This paper presents a compact low-profile slot antenna integrated with a photovoltaic cell. The photovoltaic cell consists of a top metal grid, gallium arsenide substrate, and metallic bottom contact. The metallic bottom contact was used as a ground plane where the slot was etched for resonance. A second substrate was placed under the ground plane, and a 50 Ω microstrip line was printed on its bottom side to excite the slot. A chip inductor was used as a radio frequency (RF) choke in the alternating current blocking circuit to suppress RF current leakage towards the photovoltaic cell. Hence, the proposed antenna has a unique feature of functioning simultaneously as a photovoltaic cell and an antenna. The overall dimensions––25 mm × 31.75 mm × 0.893 mm (0.48λo × 0.61λo × 0.017λo at 5.77 GHz)––of the photovoltaic cell-integrated slot antenna structure can be used effectively with Internet of Things devices.
This work was supported in part by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2018R1D1A1A02086071); in part by the “Human Resources Program in Energy Technology” of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP)-granted financial resources from the Ministry of Trade Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea (Project No. 20184030292220); and in part by the Ajou University research fund.This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This work was supported in part by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2018R1D1A1A02086071); in part by the ?Human Resources Program in Energy Technology? of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP)-granted financial resources from the Ministry of Trade Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea (Project No. 20184030292220); and in part by the Ajou University research fund.
