Solar-Powered Active Integrated Antennas Backed by a Transparent Reflectarray for CubeSat Applications

Abstract

A gain-enhancement scheme that combines an active integrated antenna (AIA) and an optically transparent reflectarray on solar cells is proposed for CubeSat applications. As CubeSat antennas require a compact footprint, improving the gain over limited design space is challenging. The proposed gain-enhancement scheme exploits the distinct environmental feature of the space, namely, unlimited and sustainable solar energy. This energy is fed into a microwave power amplifier, which is cascaded with a quasi-Yagi antenna. This AIA approach can increase the gain by 22.7 dB. Furthermore, the AIA is arranged as the feed of the transparent reflectarray, which provides twofold advantages. First, the gain can be further improved by 11.0 dB; second, this transparent reflectarray is placed on already existing solar panels, so no additional clearance area is required. We organize the proposed scheme by three modules, including an AIA module, a reflectarray module, and a power management module. The proposed scheme is demonstrated by a prototype designed at 25.0 GHz. By fabricating the transparent reflectarray using Indium Tin Oxide printed on soda-lime glass, the proposed antenna provides realized gain of 41.3 dB with dimensions of 110 × 80 mm 2 ; meanwhile, onboard electronics can still be activated due to the power management.

Anisotropic Metasurface With Asymmetric Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves and Enhancements of Antenna Gain

“…The focal distance is determined by the combination of the spillover efficiency (denoted by η s ) and the illumination efficiency (denoted by η i ) [7], [42]. The spillover efficiency can be computed by: ,…”

“…Millimeter-wave 5G signals suffer from severe attenuation when they penetrate a glass curtain wall or glass window pane. The reciprocal implementation of the metasurface can address this issue if the metasurface is designed and fabricated by optically transparent technology [7]. Figure 20 demonstrates the application of the twin-feed mode, where the locations of source and field are interchanged as compared to Figure 2.…”

Patch antenna integrated on solar cells for green wireless communication: A feature oriented survey and design issues

“…For the super solar approach, both transparent and opaque patch antennas had been utilized. Transparent antenna consists of meshed antenna, 20–30 conformal slot antenna, 31–33 patch antenna printed with transparent conductive oxides (TCO) like indium tin oxide and silver coated polyester film 34–36 and optically transparent reflect array antenna on solar cells 37–40 while opaque antenna accommodates of slot antenna 41–43 with small dimension of antenna shadowing the solar cells and patch antennas located with inside the gap among the solar cells. Aside from these, this super solar approach moreover incorporate inverted F‐shaped patch antennas that are placed vertically 44,45 on the solar array, quarter‐wave metal plate solar antenna, 46,47 mono pole solar antenna, 48 antennas with sun‐tracking solar panels, 49 graphene nano‐conductive ink based super solar body mounting printed patch antenna, 50 solar panel integrated transparent dielectric resonator antenna 51,52 compact magneto‐dielectric loaded antenna 53 and rectenna 54–58 based on a solar cell.…”

“…The active integrated antenna design method is extended to meshed patch applications in an effort to enhance the general power efficiency of the front communication subsystem. The viability of using solar cell panels as reflectors in reflect array antenna configurations 40 is shown in Figure 25, for cube‐sat Applications. The integration of a RA cell in a solar cell thin film panel is especially interesting for space application, among others, where the integration of large antennas with solar panel in a reduced real estate and weight is of prime importance.…”

“…Table 2 shows the performance parameters of solar integrated antennas with and without an integrating solar panel. By and large, research in the literature has focused on four types of full solar antenna combination topologies, which can be given as the utilization of solar cells as on/around the antenna, 1,3–7,11,13–19 an RF ground plane, 2,12,20–26,28–30,34–40,44,45,49,50 lossy substrate 27,31–33,41–43,46–47,51–52,55–58 and as an RF radiating element, 8–10,48,53,54 respectively. Solar cells as on/around the antenna may be connected to the surface of the microstrip antenna except within the region wherever the effective fringing fields exist.…”