A Ka Band Optically Transparent Reflectarray Design Integrated with Solar Cells

A new design for a Ka band reflectarray antenna integrated with solar cells is presented. The design accommodates the effects of solar cells on the antenna performance in addition to the effect of the reflectarray structure over the output power of the solar cells. Moreover, the unit cell and feed antenna are designed to operate effectively at the design center frequency 30 GHz accommodating the anisotropic behavior of the solar cells. The initial full-wave simulation results of the proposed structure show an expected gain of 28.66 dB for a square reflectarray aperture with six inches side dimension.