Rectangular Configuration Microstrip Array Antenna for C-Band Ground Station

Abstract

Data communication between satellites and earth stations requires reliable high gain antennas. The array technique of a microstrip antenna offers advantages, such as low profile, easy to make, easy to feed, easy to be combined with other microstrip circuit elements, easy to integrate into the system, and especially increasing gain. This paper proposes a microstrip array antenna consisting of a 4x4 rectangular patch radiating element with a microstrip line feeding technique designed with quarter-wavelength transformer impedance matching. Designing and parameterization are conducted with CST Microwave Studio. The antenna is designed and fabricated on double layers of FRA Epoxy substrates where the thickness and dielectric constant are 1.6 mm and 4.3, respectively. The antenna dimension is 170 x 170 mm. The proposed antenna design has a good agreement between simulation and measurement. It can work from within the frequency range of 4.054-4.614 GHz with a bandwidth of 560 MHz. The 4x4 Microstrip Rectangular Patch Array Antenna has an overall 14.03 dB gain antenna. The proposed antenna meets the frequency requirements for C-band satellite applications.