Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, 110016, India.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 11;13(1):11224. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38440-y.
This article describes the development of a high-gain, broadband, circularly polarized Fabry-Perot cavity (FPC) antenna for high-data-rate communication in CubeSat/SmallSat applications. In this work, the concept of spatially separated superstrate area excitation is developed for the first time in FPC antennas. This concept is then validated and applied to increase the gain and the axial ratio bandwidth of a conventional narrowband circularly polarized source patch antenna. The antenna's design leverages independent control of polarization at different frequencies, resulting in a large overall bandwidth. The fabricated prototype antenna provides right hand circular polarization with a peak measured gain of 15.73 dBic over a common bandwidth of 1.03 GHz ranging from 7.99 GHz to 9.02 GHz. The gain variation over the bandwidth is less than 1.3 dBic. The antenna measures 80 mm × 80 mm × 21.14 mm and is simple, lightweight, easily integrable with CubeSat body, and useful for X-Band data downlink. When integrated with the metallic body of a 1U CubeSat, the simulated gain of the antenna increases to 17.23 dBic, with a peak measured gain of 16.83 dBic. A deployment method is proposed for this antenna that results in a total stowed volume of only 2.13λ × 2.13λ × 0.084λ (0.38 [Formula: see text]).
本文介绍了一种用于 CubeSat/SmallSat 应用中高速数据通信的高增益、宽带、圆极化 Fabry-Perot 腔 (FPC) 天线的开发。在这项工作中，首次在 FPC 天线中提出了空间分离的上层区域激励概念。然后，该概念得到验证并应用于提高传统窄带圆极化源贴片天线的增益和轴比带宽。该天线的设计利用了在不同频率下独立控制极化的能力，从而实现了较大的总带宽。制造的原型天线提供了右旋圆极化，在 7.99GHz 至 9.02GHz 的常见带宽 1.03GHz 内，峰值测量增益为 15.73dBic。带宽内的增益变化小于 1.3dBic。该天线尺寸为 80mm×80mm×21.14mm，简单、轻巧，易于与 CubeSat 主体集成，可用于 X 波段数据下行链路。当与 1U CubeSat 的金属主体集成时，天线的模拟增益增加到 17.23dBic，峰值测量增益为 16.83dBic。提出了一种用于该天线的部署方法，其总存储体积仅为 2.13λ×2.13λ×0.084λ（0.38[公式：见正文]）。
