Circularly Polarized Square Patch Array Antenna with Circular Slot for Deep Space CubeSat Communication

The communication system of deep space CubeSats must have high gain antennas to ensure a reliable connection to earth. In this paper, the process of designing a circularly polarized antenna, for cubesats, operating in X-band based on a 4 × 4 patch array with circular central slots is described and the simulation results are presented. The designed antenna has a dimension of 100 × 100mm and a height of 2, 315mm meeting the requirements of deep space missions using CubeSats in terms of high gain, size, weight and circular polarization. This designed antenna provides a high gain of 21.3dB. The antenna is composed of an array of corner-truncated 4×4 planar patches where each patch has a circular slot cut in the center, two substrates separated by a ground plane and a suitable feed network. The introduction of circular slots cut into the 16 antenna elements improves the antenna performance.