Meander line Antenna with Metamaterial Structure for AIS (Automatic Identification System) Micro Satellite

Abstract

The rapid development of AIS (Automatic Identification System) data usage applications, makes AIS began to be applied in satellites to obtain a larger coverage area. Indonesia through the Indonesian National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) has two micro satellites with the AIS mission, namely LAPAN-A2/LAPAN-ORARI and LAPAN-A3/LAPAN-IPB. LAPAN will also build another micro satellite that carries AIS in order to get near real-time data. AIS based satellite has problems with large VHF antenna dimensions and data collisions in high traffic areas. The final dimension of the purposed antenna is 133.00 x 88.00 x 1.52 mm3, therefore this antenna can be applied in micro satellite. The simulation results show that the antenna works at a frequency 160.93-164.04 MHz with gain 1.654 dB. Miniaturization with meander-line and metamaterial structure technique has succeeded in reducing dimensions by 42%. This antenna has an omnidirectional radiation pattern with a beamwidth of 88.26°, and when this VHF antenna is installed on a satellite, the projection of the antenna on the earth’s surface is reduced by 50% from existing antenna. Hence this antenna can be used to reduce data collision of the satellite.