Integration With Solar Cells

Abstract

This paper presents three novel low-profile optically transparent meshed patch antennas with enhanced bandwidth that can be fully integrated into a solar cell. The bandwidth enhancement was achieved by applying a stacking technique to two square meshed patches with close resonance frequencies. The first antenna used fused silica glass substrates for both lower and upper dielectric layers to maintain transparency and high integrability with the solar cells. The antenna resonated at 2.43 GHz and exhibited an impedance bandwidth of 6.2% and a peak gain of 6.5 dBi. In the second design, a polymer layer replaced the upper glass substrate and was partially removed to reduce the antenna mass. 65% mass reduction was achieved at the expense of lower efficiency. To further reduce the mass, the polymer layer was perforated. The perforated design resulted in a lightweight stacked meshed patch antenna with a normal transparency of 94%, which can be placed directly on top of the solar cells without affecting the cell performance.