This paper presents the design, simulation, and measurement results of a dual aperture-coupled microstripline-fed antenna array with circular polarization at the C-band for small satellites applications. The antenna array was designed at a center frequency of 5.5 GHz, and it has a two-port isolation bandwidth of 25 MHz above 20 dB while the axial ratio is below 1 dB. The main objective is to produce a four-patch antenna array to be mounted on CubeSat deployable wings along with a layer of solar panels, maximizing the usable space and obtaining a better link budget for a standardized Cubesat of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm. The orthogonal feedlines' isolation between Tx/Rx signals and a minimization of the multi-layer design provide a lower profile approach considering the state-of-the-art. The significant thickness reduction combined with a new perspective of having both deployable wings transmitting and receiving signals lead to a notable improvement of the overall system. This work is relevant due to the demand for high-performance antenna systems that may expand the capabilities of CubeSats, considering the importance of using an antenna array instead of a single element approach. INDEX TERMS Antenna array, circular polarization, CubeSats, small satellites. I. INTRODUCTION
This paper presents a performance evaluation of single and dual-band software-defined radio (SDR) front-ends using commercially available barium strontium titanate (BST) thin film to control SDR receivers dynamic range and mitigate interference. Firstly, an SDR front-end solution using a BST-based single-band bandpass filter (BPF) is developed to manage in-band attenuation according to the input power. Secondly, a dual-band SDR front-end to avoid high power interference with its spectral content on the below side of the second band is designed. This device is performed with a BST-based dual-band BPF providing independent control of the power limiting capabilities of the first and second bands. The BST component introduces a dependence on bias voltage, frequency, and input power. Consequently, by applying a 0 V bias, it is possible to target interferers between 700 MHz up to 1 GHz and attenuate them more than 7 dB at 40 dBm. The frequency dependence is defined by the second band, which retains its filtering performance while performing interference cancellation in the first band. This SDR solution implements a three functional dimension device in the upper MHz with a power-dependent insertion loss, high threshold power level, and frequency selectivity.INDEX TERMS dual-band bandpass filters, ferroelectric devices, frequency selectivity, intermodulation distortion, nonlinear measurements, power limiters, SDR front-ends, three functional dimension devices, tunable microwave filters.
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