Two advanced solar antenna "SOLANT" designs for satellite and terrestrial communications

A novel hybrid technology where amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells are either integrated or physically combined with printed slot antennas is presented. This basic idea is demonstrated with the help of two innovative designs where the solar cells are directly grown on a stainless steel ground-plane or glued onto a standard copper layer printed on a dielectric substrate. To show the compatibility of solar cells and antennas, the concept is used to create a linearly polarized slot antenna, a circularly polarized slot antenna and a slot array. The concept offers advantages in terms of surface coverage, volume, weight and electric performance when compared with a simple juxtaposition of antennas and solar cells.