Performance Analysis of Deployment Errors for A Two-Stage Antenna in CubeSat Constellations at THz Frequencies

The rise of CubeSats in non-terrestrial networks (NTN) has gained recent popularity. To make such CubeSat constellations work at faster rates, the utilization of the terahertz (THz) band is proposed. As such, both high gain directional communications as well as expedited neighbor discovery should be possible, to which end a two Stage antenna is proposed, and analyzed. Stage 1 is set in-vitro within the CubeSat, while Stage 2 is deployed later via a crank-shaft-based hinge mechanism. Possible errors in deployment are analyzed, including both symmetrical and asymmetrical errors. It is shown that while symmetrical errors can completely cripple the additional gain from Stage 2, asymmetrical errors can still result in an antenna design that provides 5 dBi of additional gain without any real estate penalty.