A study on the effect of space solar cells on the antennas integrated on top of their cover glass

A study to determine how commercial space solar cells affect the functionality of the antenna integrated on top of solar cells was performed. It is found that when the cover glass of the solar cells is thin, a large portion of the energy from the antenna was leaked into the solar cells. The measured results show that at 10 GHz or higher frequency, as long as the antenna is lifted appropriately using a thicker cover glass, the gain of the antenna was not affected significantly by solar cells whether they were turned on or not.