To implement and validate a medium-to-high gain antenna with pattern and polarisation flexibility at X-band.

 

 

Having a generic antenna structure suitable to generate different patterns with single linear or single/dual circular polarisation is of major interest. The idea is to use a same basic design or a small range of designs with different aperture diameters which radiation characteristics are adapted to specific missions need by exploiting the conjugate-matched meta-surface concept which has been successfully demonstrated in the recent past under TRP (e.g. T107-060EE: Innovative planar highly directive antenna based on artificial surfaces). Both shaped beam (isoflux and sectorial isoflux) as well as spot beam configurations where shown to be feasible with a simple disk-shaped antenna fed from its centre, featuring extremely low thickness (~2cm) and simple "printed circuit" manufacturing.

 

Earth Observation, Science and Robotic Space Exploration missions are the natural targets for this concept that promises to overcome the limitations of current technology either requiring redesign or acceptance of available performance. Antenna reuse across missions typically results in costly compromises on link performance reducing data transmission capabilities, while a COTS antenna which can be easily customised to fit the needs of each mission will provide the best possible performance at the minimum cost. The objective of the activity is to design, develop and test up to EQM level the new antenna concept with two baseline sets of requirements: an isoflux beam for data-downlink from LEO and a spot-beam for deep space applications.