Compact Circularly Polarized Aperture Fed Patch Antenna for LEO Satellite Constelations

Abstract

The importance of satellite communications in the 5G and beyond 5G ecosystem has been widely recognized. Low orbits and the constant movement of satellites demand for adaptive antenna arrays in ground terminals. In this paper, a single patch element is designed for the K-band, broadly used in satellite communications. The antenna exhibits wide bandwidth and high switchable polarization performance (axial ratio < 3 dB over 2.2 GHz). All results sustain that this structure is a great candidate to implement in larger arrays used when broadcasting from space.