A Compact Ultra-thin Flexible Solar Panel based Metamaterials Characterizations for Self-Powered Wireless Systems

In this paper, an experimental study is performed to realize the electromagnetic properties permittivity (εr) and permeability (µr), of a solar panel substrate with SRR inclusions.The proposed study is conducted for the modern wireless communication applications. The solar panel structure is based on a flexible layer of PTFE. The SRR structure is constructed from two concentric rings of three periodical unit cells in their lattice. The substrate layer, based solar panel, properties are measured using a modified Nicholson-Ross-Weir formulations (NRW) to retrieve εr=εr'+jεr" and µr=µr'+jµr" from the measured S-parameters. The Finite Integral Technique (FIT) simulations based on CST MWS software package formulations is invoked to evaluate the S-parameters based on the retrieved εr, µr and compare them to their relative measurements. Next, a PTFE sample is used to validate the proposed technique. It is found that the properties of the PTFE sample are quite relative to those published in the literature where εr=2.07+j0.001 and µr=0.999+j0.0001. Finally, an excellent matching is realized between the measured and simulated results.