Compact UHF/VHF Monopole Antennas for CubeSats Applications

Xiang Zhang,Guoxuan Zhang,Liming Hou,Fu Sun

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3008540

Abstract

In this paper, two compact monopole antennas working at 149 MHz (VHF) and 398 MHz (UHF) are proposed for CubeSats applications. Two monopole antennas are integrated on a double layer ceramic substrate. The overall dimensions of the folded antenna are 101 mm × 40 mm × 8.9 mm which is very small. Meander-line technique and foldable structure are proposed to achieve a compact design. The introduction of decoupling structure solves the problem of high coupling caused by small size. Computer simulations and measurements are conducted. The results demonstrate that the proposed design is a very promising candidate for CubeSats applications.

Highlights

CubeSat is a tiny cube-shaped satellite with dimensions of 10 × 10 × 10 cm3 and a weight less than 1 kg [1]
Antennas on a CubeSat may have different frequency bands, which vary from VHF band to millimeter wave band
The main concerns are the shadows from the solar panels [3], the mechanical complexity, and the limited space in the deployable system, which make it a complex design problem in the antenna design

Summary

INTRODUCTION

CubeSat is a tiny cube-shaped satellite with dimensions of 10 × 10 × 10 cm and a weight less than 1 kg [1]. In most of the satellites, two sets of dipole antennas (UHF) and two sets of monopoles (VHF) are normally used for transmitting and receiving purpose respectively. In [8], the use of CubeSat body as an UHF antenna was proposed. In [10], compact UHF patch antenna compatible with any CubeSat is proposed. The design involves a different combination of miniaturization techniques of patch antennas like folded meander line, partial ground plane, and shorting pin for small satellite applications. The UHF and VHF antennas are integrated into a compact structure. To achieve a compact dimension, UHF antenna uses folded meander line which is designed on one side of the substrate and VHF antenna uses deployable structure.

CONFIGURATION AND DESIGN

DECOUPLING STRUCTURE