Engineering Commons^™

Integration Of Antennas And Solar Cells For Autonomous Communication Systems, Maria Jose Roo Ons

Doctoral

Solar energy is becoming an attractive alternative for powering autonomous communication systems. These devices often involve the use of separate photovoltaics and antennas, which demand a compromise in the utilization of the limited space available. This thesis deals with the design, analysis, fabrication and validation of different techniques for the integration of antennas and solar cells in a single multifunctional device. Four different photovoltaic technologies are considered within this work, namely, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si), monocrystalline (mono-Si) emitter-wrap-through (EWT) rear contact solar cells, amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film on glass substrate, and bifacial solar cells. The use of a poly-Si solar …