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Electronics
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Antenna Developments for Small Satellites and CubeSats
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Antenna Developments for Small Satellites and CubeSats

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 7753

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Roberto Vincenti Gatti

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Interests: slotted waveguide arrays; phased arrays; reflectarrays; radar systems; satcom systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Satellite communications (SatComs) and satellite-based Earth observation markets have recently entered a period of renewed interest motivated by technological advances, supported by private investments and ventures, and fueled by the fast growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) market and the continuous blooming of new satellite services.

Traditionally, geostationary (GEO) satellites have been mainly employed for SatComs since they allow for wide coverage with a single satellite. However, new more ambitious constellation types are currently being developed, motivated by advanced communication technologies and cheaper launch costs. In this direction, there has recently been a tremendous interest in developing large low earth orbit (LEO) constellations that can deliver high-throughput broadband services with low latency, as well as worldwide coverage for Earth observation applications both in the optical and RF spectrums. The use of small satellites and CubeSats has further contributed to boosting the development of large LEO as well as medium earth orbit (MEO) constellations, again to reduce the implementation costs.

A key role is indeed played by the antenna, as its design determines the performance of all the wireless systems including telemetry, tracking and control, high-speed data transmission, navigation, inter-satellite communications, intra-satellite communications, wireless power transfer, radars and sensors, etc. This is particularly critical in small satellite and CubeSat platforms, where the available space and weight are strongly limited. For this reason, smart and cost-effective solutions are often required, as well as the employment of new enabling technologies.

This Special Issue focuses on recent advances in the design and implementation of novel architectures and technical solutions for antennas operating in the microwave and millimeter-wave frequency ranges, specifically for small satellites and Cubesat applications, with an emphasis on compactness, lightness, deployability, and reconfigurability issues.

Prof. Dr. Roberto Vincenti Gatti
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • CubeSat
  • Small satellite
  • LEO/MEO constellations
  • Compact antennas
  • Foldable/deployable antennas
  • Membrane-based antennas
  • Reflectarray antennas
  • Reconfigurable/active phased arrays

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 8219 KiB  
Article
On-Orbit Experimental Result of a Non-Deployable 430-MHz-Band Antenna Using a 1U CubeSat Structure
by Daisuke Nakayama, Takashi Yamauchi, Hirokazu Masui, Sangkyun Kim, Kazuhiro Toyoda, Tharindu Lakmal Dayarathna Malmadayalage, Mengu Cho and the BIRDS-4 Project Team
Electronics 2022, 11(7), 1163; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11071163 - 06 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2123
Abstract
1U CubeSats often use the 430-MHz band for communication due to their size and power limitations, and half-wavelength dipole antennas are employed. A 430-MHz-band dipole antenna requires a deployable structure for a 1U CubeSat. However, a 1U CubeSat has a small volume margin [...] Read more.
1U CubeSats often use the 430-MHz band for communication due to their size and power limitations, and half-wavelength dipole antennas are employed. A 430-MHz-band dipole antenna requires a deployable structure for a 1U CubeSat. However, a 1U CubeSat has a small volume margin for redundant systems, so the antenna deployment system can be a single point of failure. In this paper, the 1U CubeSat structure itself was used as an antenna. As a sub-mission of the BIRDS-4 project, three 1U CubeSats (GuaraniSat-1, Maya-2, and Tsuru) demonstrated this antenna structure. The results of the ground tests showed a maximum gain of −5.7 dBi with the flight model. These satellites were deployed from the International Space Station on 14 March 2021. Radio signals were alternately transmitted from the dipole antenna and the structure antenna onboard Tsuru for on-orbit demonstration on 15 December 2021, and the received signal strength on the ground was compared using RTL-SDR, SDR# and several codes. The ground station was able to receive both dipole and structure CW signals. The received power strength indicates that a gain of −8.1 dBi is being demonstrated with the structure antenna. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antenna Developments for Small Satellites and CubeSats)
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15 pages, 5774 KiB  
Article
High-Efficiency Polarizer Reflectarray Antennas for Data Transmission Links from a CubeSat
by Eduardo Martinez-de-Rioja, Daniel Martinez-de-Rioja, Rafael López-Sáez, Ignacio Linares and Jose A. Encinar
Electronics 2021, 10(15), 1802; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10151802 - 28 Jul 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2345
Abstract
This paper presents two designs of high-efficiency polarizer reflectarray antennas able to generate a collimated beam in dual-circular polarization using a linearly polarized feed, with application to high-gain antennas for data transmission links from a Cubesat. First, an 18 cm × 18 cm [...] Read more.
This paper presents two designs of high-efficiency polarizer reflectarray antennas able to generate a collimated beam in dual-circular polarization using a linearly polarized feed, with application to high-gain antennas for data transmission links from a Cubesat. First, an 18 cm × 18 cm polarizer reflectarray operating in the 17.2–22.7 GHz band has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The measurements of the prototype show an aperture efficiency of 52.7% for right-handed circular polarization (RHCP) and 57.3% for left-handed circular polarization (LHCP), both values higher than those previously reported in related works. Then, a dual-band polarizer reflectarray is presented for the first time, which operates in dual-CP in the frequency bands of 20 GHz and 30 GHz. The proposed antenna technology enables a reduction of the complexity and cost of the feed chain to operate in dual-CP, as a linear-to-circular polarizer is no longer required. This property, combined with the lightweight, flat profile and low fabrication cost of printed reflectarrays, makes the proposed antennas good candidates for Cubesat applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antenna Developments for Small Satellites and CubeSats)
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12 pages, 6902 KiB  
Article
A Dual-Band Circularly Polarized Patch Array Antenna for Phase-Only Beam Shaping with Element Rotation
by Edoardo Pelliccia, Roberto Vincenti Gatti, Piero Angeletti and Giovanni Toso
Electronics 2021, 10(6), 643; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10060643 - 10 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2165
Abstract
In this paper, an innovative patch antenna optimally designed for phase-only beam shaping is presented. The radiating element generates a circularly polarized field and exhibits two separate operative frequency bands. The element is center-fed by a pin connected to the beam forming network [...] Read more.
In this paper, an innovative patch antenna optimally designed for phase-only beam shaping is presented. The radiating element generates a circularly polarized field and exhibits two separate operative frequency bands. The element is center-fed by a pin connected to the beam forming network (BFN) layer. This unique feature allows us to generate any given phase distribution by simply proportionally rotating the radiating elements with respect to their feeding points. An effective phase-only synthesis method is also illustrated, which takes into account the radiating element rotations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, two linear arrays for global coverage have been designed, specifically operating in the E1 and E6 frequency bands of the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Galileo. The two presented antennas performance have been verified with full-wave simulations, showing excellent agreement with theoretical results and, therefore, confirming the effectiveness of the presented design approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antenna Developments for Small Satellites and CubeSats)
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