Design of a Ka Broadband Satellite Communication Antenna for Low-Earth-Orbit Constellation

Abstract

Aiming at the demand of small-aperture portable terminals for low-earth-orbit satellite communication, a Ka-band petaloid splash-plate reflector antenna loaded with polystyrene is presented in this paper. Compared to the traditional reflector antennas, the proposed antenna has a wide working band, a high radiation efficiency and a low profile. The main reflecting surface of the proposed antenna adopts a design of split-disassembly structure, and the sub-reflecting surface requires no additional supporting rods, which makes the antenna smaller and more portable. The designed antenna can work at 17.7GHz to 20.2GHz for reception and 27.5GHz to 30.0GHz for transmission. The electrical performance of the antenna is simulated by considering the influence of the structural and processing design. The simulated results show that the VSWR of the antenna across the whole operating band is less than 2, and the aperture efficiency at the reception band and the transmission band is 57%∼68% and 50%∼62% respectively. The correctness of the simulated results were verified by different simulation algorithms, which provides a strong support for the subsequent engineering design.