Compact circularly polarized S-band antenna for pico-satellites

Abstract

A compact square-shaped circularly polarized antenna is presented for pico-satellite application. Four dipole antennas are integrated with a phase delay line on a Rogers RO4003C to operate at 2.4 GHz with a dimension of 0.724λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> (55mm) × 0.724λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> (55mm) × 0.0112λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> (0.85mm) based on the lowest guided wavelength. Reflection and radiation performance exhibited are acceptable, with an impedance bandwidth and axial ratio bandwidth of 34 % and 11 % respectively. The proposed antenna operates in circular polarization with a maximum gain of 3.49 dB towards the forward direction.