Design and development of Miniaturized satellite communication antennas using negative refractive index technique

Abstract

Negative refractive index materials have presented exciting research thrust in domain of newlinemicrowave and radio frequency engineering. Left-handed (LH) materials, also known as newlinenegative refractive index material or metamaterials, have inspired various paradigm of newlineantenna design. Negative index material was presented by V. Veselago in 1967 and since then newlinethe design perspective of antennas and microwave components has been significantly newlinechanged. newlineThe primary design goal of the research is to explore potentials of metamaterials for satellite newlinecommunication antennas especially for global positioning satellite (GPS) application; however newlineresearch scope is not restricted to GPS application. The research offers solutions to two newlineprimary critical antenna design issues. First is compactness in satellite antennas and second is newlinefabrication of metamaterial inspired patch antennas. The presented solutions thoroughly cover newlineboth key design issues. In addition, analytical computation of negative refraction is covered in newlinethe research. newlineSolution of another design issue covered in presented research scope is dual resonance of newlineantenna in allocated spectrum of satellite communication frequency bands. GPS satellite newlineoperation is carried out in L and S spectrum. Few amongst presented designs offer dual band newlineoperation in allocated spectrum. Additionally, thorough analysis and comparison of newlinemetamaterial inspired antenna and conventional antenna design is presented in results. newlineix newlineMost recent research in antenna system is design of ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas. Use of newlinenovel negative refractive index material is employed in antenna design for utilization in UWB newlinesystems. Moreover, the target bands were in allocated spectrum of L and S frequency bands. newlineProposed antenna designs were fabricated to validate the concepts developed in software newlinesimulation through experimental verification. newline