Designing a mobile satellite communication antenna and link budget optimization

With the rapid growth of modern mobile satellite communication technology, the development of very small size, low-cost, low-profile, high gain and high directivity antennas is a must. The design of a mobile satellite communication antenna named as Parabolic Helix and link budget optimization of the proposed antenna system are illustrated in this paper. The proposed antenna has a gain of 15.95dB, directivity of 19.36dBi; return loss value of -28.0573dB, Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) of 1.08, bandwidth of 68.3MHz, antenna efficiency of 45.6% and 3dB angular beamwidth i.e., the Half Power Beamwidth (HPBW) of 29.5deg. The resonant frequency of the antenna array is 5.982 GHz. The proposed antenna system can be used for C-band applications like satellite communications transmissions, Wi-Fi, cordless telephones, weather radar systems and other wireless systems. The antenna system is designed and simulated in the CST Microwave Studio. Link budgets are performed in order to analyze the critical factors in the transmission chain and to optimize the performance characteristics, such as transmission power, system noise temperature, figure of merit and so on. The link budget determines what size antenna i s to use, power requirements and in general, the overall customer satisfaction. This paper deals with the rudiments of a satellite link design with some simulation results.