Wideband Cavity-Backed CubeSat Antenna in S band

The Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) antennas are a crucial component of small satellites, as their in-orbit attitude is not always well-defined. The TT&C antenna design for a CubeSat is an even more challenging task, considering the volume restrictions imposed by the standard, and the bandwidth requirements for a duplex communication. A detailed design process of a low profile S-band antenna, suitable for CubeSat applications, is presented in this paper. The fabricated prototype exhibits a 10-dB impedance bandwidth of 40%, and a 3-dB AR-bandwidth of 32%.