Design and testing of a miniaturized dual polarized VHF array element for AIS space application

The space-based Automatic Identification System (SAT-AIS) is devised to provide identification and position information to vessels for maritime safety and security purposes. The system is intended to operate at VHF through mini-satellite platforms in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Due to the in-orbit deployment of the antenna array and overall mass requirements for the satellite, the array element minimization and mass reduction are considered performance design drivers. The important size reduction properties of Artificial Magnetic Materials (AMM) / Meta Materials (MM) made this approach a natural choice as baseline array element technology. The following antenna array verification represents a challenging task due to the low-gain and overall DUT dimensions at VHF band. This paper presents the preliminary study of the array element including the manufacturing of an elegant bread-board and testing in a hemispherical near-field antenna test range together with post-processing issues involved.