A Novel High Gain CPW-Feed Circular Slot Antenna with MSS for 3U CubeSats

Abstract

CubeSats as a class of tiny satellites have become more popular for initiative space-technology activities with students at universities. This is due to their small size, low cost and short development time. However, modern space capabilities of CubeSats require high performance antennas to communicate with the ground stations at the earth surface. This paper presents a novel CPW-fed slot antenna with MSS for 3U CubeSat. The main idea is to use the MSS and the CubeSat’s body to significantly improve the antenna’s total gain. The experimental results show that the proposed antenna achieves a peak gain of about 10.7 dBi and a small reflection coefficient of -27.7 dB at an operating frequency of 2.45 GHz.