Chapter Antennas for Space Applications: A Review

It is well known that antennas are inevitable for wireless communication systems. After the launch of Sputnik-1 which was the first artificial satellite developed by USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), telecommunication technologies started to develop for space excessively. However, significance of the antennas as first or final RF-front end element has not been altered for the space communication systems. In this chapter, after introducing telecommunication and antenna technologies for space, which space environmental conditions are to be faced by these antennas are summarized. Then, frequency allocation that is a crucial design factor for antennas is explained and tabulated. And finally at the last part, different types of antennas used in different space missions are presented with their functional parameters and tasks

A Low Profile, Ultra-Lightweight, High Efficient Circularly-Polarized Antenna Array for Ku Band Satellite Applications

© 2013 IEEE. A novel low-profile, ultra-lightweight, high-efficient circularly polarized (CP) planar patch antenna array is reported for Ku-band satellite TV reception applications. The basic radiating element of the antenna array is realized by a $2 \times 2$ corner-removed patch subarray. This $2 \times 2$ patch subarray is center-fed by a rectangular coupling aperture etched on the top surface of a substrate-integrated-waveguide cavity. A novel compact sequential rotation feeding technique is adopted to broaden the operating bandwidth without occupying additional area. The $2 \times 2$ CP subarray can be easily scaled up for large size antenna arrays due to its single layer feeding network and compact radiating elements. In addition, the patch radiators are printed on a thin layer of Polyimide film backed by a piece of supporting foam to minimize the entire weight. To verify the design concept, a 96-element ( $16 \times 6$ ) CP patch array was fabricated and tested. Measured results show that the operating bandwidth is 700 MHz from 11.55 to 12.25 GHz. The gain is stable across the operating bandwidth with a realized peak gain of 26.4 dBic. The height of the antenna is $0.05~\lambda {0}$ and the total weight is only 66.5 g. It serves as an excellent candidate for Ku-band satellite applications

Design of a Ku Band Planner Receive Array for DBS Reception Systems

The main objective of this chapter is to present to the readers a step‐by‐step design approach when designing antenna array. Subsequently, the chapter will proceed following an example design of a passive Ku band planner receive array antenna for direct broadcast from satellite (DBS) reception for mobile systems. First, an appropriate antenna topology capable of reaching our target goals will be selected and optimized to be the base array element. During the design process of the base element, some figures‐of‐merit will be proposed in order to make a comparative study with the designed antenna and previously published antenna structures. Subarrays of microstrip line feed antennas will be combined by waveguides in order to build a low‐loss feed network for the array antenna. The main question during the design of the feed network is: “How should one form the subarrays and their accompanying waveguide feed networks?” These sections will answer this question by formulating the subarray and array feed network loss as an optimization problem with constraints on the size and the weight of the array. In the concluding sections, measurements on realized antennas will show that the design exhibits a 16.5% relative bandwidth, covering the complete downlink band, and the designed antennas have a 28.4–31.3 dBi gain for both vertical and horizontal polarizations. Results of some field tests will be given and conclusions will be made in the final section

5G RAN architecture based on analog radio-over-fiber fronthaul over UDWDM-PON and phased array fed reflector antennas

This manuscript introduces a 5G radio access network architecture concept based on ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing (UDWDM) and incorporating an optical fronthaul network that uses a novel wireless antenna system for radio frequency transmission and reception. A ring topology is proposed where optical signals travel within the 5G UDWDM passive optical networks and millimeter waves are generated in the optical line terminals by optical heterodyning. The wireless transmission of the millimeter waves is conducted by an innovative phased array fed reflector antenna approach for mobile communications that grants high antenna gain due to highly focused radiation characteristics, as well as multiplexing gain by multiple beam generation. Furthermore, beam steering is provided by a radio frequency analog beamformer network. Finally, implementation options synthesizing the total system are discussed

Design, fabrication, and test of a radiating element for a KU-BAND smart antenna

Planar phased array antennas have been the focus of much research in recent years as candidates for applications such as satellite communication. Many advantages of this kind of antenna like the ability to steer electrically, its high reliability, and its long-term reduced cost motivate further research in this area. Microstrip antennas are extensively used in array antenna because of their low cost and weight. They also can be easily printed over a dielectric substrate with photolithography techniques. The objective of this thesis is the design and fabrication of a wideband dual polarized patch antenna to be used in an antenna array for the application of satellite communications. This patch is designed to work in the frequency domain from 10.7 GHz to 12.7 GHz. In this project we used Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic Technology beside printed circuit board which was never applied before. In addition we proposed a new structure for the patch antenna which increases the bandwidth up to 19%. The proposed patches are fabricated with the material 591 and 9K7 Green Tape and Rogers RT5870. The designs were carried out using the planar electromagnetic field simulator Momentum, part of the Advanced Design System (ADS) of Agilent technologies

Antennas for Space Applications: A Review

It is well known that antennas are inevitable for wireless communication systems. After the launch of Sputnik-1 which was the first artificial satellite developed by USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), telecommunication technologies started to develop for space excessively. However, significance of the antennas as first or final RF-front end element has not been altered for the space communication systems. In this chapter, after introducing telecommunication and antenna technologies for space, which space environmental conditions are to be faced by these antennas are summarized. Then, frequency allocation that is a crucial design factor for antennas is explained and tabulated. And finally at the last part, different types of antennas used in different space missions are presented with their functional parameters and tasks

Advanced Radio Frequency Antennas for Modern Communication and Medical Systems

The main objective of this book is to present novel radio frequency (RF) antennas for 5G, IOT, and medical applications. The book is divided into four sections that present the main topics of radio frequency antennas. The rapid growth in development of cellular wireless communication systems over the last twenty years has resulted in most of world population owning smartphones, smart watches, I-pads, and other RF communication devices. Efficient compact wideband antennas are crucial in RF communication devices. This book presents information on planar antennas, cavity antennas, Vivaldi antennas, phased arrays, MIMO antennas, beamforming phased array reconfigurable Pabry-Perot cavity antennas, and time modulated linear array

Design of reflectarray antenna using different unit cell element at Ku-band

Reflectarray antenna offers several advantages over parabolic and phased array antennas, such as low weight, low profile, low cost, small size and low transmission losses due to the feeding mechanism. However, reflectarray antennas require the use of element shapes which are able to meet the requirements of modern technologies. This has led to the use of several unit cell designs by different researchers. However there is no specific shape which meets all specifications and design requirements. Therefore is a need to investigate several element shapes in the unit cell design to provide a quick reference guide for researchers. In this project, six different unit cells which are rectangular, circular, triangle, ring, rectangular with slot and cross shapes at 12 GHz are investigated through simulation. Each of the shape is then used in the complete antenna design of 11x11 reflectarray elements fed by a center feed horn antenna. The antenna results shows circular shapes gives the best performances with higher gain of 20:6 dB and low side lobes level in E and H planes. The outcome of this study provide insight in the development of high performance antenna