Design, fabrication and testing of a planar micro strip patch antenna array for WiMAX application and study of its integration with amorphous silicon solar cells

Abstract: WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a new communication technology which offers lot of new services in wireless communication. It has already started showing its enormous potentiality to meet the future demands in wireless communication. Powerful, efficient and cheap antennas are very much required now for the successful deployment of WiMAX in urban, rural and remote areas to cover large distances with adequate speed. Micro strip planar patch array antenna has become popular because of its ease of fabrication, installation and overall satisfactory performance for different types of applications. These antennas provide narrow band microwave wireless links that require semi-hemispherical coverage. The design of efficient planar micro strip patch arrays are extremely important in the future evolution of WiMAX and for that reason microstrip patch array antenna is selected for this research work. The most used operating frequency 3.5 GHz is selected for the present WiMAX antenna. Patch arrays with different configurations are designed and simulated by Empire Xccel simulator (demo version). Based on the simulation results their performances are evaluated. One 2 by 2 patch array with micro strip line and coaxial port provided the best results and it has been selected for the fabrication. The fabricated two patch array antennas are tested in normal room environment and their performance parameters are compared with simulation results. Integration of planar patch array and amorphous silicon solar cells on the same substrate opened up a new dimension for the autonomous wireless communication systems. A brief study will be made at last to attach amorphous (thin film) silicon solar cells on the upper surface of the patch array. Effort will be made to utilize the available surface area of patches and adjacent gaps in such a way that the placement of solar cells on the patches does not hamper the normal performance of patch array and solar cells. Different patch array configurations are considered not only to simulate but also to analyze and verify which configurations are suitable for easy integration with solar cells. The research study will provide a good foundation for further research work in this area.