Multibeam Antenna for Ka-Band CubeSat Connectivity Using 3-D Printed Lens and Antenna Array
- Resource Type
- Periodical
- Authors
- Trzebiatowski, K.; Kalista, W.; Rzymowski, M.; Kulas, L.; Nyka, K.
- Source
- IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett. Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE. 21(11):2244-2248 Nov, 2022
- Subject
- Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Lenses
Antenna arrays
Antennas
Gain
Switches
CubeSat
Microstrip antenna arrays
3-D printing
additive manufacturing
fifth-generation (5G) communication
Internet-of-Things
millimeter-wave antenna
passive multibeam antennas
reconfi-gurable antennas
switched-beam antennas
- Language
- ISSN
- 1536-1225
1548-5757
In this letter, the design of a passive multibeam lens antenna is proposed for the CubeSat space communication system as an alternative application of a 2-D microstrip antenna array that has originally been designed for a 39-GHz 5G multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) system. The half-ellipsoid lens is 3-D printed using stereolithography technology. The antenna prototype is capable of selecting the main beam between 16 different directions with a gain ranging from 14 to 16 dBi and a half-power beamwidth of 14$^\circ$–18$^\circ$. The measurements carried out in an anechoic chamber show good agreement with numerical simulations. The presented prototype shows that by employing 3-D printing technologies existing antennas can be easily and inexpensively converted to switched-beam or multibeam solutions.