Conformal Integrated Solar Panel Antennas: Two effective integration methods of antennas with solar cells.

This article reviews two conformal antenna designs that can be integrated with CubeSats' solar panels without competing for surface real estate. The first type of antenna is of slot geometry so that the antennas can be integrated around solar cells, and the second type is optically transparent patches that can be placed on top of solar cells. Detailed design philosophy, prototypes, measurements, and assessment of interaction between the antennas and solar cells are presented. As larger CubeSats have sufficient panel area to host antenna arrays, a subwavelength reflectarray, with optimal overall properties both in terms of gain and optical transparency, is presented. The overall transparency and aperture efficiency of the reflectarray are higher than 90% and 40%, respectively, making it a promising solution as a high-gain conformal CubeSat antenna.

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