CubeSat Inter-Satellite Link-based Log Periodic Antenna for C-band Applications

A perfect electric conductor-based log periodic antenna for CubeSat inter-satellite link application is discussed in this paper. The proposed log periodic antenna comprises of the compact structure consists of FR-4 substrate and radiating log periodic elements. The overall antenna structure is placed over the 3U CubeSat. The placement of elements is arranged in a particular orientation providing the decreasing size of the elements in forward direction for obtaining the unidirectional radiation pattern. The proposed antenna operates at 7.164 GHz resonant frequency having 7.7% of the fractional bandwidth. The antenna delivers a high front-to-back ratio (FBR) of 12.76 dB and 6.31 dBi directivity. In addition, the mode mechanism inside the antenna is analyzed that confirms the generation of higher-order TM24 mode. Additionally, the antenna performance is carried out to optimize the sensitivity of the log periodic antenna parameters for the potential C-band applications.