Low cost Ka-band transmitter for CubeSat systems

Advanced Antennas for Small Satellites

“…Fig. 13(a) shows a Ka-band lens antenna for CubeSats and nanosatellites [45]. A waveguide E-plane bend is used to couple the transmitting signal into a circular polarizer and lens antenna for eficient power radiation.…”

Reconfigurable phased antenna array for extending cubesat operations to Ka-band: Design and feasibility

“…From a technological point of view, the premises to adopt a Kaband communication link with the DVB-S2X standard are already in place. One proposal for a Ka-band CubeSat transceiver is presented in [28], and consists in mixing an intermediate-frequency signal at 1 GHz with the second harmonic generated by a local oscillator operating at half of the desired radio-frequency. Exploiting this approach, the presence on the market of components operating at frequencies beyond 15 GHz enables the achievement of frequencies above 30 GHz [29].…”

Solar-Powered Active Integrated Antennas Backed by a Transparent Reflectarray for CubeSat Applications

“…The gain enhancement usually requires larger design space, but the limited volume available onboard CubeSats makes performance optimization difficult. Several antenna structures that address high-gain features have been proposed, including reflectors [3], [4], lens [5], reflectarrays [6], leaky-wave antennas [7], slots [8], spirals [9], [10], patches [11]- [18], and patch arrays [19]- [22]. The gain, design volumes, operating frequencies of these antennas are provided in Table I.…”