The popularity of CubeSats have increased significantly in the past decades due to the short building period and the relatively low costs. Antenna is a crucial element of any satellite, which ensures communication between the ground station. Efficient and high performance antenna with reliable design is preferable in the space environment. However, with the reduced sized of the satellite, this task is not trivial, considering that the in general the antenna performance is proportional to its size. Considering that antenna and communication electronics involve radio frequencies, different modes of coupling and electromagnetic interference (EMI) is causes additional concerns. Antennas can be divided in two categories - deployable and non-deployable. The naming is self-explanatory. Non-deployable antenna has a major advantage because it is integrated in the structure of the satellite and there is practically no possibility of failing during deployment of the satellite. Microstrip/Patch antennas are a popular antenna type that is used in satellite communication. The reviewed paper focused on designing, manufacturing and testing of ultra-high frequency meander metamaterial antenna for 2 unit CubeSats.
In the design process of the antenna the authors mainly focused on the geometry of the antenna, the tuning of the antenna, the dielectric material, simulations, and integration within a 2U CubeSat dummy satellite. The geometry of antenna was designed to operate at 450 MHz frequency. To minimize the length and size of the antenna, the back and forth mechanism was used, but this also decreased the radiation efficiency of the antenna. Resonance frequency of the antenna is proportional to Meander line width - increased with leads to increased capacitance between the ground plane. The length of the Meander line is related to the inductance of the antenna, which allows fine-tuning possibilities of the antenna. 50 Ohm impedance was used for the antenna. In the final design, the antenna self-resonant frequency can be tuned from 449 to 468 MHz.
Near-zero index metamaterial was used as a dielectric. The permeability and permittivity of the metamaterial was -0.109 and 0.003, respectively. The low characteristics of the metamaterial results in most of the energy of the fields radiating away from the board. Authors performed simulations of the E and H field distribution within the metamaterial.
Standalone tests were performed and then the antenna was integrated in a dummy 2U CubeSat. The dummy satellite consisted of electronics similar to ones found in real satellite, solar panels, and a dummy mass. The final performance of the antenna was not as good as simulated, but that was expected. The antenna standalone performance was better than when it was integrated in the dummy satellite. Overall, the antenna performed very well compared to other antenna methods and the proposed design can be used as a means for non-deployable antenna in CubeSats.
Sources:
Alam, T., Almutairi, A.F., Samsuzzaman, M. et al. Metamaterial array based meander line planar antenna for cube satellite communication. Sci Rep 11, 14087 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93537-6
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- Ogherohwo, Ogherohwo & Mado, Mado & S.D, S.D & Eggah, Eggah & M.Y, M.Y. (2015). Design and Analysis of Meander Microstrip Antenna at Wireless Band. International Journal of Computer Applications. 111. 1-4. 10.5120/19539-8571.
- https://www.antenna-theory.com/antennas/patches/antenna.php
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