ABSTRACT Three monopole antennas, based on both solid and mesh conductors, are designed for a 3–6 GHz operation band. Binary topology optimization is applied to reduce the metal‐covered area by 37.2%, which results in an increase in the antenna's optical transparency by 8% compared to antennas based on uniform mesh. Optical ray tracing is used to render images of the antennas in an automotive environment. It is shown that a mesh conductor can decrease the visual detection probability of the ante