Dual-Band Omnidirectional and Circularly Polarized Slotted Waveguide Array Antenna for Satellite Telemetry and Telecommand

Abstract

In this letter the design and 3-D-printed manufacturing of an omnidirectional and circularly polarized dual-band antenna for telemetry/telecommand (TMTC) applications in satellite communication on space segment are described. The antenna consists of slotted arrays on the circular waveguide with radially outward metallic disks and choke structures on these disks to improve the omnidirectionality and circular polarization performances. As the main novelty of the antenna design the structure is fed with only one rectangular waveguide, therefore the proposed antenna can be considered as a transceiver antenna. The design and simulations of the antenna and measurement results for 3-D-printed manufacturing are given at Ku-band. A 10 dB return loss bandwidth is found to be 500 MHz both for telemetry and telecommand bands having center frequencies of 12 and 14 GHz respectively. Besides the maximum axial ratio and minimum gain within 65 degrees beamwidth are obtained as 3 dB and -5 dBi respectively which are sufficient for the omnidirectional and circularly polarized antenna providing TMTC communication in satellite systems.