Design of Inverted F antenna for low earth orbit (LEO) satellite application

This paper presents the design of a dual band planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) for low orbit satellite applications. The antenna can be used for ground station telemetry communication with the satellite. Two amateur radio frequency bands, 135 MHz and 435 MHz, have been selected for transmitting and receiving, respectively. CST-Microwave studio was used for the simulation of the antenna and matching parameters. A small scale 5:1 model of the antenna has been built on a metal cube which represents the real satellite body. The antenna scaling will help to perform measurements and testing at the available test facility frequency ranges. The measurement of the return loss (S₁₁) was almost identical with the simulation. The simulation has shown that the gain of PIFA and radiation pattern were better than the current antenna designs.