A Metasurface Antenna for Space Application

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2000

ABSTRACT Theory, design, realization and measurements of an X-band isoflux circularly polarized antenna for LEO satellite platforms are presented. The antenna is based on a metasurface composed by a dense texture of sub-wavelength metal patches on a grounded dielectric slab, excited by a surface wave generated by a coplanar feeder. The antenna is extremely flat (1.57 mm) and light (less than 1 Kg) and represents a competitive solution for space-to-ground data link applications.

Sciyo eBooks, 2010

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2007

The development of a circularly-polarized compact high-gain antenna to be used for the European Student Earth Orbiter small satellite mission is described. The antenna is realized stacking two coaxial shorted annular patches and placing the top one at half a wavelength from the lower one. At variance of other similar configurations proposed in the past, the one presented in this paper has several important features which can be extremely useful for application in the space environment. In particular, it can be easily fabricated employing suspended technology and its radiation characteristics are to some extent controllable by opportunely varying the geometry. In the following, a straightforward design procedure will be presented detailing the criteria to optimize top and bottom radiating elements. Both numerical and measured results will show that the proposed design satisfies the specifications and presents characteristics comparable to other larger and heavier solutions usually more difficult to design. Specifically, it will be shown that with this configuration it is possible to obtain gain values higher than 12 dB using ground plane of moderate size and that a further improvement up to 15dB can be obtained employing larger ground planes.

Telecommunication Systems, 2016

The synthesis of different planar geometries of antenna arrays for isoflux radiation is presented in this paper. This synthesis considers the reduction of the side lobe level and the isoflux radiation requirements for Geostationary Earth Orbit satellites. The behavior of the radiation is studied in three geometries of two-dimensional antenna arrays such as uniform planar arrays, aperiodic planar arrays (APA) and concentric ring arrays (CRA). The well-known methods of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization are utilized for the optimization problem. In this way, the designs of APA and CRA presented in this paper could provide an acceptable solution for reducing the antenna hardware and simplifying the power feeding even more than results presented previously in the literature.

A NASA sponsored program, called the Mobile Satellite (MSAT) system, has prompted the development of several innovative antennas at L-band frequencies. In the space segment of the MSAT system, an efficient, light weight, circularly polarized microstrip array that uses linearly polarized elements has been developed as a multiplebeam reflector feed system. In the ground segment, a low-cost, low-profile, and very efficient microstrip Yagi array has been developed as a medium-gain mechanically steered vehicle antenna. Circularly shaped mierostrip patches excited at higher-order modes were also developed as low-gain vehicle antennas. A more recent effort called for the development of a 20/30 GHz mobile terminal antenna for future-generation mobile satellite communications. To combat the high insertion loss encountered at 20/30 GHz, series-fed MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) microstrip array antennas are currently being developed. These MMIC arrays may lead to the development of several small but high-gain Ka-band antennas for the Personal Access Satellite Service (PASS) planned for the 2000s. experiments have been planned to demonstrate communication technologies at Ka-band frequencies. One of the AMT's (ACTS Mobile Terminal) high risk technologies that are currently being developed at JPL is a compact and low-cost mobile antenna system. This is a mechanically steered series-fed microstrip array using active MMIC components. This antenna development, along with other Ka-band technologies, will lead to the development of several compact hand-held terminals in a future Personal Access Satellite Services (PASS) system I_3]. Both the above mentioned L-band and Ka-band satellite corcanunication antenna developments and concepts are individually described in the following sections.

IntechOpen eBooks, 2020

It is well known that antennas are inevitable for wireless communication systems. After the launch of Sputnik-1 which was the first artificial satellite developed by USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), telecommunication technologies started to develop for space excessively. However, significance of the antennas as first or final RF-front end element has not been altered for the space communication systems. In this chapter, after introducing telecommunication and antenna technologies for space, which space environmental conditions are to be faced by these antennas are summarized. Then, frequency allocation that is a crucial design factor for antennas is explained and tabulated. And finally at the last part, different types of antennas used in different space missions are presented with their functional parameters and tasks.

Publisher Sciyo This study is motivated by the need to give the reader a broad view of the developments, key concepts, and technologies related to information society evolution, with a focus on the wireless communications and geoinformation technologies and their role in the environment. Giving perspective, it aims at assisting people active in the industry, the public sector, and Earth science fields as well, by providing a base for their continued work and thinking.

IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, 2019

A quadrifilar helix antenna (QHA), with an improved isoflux radiation pattern for S-band satellite ground stations, is designed and fabricated. The performance of the antenna with respect to its beam pattern, axial ratio and efficiency is investigated. To have optimum coverage of a low earth orbit satellite rotating the Earth's surface with one fixed pattern ground station antenna, an ultra-wide beamwidth isoflux pattern covering the complete upper hemisphere is required. The presented QHA antenna not only satisfies the required beam shape but also its pattern stays unchanged within a wide bandwidth. Besides that, an efficient Wilkinson power divider as the antenna's feed is designed to match the input impedance of helices appropriately, resulting in efficiency enhancement to >85%. The measured results, which indicate the performances of the proposed antenna in terms of the reflection coefficient, radiation pattern and axial ratio, are in good agreement with the simulation results within 2 to 2.2 GHz frequency band.

Electronics Letters, 2019

This Letter demonstrates the design of a two-element polarisation diversity antenna, applicable for modern small satellite application systems. The intended antenna mainly consists of two monopole radiators loaded with metasurface reflector as a ground plane. The dimensions of the radiator antenna are 40 × 22 × 1.6 mm 3. The antenna measured results offers a wider S 11 bandwidth of (2.23-2.91 GHz) and wider axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of (2.16-2.92 GHz) with a common S 11 and ARBW of 26.45% is obtained. A maximum gain of 7.02 dBic and isolation better than 14.5 dB is observed along with the operating frequency range. The antenna provides an ARBW (< 3 dB) and gain (> 2.38 dBic) for theta = ± 45°, for all phi values along with the complete operating frequency range. Also, the antenna port-1 provides left-handed circular polarisation and port-2 provides right-handed circular polarisation radiation with directional radiation characteristics.

2010 - MILCOM 2010 MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE, 2010

A Cube-Satellite (CubeSat) is a small satellite weighing no more than one kilogram. CubeSats are used for space research, but their low-rate communication capability limits functionality. As greater payload and instrumentation functions are sought, increased data rate is needed. Since most CubeSats currently transmit at a 437 MHz frequency, several directional antenna types were studied for a 2.45 GHz, larger bandwidth transmission. This higher frequency provides the bandwidth needed for increasing the data rate. A deployable antenna mechanism maybe needed because most directional antennas are bigger than the CubeSat size constraints. From the study, a deployable hemispherical helical antenna prototype was built. Transmission between two prototype antenna equipped transceivers at varying distances tested the helical performance. When comparing the prototype antenna's maximum transmission distance to the other commercial antennas, the prototype outperformed all commercial antennas, except the patch antenna. The root cause was due to the helical antenna's narrow beam width. Future work can be done in attaining a more accurate alignment with the satellite's directional antenna to downlink with a terrestrial ground station.