A 6–40 GHz CubeSAT antenna system

This paper presents a high-gain 6–40 GHz circularly polarized antenna system designed for a 6U CubeSAT mission for monitoring RF emission from earth. The antenna system consists of three quasi-tapered helical antenna elements, operating at 6–11 GHz, 11–22 GHz and 21–40 GHz, respectively. Each antenna element is designed to produce an end-fire beam with its helical diameter varying along its axis to achieve a linearly increasing gain from 12 dBic gain at 6 GHz to 20 dBic at 40 GHz. The close proximity of the antennas causes strong mutual coupling and pattern distortion. This problem is alleviated by carefully arranging the antenna positions, the utilization of different circular polarization (CP) handedness, as well as loading of the radome.