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Title: A Multi-Band Circularly Polarized-Shared Aperture Antenna for Space Applications at S and X Bands

In this article, a compact multiband antenna design and analysis is presented with a view of ensuring efficient uplink/downlink communications at the same time from a single antenna for CubeSat applications. This design shares the aperture of an S-band slot antenna to accommodate a square patch antenna operating in the X-band. Shared aperture antennas, along with an air gap and dielectric loading, provided good gain in both frequency bands. The S-band patch had an S11 = −10 dB bandwidth of 30 MHz (2013–2043 MHz, 1.5%), and the X-band antenna demonstrated a bandwidth of 210 MHz (8320–8530 MHz, 2.5%). The Axial Ratio (<3 dB) bandwidth of the slot antenna in the S-band is 7 MHz (2013–2020 MHz, 0.35%), and it is 67 MHz (8433–8500 MHz, 0.8%) in the case of patch antenna in the X-band. While the maximum gain in the S-band reached 7.7 dBic, in the X-band, the peak gain was 12.8 dBic. This performance comparison study shows that the antenna is advantageous in terms of high gain, maintains circular polarization over a wideband, and can replace two antennas needed in CubeSats for uplink/downlink, which essentially saves space.

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Award ID(s):
1936537
PAR ID:
10483367
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Electronics
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Electronics
Volume:
12
Issue:
21
ISSN:
2079-9292
Page Range / eLocation ID:
4439
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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