A Dual-Band Antenna With Dual-Circular Polarization for Nanosatellite Payload Application

A Compact dual-band circular polarized antenna is proposed for a small satellite payload communication system. The antenna consists of a pentagonal radiator and a stacked rectangular parasitic element to achieve lower and higher axial ratio, respectively. The antenna exhibits two -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 380 MHz (2.44-2.82 GHz) and 770 MHz (3.05-3.83 GHz) with a compact size of 0.33λ × 0.33λ × 0.03λ (with respect to lower end frequency). Average antenna peak gain of nearly 4.4 dB at lower band and 6.5 dB at higher band has been achieved with directional radiation patterns. The antenna performance has been investigated using 1U nanosatellite structure to realize the operation in a real-time environment.