Abstract
A novel transparent ultra-wideband antenna for photovoltaic solar-panel integration and RF energy harvesting is proposed in this paper. Since the approval by the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) in 2002, much research has been undertaken on UWB technology, especially for wireless communications. However, in the last decade, UWB has also been proposed as a power harvester. In this paper, a transparent cone-top-tapered slot antenna covering the frequency range from 2.2 to 12.1 GHz is designed and fabricated to provide UWB communications whilst integrated onto solar panels as well as harvest electromagnetic waves from free space and convert them into electrical energy. The antenna when sandwiched between an a-Si solar panel and glass is able to demonstrate a quasi omni-directional pattern that is characteristic of a UWB. The antenna when connected to a 2.55-GHz rectifier is able to produce 18-mV dc in free space and 4.4-mV dc on glass for an input power of 10 dBm at a distance of 5 cm. Although the antenna presented in this paper is a UWB antenna, only an operating range of 2.49 to 2.58 GHz for power scavenging is possible due to the limitation of the narrowband rectifier used for the study.
Highlights
TRANSPARENT antennas for communications have been researched on by only a dedicated few for the last two decades [1]–[9]. These antennas were either semitransparent like those with antenna geometries made of opaque conductive materials on a transparent substrate such as polymers or fully transparent such as those designed on transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) like ITO, AgHT, or PEDOT [10], [11]
The Microwave Office (MWO) circuit schematic of the rectifier used for simulation is shown in Fig. 4, which is a double-diode (HSMS-2850) rectifier designed to work at a frequency of 2.55 GHz and fabricated on a FR-4 microstrip board with a thickness of 1.6 mm and a dielectric constant of 4.2
The simulated and measured return losses of the cone-top-tapered slot antenna (CTSA) in free space, laminated on the a-Si solar panel and sandwiched be-tween the solar panel and 2 -mm glass superstrate are all shown in Fig. 8 for comparison
Summary
TRANSPARENT antennas for communications have been researched on by only a dedicated few for the last two decades [1]–[9]. In this paper, this is overcome through the design and development of a novel UWB antenna that can provide omnidirectionality even though integrated on an a-Si solar panel with a metal aluminum back electrode or ground This enables the UWB antenna to transmit and receive signals wirelessly on both sides of the glass of buildings and windows of homes. The ample glass space provides a limitless area for large transparent wide-band antenna designs or UWB array implementation to harvest radio waves across a wide range of frequencies and provide strong gain “last mile” connection for the futuristic UWB -overfiber (UOF) network [20] Such antennas on the glass of buildings besides providing wireless communications and allowing harvesting of solar energy can scavenge relatively large amounts of power from signals coming from miles away.
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