Esmail Bashar A F, Isleifson Dustin, Shafai Lotfollah
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada.
Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS), University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Nov 26;24(23):7535. doi: 10.3390/s24237535.
The rise of CubeSats has unlocked opportunities for cutting-edge space missions with reduced costs and accelerated development timelines. CubeSats necessitate a high-gain antenna that can fit within a tightly confined space. This paper is primarily concerned with designing a compact Ku-band offset cylindrical reflector antenna for a CubeSat-based Earth Observation mission, with the goal of monitoring Arctic snow and sea ice. The development of a Ku-band offset cylindrical reflector, with a compact aperture of 110 × 149 mm (6.3 × 8.5), is described alongside a patch array feed consisting of 2 × 8 elements. The patch array feed is designed using a lightweight Rogers substrate and is utilized to test the reflector. Adopting an offset configuration helped prevent gain loss due to feed blockage. Analyzing the reflector antenna, including the feed, thorough simulations and measurements indicates that achieving a gain of 25 dBi and an aperture efficiency of 52% at 17.2 GHz is attainable. The reflector's cylindrical shape and compact size facilitate the design of a simple mechanism for reflector deployment, enabling the antenna to be stored within 1U. The array feed and reflector antenna have been fabricated and tested, demonstrating good consistency between the simulation and measurement outcomes.
立方星的兴起为前沿太空任务带来了机遇，降低了成本并缩短了开发周期。立方星需要一种能安装在狭小空间内的高增益天线。本文主要关注为基于立方星的地球观测任务设计一种紧凑型 Ku 波段偏置圆柱反射面天线，目标是监测北极的积雪和海冰。文中描述了一种 Ku 波段偏置圆柱反射面的研制情况，其紧凑孔径为 110×149 毫米（6.3×8.5），同时还介绍了一个由 2×8 个单元组成的贴片阵列馈源。该贴片阵列馈源采用轻质罗杰斯基板设计，并用于测试反射面。采用偏置配置有助于防止因馈源遮挡而导致增益损失。对包括馈源在内的反射面天线进行的全面模拟和测量分析表明，在 17.2 吉赫兹频率下可实现 25 分贝的增益和 52%的孔径效率。反射面的圆柱形形状和紧凑尺寸便于设计一种简单的反射面展开机构，使天线能够收纳在 1U 空间内。已制作并测试了阵列馈源和反射面天线，结果表明模拟和测量结果之间具有良好的一致性。
