Patent ID: 8665175

Claim:
An antenna comprising: an active face, at least one radiating element for transmitting radio frequency (RF) signals via the active face, and a metal free thermal control film covering the active face, the metal free thermal control film comprising: a multi-layer interference filter having alternating higher and lower refractive index layers arranged to filter optical radiation based on interference effects between different components of the optical radiation produced by reflection at boundaries between the layers, said control film exhibiting preselected high absorbency and emissive characteristics in an infrared wavelength range between 2.5 μm to 50 μm and low absorbency characteristics in a solar spectrum range between 200 nm to 2500 nm to limit solar input and allow heat dissipated in the antenna to be radiated into space via the active face, the control film further exhibiting high transmissive characteristics in a microwave frequency spectrum 1 to 30 GHz to allow the RF signals to be transmitted via the active face.