Design of a Broadband Coplanar Waveguide-Fed Antenna Incorporating Organic Solar Cells with 100% Insolation for Ku Band Satellite Communication

Abstract

A broadband coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed monopole antenna based on conventional CPW-fed integration with an organic solar cell (OSC) of 100% insolation is suggested for Ku band satellite communication. The proposed configuration was designed to allow for 100% insolation of the OSC, thereby improving the performance of the antenna. The device structure was fabricated using a Leiterplatten-Kopierfrasen (LPKF) prototyping Printed circuit board (PCB) machine, while a vector network analyzer was utilized to measure the return loss. The simulated results demonstrated that the proposed antenna was able to cover an interesting operating frequency band from 11.7 to 12.22 GHz, which is in compliance with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Consequently, a 3 GHz broadband in the Ku band was achieved, along with an enhancement in the realized gain of about 6.30 dB. The simulation and experimental results showed good agreement, whereby the proposed structure could be specifically useful for fixed-satellite-services (FSS) operating over the frequency range from the 11.7 to 12.22 GHz (downlink) band.Materials 2020, 13, 142 2 of 11 and to the satellite by means of two-way wireless communication systems. The microstrip antenna is a crucial and key component for these systems, which shows interesting properties such as lightweight, high broadband gain, and low profile [5,6]. In 1995, the first connection of a 2.225 GHz microstrip patch antenna with solar cells was proposed for microsatellites application [7]. The solar cells had to be placed at a reasonable distance from the radiating edges of the microstrip patch in order to avoid performance degradation. The integration of photovoltaic cells with patch antennas could save real estate and reduce the design costs.A review of the literature showed that various studies, aimed at supplying antennas with solar cells for terrestrial and satellite applications, have been performed [8][9][10]. Along this line, various designs and architectures were proposed to obtain the maximum insolation of the solar cells, such as mesh patch antennas [11][12][13] and transparent antenna conductors [14,15]. It is, however, known that not all these designs are definitely exposed to 100% insolation and the integration of the PV cells are limited to the inorganic solar cells [16,17]. Inorganic solar cells suffer from the high cost and high-energy requirement during the production process. Very recently, organic solar cells (OSCs) have received considerable attention due to their flexibility, ambient solution-processability, low cost, environmentally friendly, and lightweight properties [18][19][20][21][22][23].The compatibility issue is considered to be one of the main challenges that arise during the coupling of solar cells with the antenna so that the antenna does not block the solar cell from functioning properly and so that the performance of the antenna is not compromised with the presence of the solar cell. We anticipate that the use of OSC with CPW-fed monopole antennas can be specific...

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