A Solar Panel-Integrated Modified Planner Inverted F Antenna for Low Earth Orbit Remote Sensing Nanosatellite Communication System

Abstract

One of the most efficient methods to observe the impact of geographical, environmental, and geological changes is remote sensing. Nowadays, nanosatellites are being used to observe climate change using remote sensing technology. Communication between a remote sensing nanosatellite and Earth significantly depends upon antenna systems. Body-mounted solar panels are the main source of satellite operating power unless deployable solar panels are used. Lower ultra-high frequency (UHF) nanosatellite antenna design is a crucial challenge due to the physical size constraint and the need for solar panel integration. Moreover, nanosatellite space missions are vulnerable because of antenna and solar panel deployment complexity. This paper proposes a solar panel-integrated modified planner inverted F antenna (PIFA) to mitigate these crucial limitations. The antenna consists of a slotted rectangular radiating patch with coaxial probe feeding and a rectangular ground plane. The proposed antenna has achieved a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 6.0 MHz (447.5 MHz–453.5 MHz) with a small-sized (80 mm× 90 mm× 0.5 mm) radiating element. In addition, the antenna achieved a maximum realized gain of 0.6 dB and a total efficiency of 67.45% with the nanosatellite structure and a solar panel. The challenges addressed by the proposed antenna are to ensure solar panel placement between the radiating element and the ground plane, and provide approximately 55% open space to allow solar irradiance into the solar panel.