Analysis of cylindrical circumferential array with circular polarization for space applications

Microstrip antennas have several attractive characteristics for space applications, such as light weight, low profile and conformability. For space vehicle applications, an isotropic radiation patteern may be desired in order t establish a reliable telemetry link. Another important feature of such a link is the polarization of the ground and the embedded antennas. The use of circularly polarized (CP) antennas reduces the polarization mismatch between these antennas, increasing the link efficiency. The circumferential array analysis with such characteristics has been reported in the literature (D.I. Wu, IEEE Antennas and Prop. Symp. Dig., pp. 998-1011, 1995; H.D. Weinschel, ibid., pp. 177-180, 1975), but no comments are made on the influence of the number of elements on the quality of the circular polarization. For the aforementioned reasons, the purpose of this paper is to analyze CP microstrip antenna arrays conformed on cylindrical surfaces in order to achieve a suitable radiation pattern for telemetry of space vehicles.