Multifunctional Double Band Mesh Antenna with Solar Cell Integration for Communications Purposes

A dual band flexible antenna based on a circularly polarized modified meshed patch antenna design. This article focuses on some of the most pressing issues in small satellite applications. The antenna optimization and improvement of antenna performance, such as radiation efficiency. As is well known, circular polarization is immune to the Faraday rotation effect in the ionosphere and can thus prevent a 3-dB loss in geo-satellite communication. With the use of the software program Computer Simulation Technology (CST), the proposed circularly polarized modified meshed patch antenna has been created. Therefore, this article also presents a modified design of a circularly polarized meshed patch antenna to reduce the complexity of the antenna and decrease the size as much as it is capable. However, a meshed patch antenna can support a high communication data rate. The antenna architecture will theoretically be consistent with the installation of solar panels. The antenna utilizes a conductive copper as the core material and the substrate using flexible polyimide. The design antenna is very small, having an overall size of 30 * 30 mm when compared to other conventional non-transparent antenna operating at the same frequencies of 2.6, 3.5 GHz. The antenna that is proposed involves two meshed patch elements of same size but in various shapes. Finally, the proposed antenna is integrated into a solar cell by using the amorphous silicon thin film.