Miniaturized Transparent Metallodielectric Resonator Antennas Integrated With Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells

Miniaturized transparent metallodielectric resonator antennas are developed and integrated on amorphous silicon solar cells. The horizontal metallic strips attached on the sidewalls of transparent low-profile dielectric resonators are used to manipulate electric near-fields and achieve novel dominant modes that represent miniaturized narrowband, wideband, or multiband antennas with various far-field properties. The radiation properties of each mode can also be adjusted to suit a prospective application by a simple change in position and/or size of the strip. The horizontal strip on the sidewall can be as narrow as one twelfth of the resonator height, and the top wall of the resonator is always kept clear to maximize the solar cell efficiency. A comprehensive comparison including farfield, near-field, and impedance properties of different modes is presented. Several prototypes of the integrated antennas were fabricated and tested. The experimental results are along with the theoretical achievements showing miniaturized antennas with maximum dimension as small as 0.18λ and multimode operation with realized gain higher than 6 dBi.