A New Modification Approach to Enhance the EM Performance of an S-Band Patch Antenna for Nanosatellite Application

Abstract

An antenna design capable of providing reliable communication link has been a great research interest in nanosatellite applications. Hence, this study aimed to modify a design of a patch antenna for nanosatellite application operated in S-band, providing an improved antenna performance. The design and electromagnetic (EM) simulation of the antenna are carried out using the Ansys® High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). With regard to the improvement of antenna performance, a reference antenna design was adopted and modified by incorporating various modification approach. The proposed patch antenna is designed on an RT Duroid 5870 dielectric substrate and can resonate well at frequencies 2.330 GHz and 2.585 GHz having minimum return loss of below −20 dB, VSWR of less than 1.7, and a maximum gain of around 7 dBi, respectively. Through the aid of MATLAB® Satellite Communication Toolbox, this study was able to test and evaluate the antenna design performance in terms of link margin and free space path loss proving that the proposed antenna provides better performance.