B1. Investigation into the effects of solar cells on the DRA reflectarray / transmitarray antenna design

A dielectric resonator antenna reflectarray and transmitarray integrated with solar cell for small satellite and clean energy is proposed. The combination between the antenna and the solar cell serve as a cover protection for the solar cell from the environment. Three array configurations have been presented. In the first one, the reflectarray unit-cell consists of a transparent hemispherical DRA mounted on a solar cell with dielectric substrate and ground plane. The reflectarray phase distribution is achieved by changing both the DRA and the solar cell sizes. Maximum gain of 27.18 dB and gain bandwidth of 1.77 GHz are achieved. The second reflectarray integration with solar cell depends on using a fixed size of solar cells, which results in a fixed energy from all the solar cells. The phase distribution is achieved by changing the inner radius of a hemispherical hole inside the DRA of each unit cell element. The maximum gain of the array is 21.3 dB. In order to overcome the effect of the feeder blocking of the reflectarray, a third configuration, transmitarray is integrated with the solar cell for small satellite applications. The transmitarray unit cell consists of a duplication of the reflectarray unit cell with two rectangular slots in its ground plane. A maximum gain of 26.63 dB is achieved and 1-dB gain bandwidth of 1 GHz is obtained. The three arrangements offer advantages in surface coverage, volume, weight, and performance. The structures are designed and analyzed using the finite integration technique.