Development of Low-profile Antennas for CubeSats

The advent of transparent antennas on CubeSats originated out of necessity to eradicate the current mechanically dependent monopole antennas that are typically placed on the edges of the satellite to maximize the efficacy of its solar panels. Consequently, as a direct result of their mechanical deployment methods, these antennas are highly prone to failure. Standard patch antennas cannot be used since typical materials would block the solar panels when placed on top. This paper investigates several designs for frequencies at 434 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 1.6 GHz, and 900 MHz to be placed on the faces of a 3 unit (3U) CubeSat. As a result of the combined work over the span of one year, several antennas were manufactured for the 434 MHz, and the 2.4 GHz bands for downlink communication. A silver epoxy conductor was used on quartz substrate for the 2.4 GHz and a copper PIFA antenna on duroid RO6002