An Extendable Solar Array Integrated Yagi-Uda UHF Antenna for CubeSat Platforms

Waleed Alomar*, Jonas Degnan, Steven Mancewicz, Matthew Sidley, James Cutler and Brian Gilchrist
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI USA E-mail: walomar@umich.edu
AbstractThe popularity of nano-satellites in academic, commercial and government organizations has risen dramatically in recent years, due largely to their low design and deployment costs. Despite their many successes, fundamental limits on their capabilities can be attributed in part to their limited communications packages. Using 70 cm amateur bands allows for lower power communications systems, however due to the larger wavelengths, managing antenna dimensions presents a design challenge. To improve mission capability, the current dipole configurations, that offer gains of approximately 5 dB, needed significant improvement. This paper presents a high-gain solution by incorporating a 6-element linear Yagi-Uda antenna into a deployable solar array prototype. Measured array gain was 11.5 dBi with a 53 MHz bandwidth, E- and H-plane halfpower beamwidths of 46 and 58 degrees respectively, and an S11 of -19 dB at 435 MHz. KeywordsNano-satellite, CubeSat, Yagi-Uda, UHF antenna

ability to close the link. Similarly, higher gain CubeSat antennas at typical launch altitudes (approximately 600 km) will be able to maintain uplinks using lower antenna gain ground targets, e.g. animal migratory tracking systems. Several antenna types were assessed based on gain, bandwidth, polarization, ease of deployment and integration, and mass. The required wavelengths made all but helical and Yagi-Uda antennas practical. The Yagi-Uda was selected due to the increased complexity necessary to integrate a helical design. Optimization simulations were conducted in Ansoft HFSS to achieve optimal inter-element spacing. Measurement results revealed a gain of 11.5 dBi, a 53 MHz bandwidth, halfpower beamwidths of 46 (E-Plane) and 58 (H-Plane), and an S11 of -19 dB at 435 MHz. II. ANTENNA DESIGN

I.

INTRODUCTION

The role of miniaturized satellites in space research has been invaluable as their reduced complexity and expense facilitated their adoption into many university and business development programs. Standards of modularization and deployment mechanisms have also been developed, such as CubeSat specifications and the Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD). Using these guidelines, considerable efforts have been made to augment CubeSat architectures to improve satellite performance and mission capabilities. In 2010, the Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory at the University of Michigan developed a prototype for a deployable solar array system for CubeSats, the eXtendable Solar Array System (XSAS) [1]. The XSAS system is capable of providing an average of 23 W of continuous power, occupies a 1.5U (10x10x15 cm) volume and when fully deployed, extends approximately 1.2 m. The expanded area provided a suitable boom to mount a directional antenna to fully capture the enhanced capabilities provided by XSAS. Typical CubeSat systems are constrained by their communications systems in three significant ways: deployment altitudes, transceiver data rates, and ground receiver diversity. Higher gain antenna systems would allow for higher altitude deployments resulting in less atmospheric drag, and consequently improved mission durations, without losing the

A. Antenna Design Designing a high gain antenna at 435 MHz requires larger antenna dimensions given the 69 cm wavelength ( ). With antenna elements roughly /2, each must be stowed for launch as there can be no protrusion beyond the 1U frame while a CubeSat remains in a P-POD. Once the satellite reached its orbit, the P-POD will deploy the CubeSat and the elements will be released and the antenna will be oriented as shown in Fig. 1. The unique geometry of the XSAS platform constrained the element spacing, length and director quantity. Fig. 1 shows XSAS fully extended at approximately 1.2 m in length with each solar panel tilted by about 30 degrees. These dimensions allowed for six elements: one reflector, one driven element, and four directors. The solar array structure plays an important role in the antenna design by having a dielectric constant of 4.5 and metallic mechanical connections. Ultimately, the radiation pattern of the antenna will be affected by XSAS. In this antenna design, the goal was to optimize the gain, which is mostly dependent on director spacing, director length, and the total length of the antenna [2]. Since the CubeSat length is fixed, length cannot be optimized to improve gain. Simulations revealed that reflector spacing and length had little effect on forward gain.

978-1-4244-9561-0/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

3022

AP-S/URSI 2011

Figure 1. Photo of fabricated Yagi-Uda array integrated with XSAS prototype.

The radiator element length also has little effect on forward gain and was only controlled to match input impedance. The length and spacing of the directors had a significant effect on forward gain, and were most critical for maximizing gain. Optimization of the gain was determined through a series of simulations. Director spacing was tested first and a series of iterations were done to find the highest gain. After finding the optimal director spacing for high gain, the individual director lengths were optimized. All optimizations sought to minimize S11 values throughout the operating frequency range. Table I contains the optimized design parameter values. III. ANTENNA SIMULATIONS AND MEASUREMENTS

Figure 2. HFSS radiation pattern simulation of Yagi-Uda array integrated in the XSAS prototype. Peak simulated gain of 11.8 dB.

A. Antenna Simulations An HFSS model of XSAS and a Cubsat has been created for the optimization purpose. The model was simplified to reduce computation times by removing inter-panel hinges and armature fasteners. Early simulation revealed minimal impact to radiation patterns from these components. The overlaid radiation pattern and model are shown in Fig. 2. The final simulation results of the S11 and gain of the antenna are in Fig. 3 (a) and Fig. 4 (a) respectively. B. Antenna Measurements The antenna was integrated with XSAS and mounted on a Styrofoam platform using tape and wooden pegs to hold it in place for the measurement. The S11 and radiation pattern have been measured during this test is shown. Fig. 3 (b) illustrates that the measured S11 at the center frequency was -19 dB with -10 dB bandwidth of 40 MHz. Fig. 4 (b) and Fig. 4 (c) show the simulated and measured radiation patterns in the E and H planes with half power beam widths of 46 and 58 respectively.
TABLE I.
Element Spacing 0.250

(a)

(b) Figure 3. The simulated (a) and measured (b) S11 data.

The directivity D can be approximated [3] to be

GAIN OPTIMIZATION LENGTHS FOR SIX-ELEMENT INTEGRATED YAGI-UDA ARRAY

Driver 0.456 Director 1 0.438 Director 2 0.444 Director 3 0.432 Director 4 0.404

(1) Based on the simulation, the antenna efficiency can be approximated to be 0.95, resulting in the gain of 11.5 dBi for the antenna. A summary of the final antenna measurements are shown in Table II.

Reflector 0.472

3023

TABLE II.

EXPERIMENT DATA FOR SIX-ELEMENT INTEGRATED YAGIUDA ARRAY

Frequency S11 Transmitter S11 Receiver Source Power Max Received Power Receiver Gain Separation Distance 435 MHz -18.3 dB -21 dB 7.8 dBm -32.17 dBm 2.15 dBi 11.5 m 46 58

(a)

HPBW (E-Plane) HPBW (H-Plane)

IV.

FUTURE WORK

(b)

While the antenna measurements proved the potential for the antennas incorporation into future XSAS development, the parallel prototyping of both XSAS and this antenna system hindered efforts to develop proper mounting and deployment mechanisms. Availability, cost and legacy drove the antenna element material selection and in a stored configuration, the cross-curved steel strip elements increased XSAS depth by approximately 17 mm, necessitating the removal of panels to maintain CubeSat specifications. HFSS simulations using lower profile 4 mm diameter cylindrical elements showed no significant impact on antenna performance. Development of an antenna deployment system that incorporates the XSAS cutter system is also needed. Examination of atmospheric drag effects must also be conducted to determine if a more suitable element design is necessary. V. CONCLUSION The integrated Yagi-Uda antenna provided a considerable improvement in antenna performance for CubeSat platforms. Next generation CubeSats incorporated with XSAS and this system will experience vastly improved capabilities, allowing for increased experiment and mission complexity. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to thank Professor James Cutler for his support and sponsorship of this project as well as the XSAS team at the University of Michigan for their assistance and for allowing our team access to their prototype for testing purposes.

(c) Figure 4. The simulated (a) gain plot and simulated and measured E- (b) and H-plane (c) radiation patterns.

REFERENCES
[1] Senatore, P., Klesh, A., Zurbuchen, T., McKague, D., & Cutler, J. (2010). Concept, Design, and Prototyping of XSAS: A High Power Extendable Solar Arrar for CubeSat Applications. 40th Aerospace Mechanism Symposium. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. Balanis, C. (2005). Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Kraus, J. D. (1988). Antennas. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing.

[2] [3]

3024