Integration of antenna with solar cell for broadband applications

This paper presents the design of an antenna dedicated to cohabiting with photovoltaic cells of solar panels. The proposed broadband solution uses stacked aperture-fed patches with a solar cell as an upper parasitic element. In this approach, the solar cells' functionality and the antenna's performance can be optimized despite the cohabitation in a small volume. The antenna is intended to operate in the B66, B3, B4, B25, B2, and B1 (1710-2200 MHz) frequency bands. In the proposed solution, three solar cells are connected in series to generate the desired DC power while radiating simultaneously. The relative simulated bandwidth of this antenna achieves 27%.