Stacked CPW-fed antenna for satellite applications with gain enhancement

This paper presents the design and implementation of a stacked CPW-fed antenna for satellite applications at Ku-, K-and Ka-bands for user terminals. The stacked structure combines two antennas. The base element consists of a CPW-fed patch antenna with modified CPW elements printed on Rogers TMM4 substrate. Above this base, a rectangular parasite patch was placed as a second layer using Arlon substrate with a high dielectric constant of 10.2. The two layers, base and parasitic patch, were separated by an air gap. This configuration reduces the antenna beam width and allows two-folding the antenna gain enhancement. The numerical simulations have been validated with experimental results.