TY - JOUR
T1 - Compact and Planar End-fire Antenna for PicoSat and CubeSat Platforms to Support Deployable Systems
AU - Gomez-Guilliamon Buendia, Victoria
AU - Podilchak, Symon K.
AU - Liberto, Salvatore
AU - Walkinshaw, Tom
AU - Constantinides, Constantin
AU - Anagnostou, Dimitris E.
AU - Goussetis, George
AU - van der Vorst, Maarten
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Author
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - A miniaturized planar Yagi-Uda antenna for integration with PicoSats or other SmallSat missions is proposed. Miniaturization techniques, such as meandering and 1-D artificial dielectric concepts to reduce the guided wavelength, are employed to overcome space constraints imposed by the SmallSat footprint while still maintaining good performance for the FR-4 antenna. Simulations and measurements have been carried out on the Unicorn-2 PicoSat chassis from Alba Orbital and are in good agreement. Also, antenna dimensions have been reduced between 15% and 66% when compared to a more conventional planar Yagi-Uda antenna working at the same frequency. This compactness allows for simple integration with the deployable solar panel array of the Unicorn-2 PicoSat spacecraft. Full end-fire radiation is achieved and peak gain values are about 5 dBi for the antenna when fully integrated on the satellite chassis, offering an attractive solution for downlink connectivity. This compact antenna design can also be used within an array for beam steering or integrated within the solar cell modules of other PicoSats, CubeSats and SmallSats. Applications include Earth observation, remote sensing, as well as SmallSat to ground station communications. The planar Yagi-Uda antenna may also be useful wherever end-fire radiation is required from a compact antenna structure.
AB - A miniaturized planar Yagi-Uda antenna for integration with PicoSats or other SmallSat missions is proposed. Miniaturization techniques, such as meandering and 1-D artificial dielectric concepts to reduce the guided wavelength, are employed to overcome space constraints imposed by the SmallSat footprint while still maintaining good performance for the FR-4 antenna. Simulations and measurements have been carried out on the Unicorn-2 PicoSat chassis from Alba Orbital and are in good agreement. Also, antenna dimensions have been reduced between 15% and 66% when compared to a more conventional planar Yagi-Uda antenna working at the same frequency. This compactness allows for simple integration with the deployable solar panel array of the Unicorn-2 PicoSat spacecraft. Full end-fire radiation is achieved and peak gain values are about 5 dBi for the antenna when fully integrated on the satellite chassis, offering an attractive solution for downlink connectivity. This compact antenna design can also be used within an array for beam steering or integrated within the solar cell modules of other PicoSats, CubeSats and SmallSats. Applications include Earth observation, remote sensing, as well as SmallSat to ground station communications. The planar Yagi-Uda antenna may also be useful wherever end-fire radiation is required from a compact antenna structure.
KW - Antenna arrays
KW - Antennas
KW - Artificial Dielectrics
KW - CubeSat
KW - Deployable Systems
KW - Photovoltaic cells
KW - Planar Yagi-Uda
KW - Solar Panel Arrays
KW - Space vehicles
KW - Substrates
KW - Yagi-Uda antennas
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141634821&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/OJAP.2022.3220268
DO - 10.1109/OJAP.2022.3220268
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141634821
SN - 2637-6431
VL - 3
SP - 1341
EP - 1350
JO - IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation
JF - IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation
ER -