A wideband ultra-low-profile Yagi-Uda type of solar-cell integrated antenna is presented. The proposed antenna consists of a driver, reflector, and director, and is also designed to function as a solar cell. An ultra-low-profile copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) based solar cell is used as a driver, and a slit is cut from it to make a built-in solar-cell antenna. A CIGS solar cell-based reflector and director are added to increase the impedance bandwidth and gain of the proposed antenna. A narrow slit is used, and the spacings between the reflector, driver, and director are minimized to increase the solar-cell form factor. A coaxial-to-microstrip line transition type feeding structure is used to excite the antenna, which is printed under the second substrate. Three RF decoupler circuits are designed for the driver, reflector, and director to separate the antenna functionality from the solar cell. The antenna has overall dimensions of 0.71 λo × 0.61 λo × 0.006 λo at 3.2 GHz. Furthermore, the proposed antenna design possesses a wide measured impedance bandwidth of 56.7%, radiation efficiency of higher than 90%, a maximum measured gain of 5.67 dBi within the impedance bandwidth, and a solar-cell form factor of 89.7% with no optical blockage.
This work was supported in part by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by Korean Government Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) under Grant NRF-2022R1F1A1065324; in part by the Institute of Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by Korean Government (MSIT), Development of 3D-NET Core Technology for High-Mobility Vehicular Service, under Grant 2022-0-00704-001; and in part by the Institute of Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by Korean Government (MSIT) under Grant RS-2024-00396992.(AHMED ALI and HEESU WANG contributed equally to this work.)This work was supported in part by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by Korean Government Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) under Grant NRF-2022R1F1A1065324; in part by the Institute of Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by Korean Government (MSIT), Development of 3D-NET Core Technology for High-Mobility Vehicular Service, under Grant 2022-0-00704-001; and in part by the Institute of Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by Korean Government (MSIT) under Grant RS-2024-00396992.
