UHF and S-band Antenna Arrays for

Nano-Satellite-Based Data-Relay
Juner M. Vieira1 , Eduardo Yoshimoto1 , Filipe G. Ferreira1 , Vinı́cius M. Pereira1 , Marcos V. T. Heckler1
1 Universidade Federal do Pampa: Laboratório de Eletromagnetismo, Micro-ondas e Antenas,
Alegrete, Brazil, [email protected]

Abstract—In this work, two antenna arrays to receive and re- for communication to the ground station is presented. This
transmit environmental data over a nano-satellite are presented. monopole was built using stainless steel measuring tape, which
The main challenge was to integrate an unidirectional antenna allows folding it prior to the deployment. The interaction
operating in UHF onto the nano-sat. The comparison between
computational and measured results are presented and discussed, between dipoles and monopoles operating at UHF and VHF,
whereby good performance in terms of radiation properties has respectively, was analyzed in [8].
been obtained for both UHF and S-band arrays. In this work, the performance of two antenna arrays for
Index Terms—Satellite communications, nano-satellites, mi- uplink (UHF) and downlink (S-band) of a nano-sat for the
crostrip antenna arrays. SBCDA is analyzed. The design of both antennas is described,
whereby the main challenge was to develop the UHF antennas
I. I NTRODUCTION in microstrip technology, due to the small satellite dimensions
in comparison to the operating wavelength. In section II, the
Currently, the use of constellations of nano-satellites (Cube- main specifications for the antennas are described. Sections III
Sat standard) is under study by the Brazilian National Institute and IV are dedicated to describe the constructing details of
for Space Research (INPE) as a low-cost solution to replace each antenna array. Finally, preliminary tests of a transceiver
the satellites that compose the space segment of the Brazilian to connect both antennas are discussed in Section V.
System for Meteorological Data Acquisition (SBCDA). The
current in-orbit satellites, which have been launched in the 90s,
are very large and have been being in operation over more than II. S TRUCTURE AND T ELECOMMUNICATION S YSTEM
fifteen years, much longer than the expected lifetime. Since In the SBCDA, the acquisition of meteorological data is
the time they have been designed, several new developments done by data collecting platforms (DCPs), which have been
in the integration of analog and digital circuits have been being deployed over the whole Brazilian territory and along
achieved, hence yielding several new integrated electronic the Atlantic coast since the beginning of the 90s. The DCPs
components, such as low-noise and medium-power amplifiers are able to measure data related to precipitation, temperature,
(LNA and MPA, respectively). Due to this fact, the dimensions humidity, air pollution, ocean streams, and wind intensity
of communication systems could be reduced, hence bringing and direction [9]. Since some of the DCPs are installed in
the attention to small structures to work as satellites. remote areas, such as in the rain forest or in the coast, there
Due to characteristics such as low profile, light weight and is no way to access the data with wired or wireless local
relative easy manufacturing, microstrip antennas are suitable networks. Therefore, the most convenient way is to perform
for installation onto nano-sats. In [1], the installation of several the data transmission over satellites. Due to advances in
kinds of planar antennas operating in VHF, UHF and S-band Microelectronics and radio-frequency integrated circuit design,
onto CubeSats is discussed. Planar antenna arrays that operate nano-satellites can now be considered to perform this task
at 2.4 GHz designed for nano-sats are reported in [2] and [3]. [10]. The altitude for launching has been studied so that the
The authors of [4] and [5] suggest microstrip aperture-coupled satellite should fall into the Earth atmosphere in less than
antennas for energy harvesting, and a dual-band microstrip twenty five years, hence fulfilling the international regulations
antenna array for telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) for reduction of space debris [11], [12].
and downlink of data generated by the payload. The data collected and stored by the DCPs are transmitted
Owing to compactness of CubeSats and large operation to the space (uplink) at UHF, as depicted in Figure 1. The
wavelengths of some of the typical embedded systems, sev- receiver antennas on the satellite should operate in 401 MHz
eral challenges for antenna designers are imposed. Usually, and exhibit right-hand circular polarization (RHCP), axial ratio
monopoles are employed at VHF and UHF systems. In [6], lower than 6 dB, bandwidth of 4 MHz and input impedance
however, other geometries are suggested, such as log-periodic matched to 50 Ω.
crossed-dipole antenna arrays, conical log-spiral antennas and The satellites receive the data and retransmit them (down-
quadrifilar helix antennas. However, these antennas need large link) to the Data Collection and Mission Control Center in
space prior to the deployment, hence they are not suitable for S-band. The downlink operates at 2.26 GHz with right-hand
small satellites. In [7], an omnidirectional antenna employed circular polarization (RHCP) and axial ratio lower than 3 dB,
 100 mm
y
φ
z x
114.96 mm 13 mm
Patch

114.96 mm
190 mm
Feed Point
34 mm

Fig. 1. The Brazilian System for Meteorological Data Acquisition (SBCDA). 4.38 mm
CER-10
190 mm
Articulated
flaps
Fig. 3. Schematic top view of a single UHF microstrip antenna with foldable
GND extensions.

The dimension of the satellite allows only to have an elec-

trically small ground plane for the microstrip antennas, which
yields a radiation pattern with strong back radiation. In order
to improve this without increasing the satellite dimensions
(a) (b) prior to deployment and without great impact on the satellite
weight, an artificial extension of the ground plane has been
Fig. 2. Sketch of the nano-sat structure: (a) with closed articulated flaps (prior included around the antenna structure. This is achieved by
to launching); and (b) deployed configuration with open flaps.
using stainless steel measuring tape, which can be folded for
the installation into the lauching rocket. This ground extention
gain around 6 dBi, input impedance matched to 50 Ω and is schematically shown in Figure 3. The microwave laminate
bandwidth of 50 MHz. used to design the patches is Taconic CER-10 with nominal
εr =10, dissipation factor tan δ = 0.0035, and thickness
The nano-sat mechanical structure consists of an 8U Cube-
of 3.18 mm, so as to yield a compact geometry. Circular
Sat configuration, i.e., a cube with 20 cm of edge size
polarization was obtained with the use of corners-truncated
and maximum mass of 10 kg. In order to provide larger
patches. The simulated gain for this antenna geometry was
area for the integration of solar panels, four articulated flaps
3.75 dBi and the front-to-back ratio was 10.5 dB. Without the
were added into the nano-sat structure [9]. The mechanical
ground extension, these parameters were 1.3 dB and 4 dB for
details of the nano-sat are shown in Figure 2. To establish
gain and front-to-back ratio, respectively.
the two communications links, two antenna arrays have been
The antenna shown in Figure 3 has been used to compose
considered: an array composed of four microstrip antennas for
an array. In order to obtain the desired performance, four
the uplink will be installed onto the articulated flaps, whilst
antennas were built and installed onto the engineering model
the other microstrip array, which operates in S-band, will be
of the nano-satellite. The concept adopted for the antenna
placed in the surface between the four articulated flaps, as it
array is shown in Figure 4. Since the antennas are spatially
will be illustrated later in Section IV.
rotated, circular polarization is achieved by introducing 90◦
progressive phase shift between the elements.
III. D ESIGN OF THE UHF ANTENNA ARRAY The comparison between simulated and measured reflection
coefficients for each antenna after installation is shown in
Considering the limited size of the articulated flaps Figure 5 and the measured radiation pattern of the array in
(20 cm x 20 cm) and the low operating frequency of the Figure 6, whereby high polarization purity, gain of 8.31 dBi
uplink, which corresponds to a wavelength of roughly 75 cm and front-to-back ratio of 8.96 dB are verified.
in free space, the main challenge is to design an antenna
that presents an acceptable gain towards the Earth. In UHF,
IV. D ESIGN OF THE S- BAND ANTENNA ARRAY
monopole antennas are generally used. However, monopoles
exhibit low gain, since they radiate strongly not only to the For the downlink, the microstrip antenna design is not as
Earth, but also into the space, hence decreasing the received critical as in UHF, since the electrical dimensions of the
power coupled to the input of the satellite transceiver. An satellite are not small in S-band. Several methods can be
alternative to increase the gain of the UHF antennas is the employed to obtain circular polarization. The excition of two
use of microstrip antenna arrays [13]. orthogonal modes (TMz10 and TMz01 ) in the same patch with
 Slots P atch GN D

z
θ
x y
Striplines
RO4003C RO4360G2
Fig. 4. UHF microstrip antenna array mounted onto the nano-sat engineering F R27 Copper
model.
Fig. 7. Cross-sectional view of the designed S-band antenna.
0
−5
−10
Magnitude (dB)

−15
−20 Antenna 1 Slots
Antenna 2
−25 Antenna 3

−30 Antenna 4
Simulated
−35 Port 2
396 398 400 402 404
z y
Frequency (GHz) φ
x 90◦ hybrid Port 1
Fig. 5. Comparison between simulated and measured reflection coefficient
for each array element.
Fig. 8. Schematic top view of the designed S-band antenna.

345 ◦ 0◦ 15◦
0 330◦ 30◦
Field Intensity (dB)

−5 315 ◦
45◦
−10 RO4003C is 1.524 mm, with εr =3.49; the intermediate lami-
300◦ 60◦ nate is RO4360G2 with thickness of 0.610 mm and εr =6.15.
−15
−20 285◦ 75◦ The whole structure is glued with a 0.105-mm thick glue
−25 layer (FR27). The schematic top view of the antenna is shown
−30 270◦ 90◦ in Figure 8 [14]. The simulated and measured patterns are
shown in Figure 9, where one can see that good performance,
255◦ 105◦
especially in terms of gain and cross-polarization decoupling,
240◦ 120◦ has been obtained.
◦ Simulated
◦ Co-Pol
225 135
Measured Co-Pol This antenna element has been used to compose the 2x2
210◦ ◦ ◦ ◦150 ◦
195 180 165 Simulated Cross-Pol antenna array for the downlink. The top view of the simulation
Measured Cross-Pol model in ANSYS HFSS is shown in Figure 10, where the
patches are shown in orange, the slots in black, and the feed
Fig. 6. Comparison between simulated and measured radiation pattern for
the UHF antenna array. lines in brown. The antenna array has been built with dielectric
laminates of 200 mm×200 mm and with center-to-center
inter-element spacing of 80.8 mm (equivalent to 0.67 λ0 ,
only one feeding port is the simplest technique, but the antenna where λ0 is the wavelength in free space at 2.26 GHz). In
is normally narrow-banded and, therefore, more sensitive to order to mitigate imperfections of the manufacturing process,
changes in the electrical characteristics of the substrate. sequential rotation of the elements was used to improve the
For a more reliable antenna, two feeds may be employed polarization purity. The feeding system was integrated into the
along with 90◦ phase shift between the two ports. The pro- array structure so as to yield a compact design and to deliver
posed antenna is fed by employing aperture coupling. To the power equally to all the elements with progressive phase
obtain circular polarization, the two feeding lines are con- shift of 90◦ . Finally, Figure 11 shows a photograph of both
nected to a 90◦ hybrid. The stack-up is schematically shown the UHF and the S-band antenna arrays integrated onto the
in Figure 7. The thickness of the top and bottom laminates of nano-sat engineering model in deployed configuration.
 0◦
Field Intensity (dB) 0 330◦ 30◦
−5
−10 300◦ 60◦
−15
−20
−25
−30 270◦ 90◦

240◦ 120◦
LHCP, HFSS
◦ LHCP, NFS
210◦ 150 RHCP, HFSS
180◦
RHCP, NFS

(a) Plane φ = 0◦ .
0◦
0 330◦ 30◦
Field Intensity (dB)

−5
−10 300◦ 60◦
−15
−20 Fig. 11. UHF and S-band antenna arrays mounted onto the nano-satellite
−25 engineering model.
−30 270◦ 90◦



240◦ 120◦
LHCP, HFSS
◦ ◦LHCP, NFS
210 150 RHCP, HFSS
180◦
RHCP, NFS 

(b) Plane φ = 90◦ .

Fig. 9. Comparison between simulated and measured radiation patterns for

the S-band antenna.

 

Fig. 12. Transceiver designed for field tests.

UHF to S-band. According to preliminary calculations, which

have been done based on the satellite mass and maximum
orbiting time as 25 years, the nano-sat should be deployed at an
altitude of 600 km. By considering that the DCPs will start to
establish the communication with the nano-sat at a minimum
elevation of 5◦ , the maximum distance between the satellite
and the DCPs can be found with simple trigonometric analysis
and is equal to 2321 km. This equates to a free space loss of
roughly 151 dB. In order to compensate for this path loss, the
transceiver integrated into the nano-sat must have very large
gain. Such a complex transceiver is not necessary to perform
field tests to assess the performance of the antennas. For this
purpose, a simpler transceiver has been designed and is shown
in Fig. 12. By introducing a sinusoidal signal at 401 MHz with
power of −30 dBm at the input of the transceiver, the measured
Fig. 10. Electromagnetic model of the 2x2 S-band antenna array.
spectrum of the output signal is shown in Fig. 13.

V. T RANSCEIVER DESIGNED FOR FIELD TESTS VI. C ONCLUSION

Both antennas described previously must be interconnected This paper presented the design of two antenna arrays for
by a transceiver, which must translate the received signal from uplink and downlink of a data-relay system to be installed
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank the Brazilian Space Agency

(AEB) for the partial support of this work under the frame of
the UNIESPAÇO Program.

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