A Deep Space Ka-band Antenna for CubeSat: Design and Multiphysics Analysis

This paper presents a stacked patch antenna optimized to operate over the down- and uplink Ka-band for Deep Space applications. The design of the antenna is performed with a numerical optimization, to control the bandwidth and the impedance matching. A bandwidth of 5.53@33.185 GHz has been obtained, with a gain around 8 dB. On this design, a multiphysics thermal and mechanical analysis is performed to verify the operational stability of the optimized antenna, mounted on a 1U CubeSat satellite. The analysis verified that the antenna temperature patterns can affect the antenna matching, but it still allows correct operation in the [−100° C,100° C] temperature range. Moreover, the stress analysis reports a level of mechanical deformation which does not compromise the use and functioning of the proposed stacked geometry in a Low Earth Orbit space mission.