Antenna integrated with photovoltaic cells

An antenna comprising:

• a physical antenna aperture having an array of antenna elements and one or more PV structures integrated onto one of a pair of optically transparent substrates of the aperture to capture solar energy to provide power for the antenna, wherein the pair of optically transparent substrates comprises a plurality of slots and a plurality of patches, wherein each of the patches is co-located over and separated from a slot in the plurality of slots by a metamaterial element, wherein the one or more PV structures are located between antenna elements in the array and are connected using a patch metal layer on the one optically transparent substrate;
• and
• a controller to cause the array of antenna elements to be electronically scanned to produce a beam at a desired frequency using a control algorithm taking into account the position of the physical aperture for capture of solar energy by the one or more photovoltaic (PV) structures.

An antenna comprising:

• a physical antenna aperture having an array of antenna elements and one or more PV structures integrated onto a surface of one of a pair of optically transparent substrates of the aperture within and outside the array to capture solar energy to provide power for the antenna, wherein the array of antenna elements comprises a tunable slotted array of antenna elements a plurality of slots and a plurality of patches on the pair of optically transparent substrates, wherein each of the patches is co-located over and separated from a slot in the plurality of slots by a metamaterial element, forming a patch/slot pair, each patch/slot pair being turned off or on based on application of a voltage to the patch in the pair, wherein the one or more PV structures are located between antenna elements in the array and are connected using a patch metal layer on the one optically transparent substrate;
• and
• a controller to cause the array of antenna elements to be electronically scanned to produce a beam at a desired frequency using a control algorithm taking into account the position of the physical aperture for capture of solar energy by the one or more photovoltaic (PV) structures, wherein the controller is operable to apply a control pattern to control which patch/slot pairs are on and off to generate the beam.