E-shaped Aperture Coupled Microstrip Patch Array Antenna for High Speed Downlink Applications in Small Satellites
Abstract
For high speed downlinking of payload data from
small satellites, a new 4×4 aperture coupled microstrip patch
array antenna has been presented. The antenna is designed
for the Ku band and a peak gain of 18.0 dBi is achieved
within the impedance bandwidth from 11.75 GHz to 12.75 GHz.
Wide bandwidth is achieved as the patch elements are excited
through E-shaped slots having asymmetric side lengths and
widths. Each square patch element of the array with truncated
corners and appropriately placed slots generates right hand
circularly polarized (RHCP) radiation with very high cross-
polarization discrimination. A corporate feed network consisting
of T-junctions and quarter-wave impedance transformers is
developed to feed the array elements from a single coaxial port
of 50 Ω. To improve the radiation from the patches and wave-
guiding in the feed network, two types of Rogers substrates with
different dielectric constant and thickness are considered. Our
proposed microstrip patch array antenna of size 7.8 cm × 6.4
cm × 0.3 cm can perform efficiently with a downlink data rate
as high as 4.6 Gbps for small satellites.
References
M. T. Islam, M. Cho, M. Samsuzzaman, and S. Kibria, “Compact An-
tenna for Small Satellite Applications”, IEEE Antennas and Propagation
Magazine, 57 (2), pp. 30-36 (2015), doi: 10.1109/MAP.2015.2420471.
F. E. Tubbal, R. Raad, and K. Chin, ”A Survey and Study of Planar
Antennas for Pico-Satellites”, IEEE Access, 3, pp. 2590-2612 (2015),
doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2015.2506577.
T.R. Jones, J.P. Grey, and M. Daneshmand, ”Solar Panel Integrated
Circular polarized Aperture-Coupled Patch Antenna for CubeSat Ap-
plications”, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, 17(10),
pp. 1895-1899 (2018), doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2018.2869321.
M. J. Veljovic, and A. K. Skrivervik, ”Aperture-Coupled Low-
Profile Wideband Patch Antennas for CubeSat”, IEEE Transactions
on Antennas and Propagation, 67(5), pp. 3439-3444 (2019), doi:
1109/TAP.2019.2900428.
G. Kumar and K. P. Ray, ”Broadband Microstrip Antennas”(Artech
House Inc., London, UK, 2003, 1st edn.), pp. 331–353.
M. A. B. Kortright and R. N. Simons, ”K-Band Cross-Aperture Cou-
pled Circularly Polarized Dual Frequency Microstrip Patch Antenna
with Single Feed,” 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas
and Propagation & USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting,
Boston, MA, USA, pp. 337-338, July 2018, doi: 10.1109/APUS-
NCURSINRSM.2018.8608618.
C. H. Lai, T. Y. Han, and T. R. Chen, “Broadband aperture-coupled
microstrip antennas with low cross polarization and back radiation,”
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, 5, pp. 187-197 (2008),
doi: 10.2528/PIERL08111805.
K. P. Yang, and K. L. Wong, “Inclined-slot-coupled compact dual-
frequency microstrip antenna with cross-slot,” Electronics Letters, 34(4),
pp. 321-322 (1998). doi:10.1049/el:19980222.
X. F. Zhu and D. L. Su, “Symmetric E-shaped slot for UWB antenna
with band-notched characteristic,” Microwave and Optical Technology
Letters, 52 (7), pp. 1594–1597 (2010), doi: 10.1002/mop.
A. Dastranj and H. Abiri, ”Bandwidth Enhancement of Printed E-Shaped Slot Antennas Fed by CPW and Microstrip Line,” IEEE Transactions
on Antennas and Propagation, 58 (4), pp. 1402-1407 (2010), doi:
1109/TAP.2010.2041164.
S. Chen, and M. Shie, ”A Compact High Gain X-Band Patch Antenna for Cube and Small Satellite Applications”, IEEE International Symposium
on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting,
Atlanta, GA, USA, pp. 1561-1562, July 2019, doi: 10.1109/APUS-
NCURSINRSM.2019.8888759.
M. Samsuzzaman, M. T. Islam, N. Misran, and M. A. Mohd
Ali, ”Dual Band X Shape Microstrip Patch Antenna for Satel-
lite Applications”, Procedia Technology, 11, pp. 1223-1228 (2013),
doi:10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.317.
F. Nashad, S. Foti, D. Smith, M. Elsdon, and O. Yurduseven, ”Ku-band suspended meshed patch antenna integrated with solar cells for remote area applications”, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, 83, pp. 245-254 (2018), doi: 10.2528/PIERC18020608.
‘ANetworktoConnectthehttps://www.keplercommunications.com/network#tars-slide, accessed December 2020.
R. B. Waterhouse, “Microstrip Patch Antennas: A Designer’s Guide”
(Springer Science+ Business Media, New York, USA, 2003, 1st edn.),
pp. 327-350.
T. T. S. Borel, A. R. Yadav, and U. Shah, ”Design of Rectangu-
lar Patch Array Antenna for Satellite Communication”, 3rd Interna-
tional Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication
(ICCMC), Erode, India, pp. 759-764, March 2019, doi: 10.1109/IC-
CMC.2019.8819861.
P. Bouca, J. N. Matos, S. Cunha, and N. B. Carvalho, “Low-
Profile Aperture-Coupled Patch Antenna Array for CubeSat Applica-
tions”, IEEE Access, 8, pp. 20473–20479 (2020), doi: 10.1109/AC-
CESS.2020.2968060.
F. Qin, S. Gao, G. Wei, Q. Luo, C. Mao, C. Gu, J. Xu, and J.
Li, ”Wideband Circularly polarized Fabry-Perot Antenna”, IEEE An-
tennas and Propagation Magazine, 57(5), pp. 127-135 (2015), doi:
1109/MAP.2015.2470678.
‘X-Band16ElementPatchAntennaArray’,
https://satcatalog.com/component/x-band-4x4-patch-antenna/, accessed
January 2021.
’SatellitePlatforms’,https://www.sstl.co.uk/what-we-do/satellite-
platforms, accessed January 2021.
C. E. Lesanu and A. Done, ”Parasitic circular polarized vertical an-
tennas”, International Conference on Development and Application
Systems (DAS), Suceava, Romania, pp. 143-149, May 2016, doi:
1109/DAAS.2016.7492564.
A. T. Joseph, M. Deshpande, P. E. O’Neill, and L. Miles, ”Development
of VHF (240–270 MHz) antennas for SoOp (signal of opportunity) re-
ceiver for 6U Cubesat platforms”, Progress in Electromagnetic Research
Symposium (PIERS), Shanghai, China, pp. 2530-2531, August 2016, doi:
1109/PIERS.2016.7735037.
J. Costantine, Y. Tawk, A. Ernest, and C. G. Christodoulou, ”Deployable antennas for CubeSat and space communications”, 6th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP), Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 837-840, March 2012, doi: 10.1109/EuCAP.2012.6206124.
S. Gao, Y. Rahmat-Samii, R. E. Hodges, and X. X. Yang, ”Advanced
Antennas for Small Satellites”, Proceedings of the IEEE, 106(3), pp.
-403 (2018), doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2018.2804664.
K. Devaraj, “Small Satellite Antennas”, in Pelton, J.N., Madry, S. (Ed.):“Handbook of Small Satellites” (Springer, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, 1st
edn.), pp. 203-213 (2020).
“CanX-2: System Overview”, https://www.utias-sfl.net/?page id=172.,accessed February 2021.
J. Huang, “Microstrip Antennas: Analysis, Design, and Application”, in Balanis, C. A. (Ed.): “Modern Antenna Handbook” (John Wiley & Sons
Inc., USA, 2008, 1st edn.), pp. 157–196.
C. A. Balanis, “Antenna Theory - Analysis and Design” (John Wiley
and Sons Ltd., New York, NY, USA, 2005, 3rd edn.), pp. 811–872.
“Circularpolarisationvs.Linearpolarisation-Intelsat”,
http://www.intelsat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/polarisation.pdf,
accessed February 2021.
M. Haneishi and S. Yoshida, “A design method of circularly polarized
rectangular microstrip antenna by one-point feed”, Electronics and
Communications in Japan (Part I: Communications), 64 (4), pp. 46–54
(1981), https://doi.org/10.1002/ecja.4410640407.
K. Carver and J. Mink, ”Microstrip antenna technology”, IEEE Trans-
actions on Antennas and Propagation, 29 (1), pp. 2-24 (1981), doi:
1109/TAP.1981.1142523.
T. A. Miligan, “Modern Antenna Design” (John Wiley and Sons Ltd.,
Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 2005, 2nd edn.), pp. 293–319.
D. M. Pozar, ”Microstrip antennas”, Proceedings of the IEEE, 80 (1),
pp. 79-91 (1992).
R. Bancroft, “Microstrip and Printed Antenna Design” (SciTech Pub-
lishing Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA, 2009,2nd edn.), pp. 142–176.
R. P. Owens, “Microstrip antenna feeds”, in James, J. R., Hall, P.
S. (Ed.): “Handbook of Microstrip Antennas” (Peter peregrines Ltd.,
London, UK, 1989, 1st edn.), pp. 815–855.
“Linkbudgetcalculations”,https://www.kymetacorp.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/06/Link-Budget-Calculations-2.pdf,accessed
March 2021.
“CalculationsforSpaceCommunication”,
http://propagation.ece.gatech.edu/ECE6390/project/Sum2015/team5/satellite-downlink.html, accessed April 2021.
D. Roddy, “Satellite Communications” (McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,
New York, NY, USA, 2006, 4th edn.), pp.351–368.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 International Journal of Electronics and Telecommunications
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
1. License
The non-commercial use of the article will be governed by the Creative Commons Attribution license as currently displayed on https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s. The undersigned also warrants that the manuscript (or its essential substance) has not been published other than as an abstract or doctorate thesis and has not been submitted for consideration elsewhere, for print, electronic or digital publication.
3. User Rights
Under the Creative Commons Attribution license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions: 1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor, 2. they may alter, transform, or build upon this work, 3. they may use this contribution for commercial purposes.
4. Rights of Authors
Authors retain the following rights:
- copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,
- the right to use the substance of the article in own future works, including lectures and books,
- the right to reproduce the article for own purposes, provided the copies are not offered for sale,
- the right to self-archive the article
- the right to supervision over the integrity of the content of the work and its fair use.
5. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
6. Termination
This agreement can be terminated by the author or the Journal Owner upon two months’ notice where the other party has materially breached this agreement and failed to remedy such breach within a month of being given the terminating party’s notice requesting such breach to be remedied. No breach or violation of this agreement will cause this agreement or any license granted in it to terminate automatically or affect the definition of the Journal Owner. The author and the Journal Owner may agree to terminate this agreement at any time. This agreement or any license granted in it cannot be terminated otherwise than in accordance with this section 6. This License shall remain in effect throughout the term of copyright in the Work and may not be revoked without the express written consent of both parties.
7. Royalties
This agreement entitles the author to no royalties or other fees. To such extent as legally permissible, the author waives his or her right to collect royalties relative to the article in respect of any use of the article by the Journal Owner or its sublicensee.
8. Miscellaneous
The Journal Owner will publish the article (or have it published) in the Journal if the article’s editorial process is successfully completed and the Journal Owner or its sublicensee has become obligated to have the article published. Where such obligation depends on the payment of a fee, it shall not be deemed to exist until such time as that fee is paid. The Journal Owner may conform the article to a style of punctuation, spelling, capitalization and usage that it deems appropriate. The Journal Owner will be allowed to sublicense the rights that are licensed to it under this agreement. This agreement will be governed by the laws of Poland.
By signing this License, Author(s) warrant(s) that they have the full power to enter into this agreement. This License shall remain in effect throughout the term of copyright in the Work and may not be revoked without the express written consent of both parties.