Low-Cost Antenna Integrated Within Flexible Solar Panels for IoT Sensor Nodes

This paper presents a shaped antenna suitable for seamless integration onto a flexible solar panel. The antenna consists on a thick folded dipole based on environment-friendly materials (PET, PEDOT:PSS) in whose layout the solar cells are embedded, serving both as solar panel and as RF resonant path, which constitutes a radiating element at the LoRa european frequency band. The design enables an efficient shared connection through a coplanar strip waveguide for both RF and DC output. Operating at Sub-GHz, specifically at 868 MHz with a 42% percentage bandwidth, the IoT node is optimized for compatibility with LoRa technology.