Received March 2, 2021, accepted March 12, 2021, date of publication March 17, 2021, date of current version

March 29, 2021.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3066632

Antenna Designs for CubeSats: A Review

SUHILA ABULGASEM 1 , (Student Member, IEEE),
FAISEL TUBBAL 1,2 , (Senior Member, IEEE),
RAAD RAAD 1 , (Member, IEEE),
PANAGIOTIS IOANNIS THEOHARIS 1 , (Student Member, IEEE),
SINING LU 1 , (Student Member, IEEE), AND SAEID IRANMANESH 1
1 Schoolof Electrical, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
2 Technological Projects Department, Libyan Center for Remote Sensing and Space, Tripoli 21218, Libya

Corresponding author: Faisel Tubbal (faisel@uow.edu.au)

ABSTRACT Cube Satellites, aka CubeSats, are a class of nano satellites that have gained popularity
recently, especially for those that consider CubeSats as an emerging alternative to conventional satellites
for space programs. This is because they are cost-effective, and they can be built using commercial off-
the-shelf components. Moreover, CubeSats can communicate with each other in space and ground stations
to carry out many functions such as remote sensing (e.g., land imaging, education), space research, wide
area measurements and deep space communications. Consequently, communications between CubeSats and
ground stations is critical. Any antenna design for a CubeSat needs to meet size and weight restrictions while
yielding good antenna radiation performance. To date, a limited number of works have surveyed, compared
and categorised the proposed antenna designs for CubeSats based on their operating frequency bands. To this
end, this paper contributes to the literature by focusing on different antenna types with different operating
frequency bands that are proposed for CubeSat applications. This paper reviews 48 antenna designs,
which include 18 patch antennas, 5 slot antennas, 4 dipole and monopole antennas, 3 reflector antennas,
3 reflectarray antennas, 5 helical antennas, 2 metasurface antennas and 3 millimeter and sub-millimeter wave
antennas. The current CubeSat antenna design challenges and design techniques to address these challenges
are discussed. In addition, we classify these antennas according to their operating frequency bands, e.g., VHF,
UHF, L, S, C, X, Ku, K/Ka, W and mm/sub-mm wave bands and provide an extensive qualitative comparison
in terms of their size, −10 dB bandwidths, gains, reflection coefficients, and deployability. The suitability of
different antenna types for different applications as well as the future trends for CubeSat antennas are also
presented.

INDEX TERMS CubeSats, planar antennas, helical antennas, radiation patterns, gain, dipole antennas,
reflect array antennas, reflection coefficient.

I. INTRODUCTION different applications including remote sensing (e.g., weather

For many years, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites were forecasting) and communications (e.g., mobile telephony and
the only option for satellite industry and space organizations. scientific observation). An example of MEO conventional
As set out in Table 1, MEO satellites have a mass ranging satellite is Formosat-2, which is the first sun-synchronous
from 500 to 1000 kg, operate at altitude of 900 km, are remote sensing satellite and scientific observation program
sun synchronous and consume high power, i.e., 8kW. Their that was built and used by National Space Program Office
typical timeframe is about four years and their cost ranges (NSPO) in Taiwan [2]. It was launched in 2004 to operate
between 50 to 100 million US dollars [1]. Therefore, they at an altitude of 891 km and used for disaster preparedness,
have always been constructed by large companies and gov- rescue, and environment monitoring. These types of conven-
ernment organizations who can afford the cost of building and tional satellites use heavy medium-gain antennas such as horn
operation of such large satellites. Moreover, they are used for antennas with a precise pointing mechanism to communicate
with the ground station.
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and In contrast, Cube Satellites (CubeSats) are a cost-
approving it for publication was Giorgio Montisci . effective option for the satellite industry, which have become

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accessible to the public. CubeSats operate at Low Earth Orbit antennas is a challenge as the antenna needs to meet several
(LEO), are small, are lightweight and can be built using restrictions related to the CubeSat’s size, i.e., ≤10 × 10 ×
Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components [3], [4]. 10 cm3 , weight, i.e., ≤1.3 kg, and power, i.e., ≤2 W while
Fig. 1 (a), (b) and (c) shows three common types of CubeSats yielding high gain and wide bandwidth [6]. Fig. 7 shows some
with different sizes: (10cm × 10cm × 10cm), (10cm × examples of different antenna types that were designed and
10cm × 20cm) and (10cm × 10cm × 30cm) for 1U, proposed for CubeSat applications. These antenna designs
2U and 3U CubeSats, respectively. Their mass ranges from include patch, slot, helical, monopole, reflectarrays, mesh
1 to 6 kg and are low power, e.g., 2 W. As set out in Table 1, reflectors and metasurface antennas.
compared to medium satellites, CubeSats are cheaper, have
smaller size, consume less power and take less time to build A. RELATED REVIEW ARTICLES ON CUBESAT ANTENNAS
and correspondingly have much more limited functionality. The first study/review on CubeSat antennas were published
One example of a CubeSat is the Tokyo Tech 1U CubeSat by the authors of this paper in 2015 and can be found
called CUTE-I which was designed by Tokyo institute of in [4]. The authors investigated the suitability of planar
technology in 2003 [5]. CUTE-I had a mass of 1kg, operated antenna designs for CubeSat missions due to their low profile,
at LEO of 820 km and was developed for communication and small size, and gain performance. The authors also provide
attitude sensing missions. a qualitative evaluation of suitable planar antenna designs
and a quantitative comparison of the four most suitable
planar antenna designs for CubeSat at the time. Follow-
ing that, in 2017, the authors in [7] and [8] grouped the
most popular CubeSat antenna designs and categorized them
according to their types. The most popular antenna types
for CubeSat applications were found to be planar (patch),
monopole/dipoles, reflectors, reflectarrays, helical and horn
antennas. As CubeSats were gaining popularity among the
space enthusiasts, in 2018, different CubeSat antennas were
studied based on the mission suitability and their subsys-
tem usage [9]. More specifically, different antenna types
were identified for high data rate downlink, Synthetic Aper-
ture Radar (SAR), inter-satellite links (ISL), navigation and
remote sensing applications. Moreover, CubeSats have also
been considered for deep space missions. In 2019, a summary
of CubeSat antennas that are suitable for deep space missions
with a focus on their gains and operating frequencies are
FIGURE 1. Cube satellite models, (a) 1U, (b) 2U and (c) 3U. presented in [10]. The advantages and disadvantages of differ-
ent antenna types, e.g., reflectarrays, metasurfaces, inflatable,
membrane, mesh reflectors and slot/patch arrays that are suit-
TABLE 1. Comparison between MEO conventional satellites and able for deep space communications in terms of their stowage
LEO cube satellites. volume, efficiency, and Technology Readiness Level (TRL)
were highlighted. A summary of the review articles associ-
ated with CubeSat antennas can be found in Table 2.

B. CONTRIBUTION OF THIS PAPER

This paper presents an extensive and comprehensive literature
survey of antenna designs that are only designed and pro-
posed for CubeSats with design techniques and approaches
to achieve high gain, wide bandwidth, circular polarization
One of the main subsystems of CubeSat is the Telemetry, and small size. Other studies have covered some standard
Tracking and Communications (TTC) subsystem. The main antenna designs that have been adapted for CubeSats. It has
function of TTC subsystem is to provide reliable communi- been noted that different types of antennas that are designed,
cation links between CubeSats and ground station. This is proposed and used for CubeSats’ communications have not
important as it ensures continuous communication between yet been compared and evaluated in terms of their perfor-
the ground station and the CubeSat. A key component of the mance. Hence, we first present and classify antenna designs
communication subsystem is the antenna. Antennas on Cube- with different operating frequencies based on their type. The
Sat are used to send telemetry and science data (i.e. images) CubeSat application of each antenna design as well as an eval-
from CubeSat to ground station and to receive commands uation in terms of its gain, bandwidth, size and polarization is
from ground station to CubeSat. However, designing such provided. Then, the current challenges of CubeSat antennas

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TABLE 2. Existing review articles on CubeSat antennas. space on a CubeSat for solar cells and decreases the proba-
bility of deployment failure. Figs. 2 and 3 show examples of
typical standard patch and slot antennas, respectively. They
can be fed using different feeding techniques, i.e., microstrip
line feed, coaxial probe feed, proximity coupled feed and
aperture coupled feed. Tables 3 and 4 list the proposed pla-
nar antenna designs (e.g., patch and slot) for CubeSats and
summarize their performance in terms of size, operating fre-
quency, −10 dB bandwidth, gain, polarization, and reflection
coefficient (S11 ). We further discuss each proposed patch and
slot antenna design in detail in section parts A and B.

namely, high gain, wide bandwidth, multi-band, small size,

low mass, and circular polarization are identified. Addition-
ally, to address those challenges, different approaches used
in the literature are investigated. Each approach is catego-
rized based on its suitability for different antenna types. FIGURE 2. Standard patch antenna.
We have also classified the antennas according to their operat-
ing frequency bands and compare their performance. Finally,
we provide the future trends on antenna designs for emerging
CubeSat applications.
The remainder of this paper has the following structure.
Sections II, III, IV, V and VI present a comprehensive tax-
onomy of the main challenges and solutions in designing
different antenna types at different operating frequencies for
different CubeSat applications. We classify them according
to their types. In Section VII, the current CubeSat challenges
are identified, and different approaches are analyzed based on
the challenge they address and their suitability with different
antenna types. Section VIII provides a qualitative evalua-
tion and comparison between all presented antenna designs
in terms of gain, volume, bandwidth and reflection coef-
ficient (S11 ) according to their operating frequency bands. FIGURE 3. Standard slot antenna.
Section IX provides a critical analysis of the survey findings
and an overview of the future trends for emerging CubeSat A. PATCH ANTENNAS
applications. The paper concludes with Section X. In this section, we have reviewed 18 patch antenna designs
for CubeSats. These antennas operate in S, C, and X bands
II. PLANNAR ANTENNAS and provide a total gain ranging from 4.8 to 30.5 dBi.
Planar antennas such as patch and slot antennas are easy to Amongst all patch antenna designs listed in Table 3, i.e., those
fabricate, have low profile, low cost and easy to integrate in [11]–[28], the one in [15] and [16] have the smallest
with other Radio Frequency (RF) and microwave circuits [3]. antenna physical size and hence they are suitable for use
These features make them ideal for CubeSats addressing most on 1U, 2U and 3U CubeSats. The design of [15] can also
of the challenges and constraints of CubeSat. In addition, be implemented on the top of the solar cells because of its
as compared to deployable antennas, i.e., helical and reflector high transparency and hence allows for surface area reuse
antennas, planar antennas occupy smaller real estate and do due to the integration of the antenna and solar cells. How-
not require deployment. This is important as it provides more ever, its main limitation is the resulting narrow bandwidth

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TABLE 3. Proposed patch antenna designs for CubeSat.

TABLE 4. Proposed slot antenna designs for CubeSats.

(i.e., 1.65%) which leads to low data rate. On the other Compared to C-band antenna designs in [13], [18], the
hand, the design in [23] provides a wide bandwidth of 40% C-band patch antenna design of [17], has the highest gain
with a high gain of 15 dBi at 10 GHz (X-band). In terms of 6.98 dBi at 5.8 GHz. However, its size, i.e., 100 mm ×
of gain, the proposed deployable S-band antenna design 100 mm, occupies a large space on CubeSat that oth-
in [20] has reported the highest gain, i.e., 30.5 dBi as com- erwise could be used for solar cells. The X-band patch
pared to all other S-band antenna designs listed in Table 3. antenna design in [14], has the smallest reflection coefficient,
However, its main limitation is the large deployable i.e., −45 dB as compared to all patch antenna designs listed
antenna size which makes it only suitable for 6U CubeSat. in Table 3.

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In [11], Lehmensiek et al. proposed an X-band circularly

polarized 2×2 shorted annular patches array for 1U CubeSat.
The key idea is to short circuit each single annular patch
with the ground plane using six vias to achieve circular polar-
ization (CP); see Fig. 4 (a). Moreover, as shown in Fig. 4 (b),
the array elements are fed using a ring resonator at the middle
of the array which is connected to all four patches via strips.
The proposed shorted annular patches array is fed using a
sequential phase feeding network. It achieves a small reflec-
tion coefficient of −25 dB at 8.25 GHz with a wide bandwidth FIGURE 5. Proposed antenna, (a) stacked patch and (b) layers including
the cross slots (no. 3) [12].
of 16.97% (7.5 – 8.9 GHz) and a total gain of 13 dBi at
8.25 GHz, respectively. The authors reported only simulation
results.

FIGURE 4. Shorted patches antenna model on 1U CubeSat: (a) single FIGURE 6. Proposed antenna: (a) Individual 1 × 2 array element, and
element and (b) 2 × 2 array elements [11]. (b) 4 array elements on 1U CubeSat [13].

Coll [12] presented a rectangular aperture coupled stacked is truncated from the two sides. The authors proposed imple-
patch antenna for CubeSat [12]; see Fig. 5 (a). As shown menting four 1×2 patch antenna arrays on four CubeSat faces
in Fig. 5 (b) (layer no. 3), to enhance the bandwidth and and using the T-junction power divider to feed them with
achieve a good circular polarization, the author used a sequential phase rotation. Each proposed 1 × 2 patch antenna
crossed 45◦ shift slots to excite the two orthogonal elements array element has a total volume of 83mm × 69mm × 1mm.
with a 45◦ phase shift. The proposed X-band antenna design It achieves a simulated reflection coefficient of −17 dB at
is fed by a microstrip line via crossed slot in the ground plane. 5.15 GHz (with solar cell) with a wide bandwidth of 10.20%
The lengths of the two crossed slots have a significant effect (4.78 – 5.3 GHz), and −21.5 dB at 5.1 GHz (without solar
on the bandwidth, the axial ratio, and the radiation pattern. cells) with a bandwidth of 8.43% (4.87 – 5.3 GHz). Moreover,
The proposed antenna achieved a total measured gain of about the proposed antenna provides a total gain of 5.9 dBi (with
7.2 dBi at 7.4 GHz, measured wide bandwidth, i.e., 16.21% solar cells) and 8 dBi (without solar cells) at an operating fre-
(7.3 – 8.5 GHz) and measured high reflection coefficient of quency of 5 GHz. We see that the use of solar cells influences
−13 dB at 7.4 GHz. Its main limitation, however, is the high the antenna’s performance. The authors observed a decrease
reflection coefficient which means more power is reflected of the gain from 8 to 5.9 dBi and an increase of the reflection
back to the source instead of being transmitted into space. coefficient from −21.5 to −17 dB when the antenna is placed
Recently, designs of patch antenna arrays which consist above the solar cells. This is because practical solar cells have
of many sub-array elements and are fed by different feed- a conductivity of about 103 (S/m) which leads to a reduction
ing networks are proposed to enhance the antenna gain and of 2-3 dBi in the gain for antennas that operate in the 1-10
to electronically steer the antenna’s radiation beam. This GHz band [29]. Compared to C-band planar antenna designs
is important as it maintains the communication link during presented in [17], [18], the C-band patch antenna in [13] has
the CubeSat’s maneuver. The challenge is how to achieve a a wider bandwidth.
superior gain by implementing small patch antenna arrays on In [14], Nascetti et al. proposed a high gain four element
limited space on CubeSat. In [13], Maged et al. proposed a patch antenna array for 3U Tigrisat CubeSat. The antenna is
design of four antenna array elements for CubeSat cross-link proposed to be mounted on one face (100mm × 100 mm)
communications. As shown in Fig. 6 (a) and (b), each array of 3U CubeSat and used for Earth Observation applications.
element consists of two 14 mm × 14 mm transparent patch The main idea is to increase the antenna’s gain and achieve
antennas and is implemented on each face of 1U CubeSat. CP by making each sub-array of the two adjacent patches
The main idea is to implement two square patches on a orthogonally oriented (90◦ ) and feed them using a Wilkinson
glass substrate to achieve transparency and hence allow the power divider; see Fig. 8 (a) and (b). This also leads to
sunlight to reach the solar cell behind the antenna through the an increase in the signal strength and isolation between the
glass. Moreover, to achieve circular polarization, each patch power ports achieving very good input impedance matching.

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FIGURE 7. Examples of different types of proposed antenna designs for CubeSat.

The proposed antenna has a simulated high gain of 8.22 dBi

and a small reflection coefficient of −45 dB at 2.45 GHz with
a wide bandwidth of 44.9% (2.05-3.15 GHz). The total size
of the proposed antenna is 96 mm × 96 mm with an area
of 57mm × 57mm left in the middle for camera optics; see
Fig. 8. Compared to the designs in [15], [21], [22], the design
of [14], achieves higher gain at a similar operating frequency
band, i.e., S-band. Moreover, the proposed antenna has a
wider −10 dB bandwidth as compared to all patch and slot
antennas reported in [15], [18], [21], [22]. Its main limitation,
however, is that the authors have not considered or presented
tests of the interference that could occur between the pro- FIGURE 8. Proposed patch antenna array: (a) top view (radiators) and
posed antenna and camera optics as they are implemented (b) bottom view (feeding network) [14].
next to each other.
The authors of [15], designed a transparent mesh patch panels will share the same area. However, at low frequency
antenna for 3U CubeSat communication with ground station. (less than 2.4 GHz), it achieves poor transparency.
As shown in Fig. 9, the key idea is to use transparent sub- In [16] Podilchak et al. presented the design of a CP
strate (quartz material) with a 43.7mm2 square meshed lines meshed patch antenna for small satellites including 1U Cube-
implemented on an 80.1 mm2 square ground plane. The main Sat, see Fig. 10. The proposed antenna has a small total size
challenge for designing such an antenna was that the relation- of 24.1mm × 24. 8mm, operates at 2.45 GHz (S-band) and is
ship between the thickness of the copper lines of the mesh and fully integrated with a solar cell. To achieve CP, the proposed
the antenna performance is not linear. This means decreasing antenna is excited by two orthogonal ports and the feed net-
the thickness of the copper lines leads to a decrease in the work is integrated underneath the solar cell. This enhances the
radiation efficiency and gain. The optimal obtained line thick- bandwidth and improves the antenna’s total gain. Moreover,
ness that provides 90% transparency, bandwidth of 1.65%, the meshed lines of the proposed antenna are placed above
efficiency of 85.9%, reflection coefficient of −14.5 dB and a glass to provide high transparency and hence sunlight can
total antenna gain of 5.3 dBi at 2.43 GHz was 0.1 mm with a reach the solar cells. This is important as it provides more
total mesh size of 28.44mm × 43.7mm. The main advantage space for solar cells and hence more power budget for the sub-
of the proposed design is its high transparency and hence systems. The authors reported simulated and measured reflec-
it is proposed to be placed above the solar cells allowing tion coefficients and bandwidths at 2.385 GHz of −18 dB
the sunlight to reach the solar cells. This will effectively (BW = 1.35%) and −19 dB (BW = 2.45%) respectively.
reduce the occupied area by half as the antenna and the solar In addition, the proposed antenna achieved similar simulated

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FIGURE 11. Square antenna array: (a) Individual element of 2 × 2

sub-array and (b) with nine identical elements (3 × 3) [17].

FIGURE 9. Proposed transparent mesh patch antenna for 3U CubeSat [15].

CubeSats and ground stations duringmaneuvering. In addi-
tion, compared to the antenna designs presented in [14], [21],
the patch antenna array design reported in [17], is the only
design that has the ability to steer the beam. This is important
as it has the ability to provide a continuous communication
link with a ground station.
The authors of [18], presented a transparent dual-band
patch antenna array that operates at two operating frequencies
of 8 GHz and 11.2 GHz for 3U CubeSat. The key idea
is to implement a transparent patch on a glass substrate
that can be placed above the solar cells and hence provide
more space for solar cells; see Fig. 12 (a). The sunlight can
reach the solar cells because of transparency of the proposed
antenna design. The 8mm × 8mm top patch layer is used
for an operating frequency of 11.2 GHz and is fed via two
probes from a coupler at the bottom layer. There is also a
6.3mm × 6.3mm patch under the top patch layer which was
FIGURE 10. Proposed patch antenna design, (a) mounted on 1U CubeSat’s
used to obtain an operating frequency of 8 GHz and it is fed
module, (b) manufactured, (c) top view and (d) cross section view [16]. from the top patch layer. Moreover, the dual band coupler is
used to produce two input with a 90◦ phase shift to the antenna
and measured gains of about 4.8 dBi at 2.45 GHz. The authors array. This leads to right and left hand circular polarization
claim that the proposed antenna can be used to implement (RHCP and LHCP). In addition, as shown in Fig. 12 (b), nine
phased arrays system because its structure is compact, and of the proposed transparent antennas are integrated in a 3 × 3
it has a small size; see Fig. 10 (d). This is important as it array with a total size of 80mm × 80mm. They reported total
can significantly improve the total gain and provides long gains of 6.45 and 5.34 dBi at 8 GHz and 11.2 GHz, respec-
distance communications. Its main limitation, however, is its tively. Moreover, the proposed antenna achieved a −10 dB
narrow bandwidth, i.e. 2.45%. bandwidths of 2.39% at 8 GHz and 3.22% at 11.2 GHz.
Another design that uses a patch antenna array on one However, the main limitation of the proposed antenna is
face of 1U CubeSat for intersatellite communications is pre- its high reflection coefficients, i.e., −19 dB at 8 GHz and
sented in [17]. As shown in Fig. 11 (b), 3 × 3 nine identical
sub-array elements are implemented on 1U CubeSat’s face.
Each sub-array element consists of 2 × 2 individual rectan-
gular patch elements and are fed sequentially; see Fig. 11 (a).
To achieve CP, every two elements of 2 × 2 sub-array are
implemented orthogonal to each other. The antenna array
operates at 5.8 GHz and achieves a small, measured reflection
coefficient of −21 dB, simulated total gain of 6.98 dBi and
a narrow bandwidth of 1.20%. The main advantage of the
proposed design is its ability to steer the beam by feeding
the subarray at different angles, i.e., 0◦ , 90◦ , 180◦ , and 270◦ FIGURE 12. Transparent patch antenna: (a) single element and (b) 3 × 3
and hence establish a good communication link between array elements on 3U CubeSat [18].

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−15.5 dB at 11.2 GHz. This means more power is reflected

instead of being radiated into space.
Shorting walls and shorting pins are techniques that are
used to reduce the antenna size without affecting its perfor-
mance; i.e., gain, bandwidth and impedance matching [30].
In [19], Abulgasem et al. proposed a high gain F-shaped patch
antenna that operates at 2.45 GHz (s-band) with a total size
of 100mm × 100mm for a 3U CubeSat. The main idea is the
use of three shorting pins between the radiating patch element
and the ground plane to reduce the antenna physical size
by increasing the effective electrical length of the radiating
patch; see Fig. 13. Moreover, to increase the bandwidth of
the proposed antenna, the authors used two arms on the upper FIGURE 14. S-band deployable patch antenna array for 6U CubeSat [20].

patch with different lengths. This generates two resonant fre-

quencies and hence increases the bandwidth. They reported a hence provides more space for solar cells and payload on a
wide bandwidth of 45.75%, small reflection coefficient, i.e. 6U CubeSat. The large patch antenna array deploys when
−32.5 dB and high gain of 8.5 dBi at operating frequency the CubeSat is in orbit to establish a communication link
2.45 GHz. The proposed F-shaped patch antenna has the with the ground station. The authors reported a superior gain
highest gain and largest bandwidth as compared to other patch of 30.5 dBi; however, its main drawback is the use of a
antenna designs reported in [15], [21], [22]. However, the pro- complex deployment mechanism which may lead to a mission
posed antenna is not robust because of the used shorting pins failure if the antenna does not deploy.
between the upper patch and ground plane. The authors of [21], propose a dual-band Circularly
Polarized (CP) patch antenna for 3U CubeSat. As shown
in Fig. 15 (a), the antenna design is proposed to be imple-
mented on one face (100mm × 100 mm) of 3U CubeSat
for communication with ground station and to operate at
two different operating frequencies, i.e., 1.57 GHz (L-band)
and 2.2GHz (S-band). As shown in Fig. 16 (a), the patch
antenna design consists of a lower band (1.57 GHz) on the
top layer which acts as Global Positioning System (GPS)
antenna to receive positioning signals from GPS satellites

FIGURE 13. F-shaped patch antenna, (a) fabricated, (b) top view and
(c) side view [19].

The authors of [20], proposed a large, deployable

16 × 16 patch array for a 6U CubeSat; see Fig. 14 for remote
sensing applications. The proposed antenna design has two
tensioned membranes that are folded into a 2U payload size
with four deployable boom structures and operates at 3.6 GHz
(S-band). The main advantage of this proposed antenna is FIGURE 15. Dual band stacked patch antenna for CubeSat: (a) mounted
that the antenna occupies a small size when it is folded and on 3U CubeSat, (b) top view and (c) bottom view [21].

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and an upper band (2.2 GHz) in the middle layer which

works as a transponder to transmit data to ground station.
The main idea is the use of dual-feed technique to feed
the lower and upper band antennas using 3-dB hybrid cou-
plers; see Fig. 15 (b). This is important as it reduces the
number of antennas on CubeSat and hence reduces interfer-
ence between these antennas and other electronic compo-
nents. It also provides sufficient real estate to mount solar
cells. The authors reported total measured gains of 6 and
5.4 dBi for the upper and lower bands respectively; see
Fig. 16 (b) and (c). Moreover, Fig. 16 (a) shows the measured
reflection coefficient of −27 dB with bandwidth of 9.55%
for lower band and −40 dB with bandwidth of 9.66% for
upper band. The proposed patch antenna exhibits a good per-
formance at two operating frequencies, i.e., 1.57 and 2.2 GHz.
However, its main limitation is the large ground plane,
i.e., 110mm × 110mm, which is larger than the CubeSat face FIGURE 17. Triple element meshed patch antenna [22].

(100mm × 100mm). Another limitation is that the proposed

antenna is unable to electronically steer its radiation beam In [23], Sarbakhsh et al. presented a multifunctional,
to re-establish the communication link with ground station high gain and CP transparent subarray patch antenna for
during CubeSat maneuver. CubeSat remote sensing applications. The antenna operates
in the X-band and has a total size of 10 mm × 10 mm.
As shown in Fig. 18 (a) and (b), the proposed 2 × 2 subarray
antenna contains two layers with a cross slot being etched
on the bottom ground plane. To achieve CP and enhance the
antenna performance, the authors used the fabry-perot cavity
approach [31], [32] and a parallel sequential rotation feeding
network technique, see Fig. 18 (c). The sequential feeding
network is an unequal power divider and has four output 50 
ports with 90◦ phase delay between ports in anticlockwise
direction. In addition, they used a combination of Indium
Tin Oxide (ITO) and Copper (Cu) coating layers on trans-
parent polyethylene terephthalate (PET-G) substrate. These
materials provide high transparency and good conductivity.
Therefore, the solar panel is placed between TMM10i and
PET-G substrates, see Fig. 18 (d). This is important as it pro-
vides more space for solar cells on CubeSats and hence better
energy harvesting. They reported simulated and measured
reflection coefficients of −25 and −18 dB at 10 GHz with
FIGURE 16. Results of proposed antenna: (a) reflection coefficient, a wide −10 dB bandwidth of 40% (8-12 GHz), respectively
(b) radiation pattern at 1.57 GHz and (c) Radiation pattern at 2.2 GHz [21]. and a high measured gain 15 dB at 10 GHz with solar cell.
The authors of [24], presented a circular polarized
Another transparent mesh patch antenna design is pre- microstrip antenna for both ground and intersatellite com-
sented in [22]. The authors proposed a new technique of using munications. The proposed antenna operates in the S-band
three transparent meshed patch configurations on CubeSat’s (2.34 – 2.62 GHz) and has a total size of 80mm × 180mm;
surface to enhance the bandwidth. As shown in Fig. 17, see Fig. 19 (a) and (b). To achieve LHCP or RHCP with
the antenna is comprised of three elements utilizing the same good antenna performance, the authors used a closed loop
feedline. Moreover, the proposed antenna has a high trans- travelling wave as a radiating element which was fed by
parency of about 70% and hence it can be laid on the top a hybrid coupler that has two ports; see Fig. 19 (a). The
of solar cells. The total size of the proposed meshed patch antenna is fed via ports 1 and 2 by same magnitude but
antenna is 100mm × 100mm and the side lengths of its three difference phase. For example, when feeding the antennas via
elements are 30, 30.2 and 30.4mm, respectively. The pro- ports 1 and 2 with same magnitude but a quadrature phase
posed antenna with three meshed patch elements provides a difference of −90◦ , RHCP is obtained while the LHCP is
measured −10 dB bandwidth of about 2.67% (2.413 – 2.478), obtained by feeding those two ports with phased difference
reflection coefficient of −16 dB and total gain of 7.2 dBi of +90◦ . The antenna has a simulated reflection coefficient of
at 2.43 GHz. −27 dB at 2.43 GHz with bandwidth of 16.05% and measured

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FIGURE 18. Geometry of Proposed antenna: (a) single antenna element,

(b) side view, (c) 2 × 2 subarrays with feeding network [23].

FIGURE 20. Proposed patch antenna design, (a) Antenna’s layers,

(b)Coupling slot and (c) Antenna mounted on 3U CubeSat’s body [25].

covered with the conductive tape, respectively. The authors

reported a measured reflection coefficient of −24 dB at
2.12 GHz and −22 dB at 2.48 GHz with a wide bandwidth
of 32.6% ranging from 1.80 GHz to 2.60 GHz. The proposed
FIGURE 19. Proposed antenna, (a) fabricated and (b) mounted on antenna achieved a measured gain of 9 dBi at 2.45 GHz.
3U CubeSat during measurements [24]. In [26], Ygnacio-Espinoza et al. proposed a quasi-
transparent meshed and circularly polarized patch antenna for
reflection coefficient of −23.5 at 2.52 GHz with a measured S-band CubeSat applications. The proposed antenna operates
bandwidth of 11.11%. The simulated and measured gains at at 2.25 GHz (S-band) and has a total size of 100mm ×
2.45 GHz are 7 and 5.2 dBi respectively. 100mm, see Fig. 21 (a). The key idea is to integrate the
Fig. 20 shows a wideband low profile stacked-patch proposed patch antenna into the solar cells using the cover
antenna for 3U CubeSat communication design that was glass and solar cell as a substrate; see Fig 21 (b). More-
designed and presented by Veljovic and Skrivervik [25]. The over, to increase the bandwidth and enhance the antenna
proposed antenna operates in the S-band (2-2.45 GHz), has a performance, the authors used the metamaterial with Reac-
total size of 100mm × 100mm and uses an aperture-coupled tive Impedance Surface (RIS) as the ground plane for the
stripline feed structure technique, see Fig. 20. To enhance the proposed circular patch antenna. The authors reported a
performance of the proposed antenna, the authors enclosed simulated reflection coefficient of −18.5 dB with −10 dB
the asymmetric-stripline feeding network with metallic walls. bandwidth of 11.11% (2.20-2.45 GHz) and a 3D total gain
This is important as the obtained cavity improves the elec- of 4.87 dBi at 2.25 GHz. Compared to other S-band antenna
tric field and boosts the coupling between the radiating designs in [15], [21], [22], the proposed antenna in [26],
element (patch) and feeding structure through near elec- has wider −10 dB bandwidth. However, it has lower gain
tromagnetic field. Hence, the antenna’s gain increases as compared to the mentioned studies.
the back lobe is redirected forward improving its radia- In [27], Ta et al, presents a high gain X-band patch
tion performance. Fig 20 (b) shows the layers of the pro- array antenna for small satellites including CubeSats to
posed antenna including the use of Wilkinson power dividers achieve high aperture efficiency and low side lobe CP.
and phase-delay lines for the feeding network which pre- As shown in Fig. 22, the proposed antenna has a total size of
vents the signal reflection and enhance the cross-polarization. 100mm × 100mm and operates in 7.52 – 8.82 GHz band.
Fig. 20 (a) and (c) shows the proposed antenna mounted Its 4 × 4 patch array consists of 16 CP stacked patch ele-
on the 3U CubeSat mock-up and the crossed coupling slot ments. This is important as it leads to high aperture efficiency.

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FIGURE 21. Proposed patch antenna, (a) geometry, and

(b) Cross-sectional view of antenna integrated with solar cells [26].

FIGURE 23. The proposed fractal antenna (a), (b geometry and

(b) deployed on CubeSat [28].

B. SLOT ANTENNAS
Slot antennas usually consist of metal flat surfaces (plates)
FIGURE 22. Fabricated proposed array antenna [27]. with one or more holes (slots) and operate in frequencies
ranging from 0.3 to 25 GHz. Proposed slot antenna designs
The other approach the author used to achieve low side for CubeSats are very limited because they provide linear
lobe levels is to feed the antenna via unequal 1-16 series polarization and have low directivity which results in weak
parallel power dividers. Moreover, each driven patch ele- signal strength and low gain. To address the aforementioned
ment of the 16 patch elements, has a slot and two trun- limitations, different approaches and techniques were pro-
cated corners to achieve CP radiation, see Fig. 22. The posed and used; see Table 4. Amongst all these slot antenna
proposed antenna achieved a measured reflection coefficient designs, i.e., those in [34]–[38], the antenna design of [36],
of −15 and −12 dB at 7.7 and 8.6 GHz respectively. It pro- has the highest gain of 9.71 dBi and widest −10 dB band-
vides a measured −10 dB bandwidth of 15.85%, high gain of width, i.e., 30.2%. However, its main limitation is its large
about 20.03 dBi, low sidelobe level of −20 dB and an aperture size. On other hand, the CPW-fed slot antenna presented
efficiency of 86.5%. in [37], has the smallest size as compared to all other slot
The main limitation of existing planar antenna designs that antenna designs listed in Table 4. This is important as it
operate in S-band frequency, i.e., 2-4 GHz, is their large provides more space for solar cells integration, e.g., more
size [33]. To reduce the planar antenna size without affecting power can be generated on board the CubeSat.
the operating frequency, the authors of [28] introduced a The authors in [34], proposed the design of a CP
deployable microstrip patch antenna with the fractal structure slot antenna array for crosslink CubeSat communications.
for 1U CubeSat. As shown in Fig. 23 (a), the key idea is the Fig. 24 (a) shows a single slot antenna array element which
use of Koch snowflake fractal structure which leads to minia- consists of four slots with a total size of 70.5mm × 23.5mm
turization of the antenna’s size while at the same time yielding and operates in C-band. They used a Substrate Integrated
high gain and small reflection coefficient, large bandwidth Waveguide with four slots on the top copper layer to achieve
and good impedance matching. The authors proposed a sim- low loss and good radiation performance. The main idea is
ple deployment of the fractal antenna; see Fig. 23 (b). The to place two SIW slot antenna array elements behind the
proposed antenna has a small reflection coefficient of −28 dB CubeSat’s wall on each CubeSat’s face leaving sufficient area
at 2.3 GHz and a wide bandwidth of 28.7%. It also provides a to mount solar cells or other components; see Fig. 24 (b). The
small gain of 4.39 dBi at 2.3 GHz. The main advantage of the CP is achieved by using a quadrature hybrid coupler in the
proposed antenna is its small size, i.e., 60 mm × 26.3 mm × feeding network providing equal magnitude of power through
0.02mm. Its main limitation, however, is its omnidirectional ports and 90◦ phase difference between the slot array ele-
pattern that results in low gain. ments. Moreover, a control switch circuit is also used to steer

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FIGURE 24. Slot antenna array: (a) geometry of individual array element
and (b) slot array elements on four CubeSat’s surfaces [34]. FIGURE 25. Slot antenna for 1.5U CubeSat: (a) with Solar Panels and
(b) feeding network [35].

the beam into different directions. This is important as it saves

power scanning the beam in the desired direction allowing
for a reliable link even when re-orienting the CubeSat. The
authors reported simulated and measured gains of 5.08 dBi
and 4.98 dBi at 5GHz, respectively. The proposed antenna
has a measured reflection coefficient of −17 dB at 5.03 GHz
with a measured narrow bandwidth of 1.99%. The proposed
antenna provides beam steerability. Compared to the designs
in [36], [37], the antenna design presented in [34], has larger
antenna size and smaller gain.
In [35], Tarig and Baktur proposed a cavity backed slot FIGURE 26. Proposed fabricated CPW-fed slot antenna with MSS:
antenna design for uplink at 485 MHz (UHF) and downlink (a) geometry, and (b) on a 3U CubeSat model [36].
at 500 MHz (UHF) CubeSat communications. As shown
in Fig. 25 (a), a loop meander-line slot is wrapped and of MSS in [36], provides higher gain and does not affect the
mounted all around the four faces of a 1.5U CubeSat and mechanical structure of CubeSat as it is placed above the
between solar cells. Then every two adjacent parts of the CubeSat’s surface. In terms of size and reflection coefficient,
loop are fed with a phase difference of 90◦ to obtain CP; see the design of [37], has smaller size and reflection coefficient
Fig. 25 (b). This is important as it ensures that the com- as compared to the design presented in [36].
munication link is established regardless of CubeSat’s ori- The cavity approach is an important technique to increase
entation. The frequency of the proposed slot antenna can the antenna’s total gain by suppressing the unwanted back
be tuned for uplink or downlink communication by adjust- lobe radiation redirecting it boresight direction. In [37],
ing the length of the meander portions. The proposed slot Tubbal et al. presented a CPW-fed high gain slot antenna
antenna design achieved a total gain of 4 dBi at UHF band design that operates at 2.45 GHz for 2U CubeSat commu-
(485 and 500 MHz), reflection coefficient of about −28 and nication. As shown in Fig. 27 (b), the authors proposed the
−29 dB for uplink and downlink, respectively. However, its use of part of the CubeSat face, i.e., (100mm × 200mm) at
main limitation is its low gain. the back of the antenna as a cavity to redirect the back-lobe
In [36], Tubbal et al. has presented another S-band radiation pattern forward and hence increase the antenna
CPW-fed slot antenna design for 3U CubeSat. The key idea total gain. This is significant as it provides long distance
is to design and use Metasurface Substrate Structure (MSS) communication, higher data rate and reduces the interference
above the radiating slot to redirect the back-lobe radiation pat- with the electronics inside the CubeSat. The authors also used
tern forward; see Fig. 26. This is important as it significantly the lightening shape feedline with 45◦ phase angles between
increases the total gain in the boresight direction (z-direction) the horizontal and slanted (S) feed sections to achieve circular
and reduces the interference with the components inside the polarization; see Fig. 27 (a). The proposed antenna has a
3U CubeSat. The antenna has a total physical size of 90mm × total size of 36mm × 36mm which occupies only 12.96%
90mm × 10.5mm. The proposed antenna provides simulated of one face of 1U CubeSat. The authors reported a small
and measured gains of 9.71 and 8.8 dBi respectively. It also reflection coefficient of −30 dB with bandwidth of 4.45%
has a small reflection coefficient of −21 dB with a wide and a gain of 8.62 dBi (unidirectional pattern) at 2.45 GHz.
bandwidth of 30.20% at an operating frequency of 2.45 GHz. However, the main limitation of the proposed antenna design
Its main limitation, however, is its large profile with a height is that shifting down part of the CubeSat’s body to form
of about 10.5mm. This can be an issue during the vibra- cavity can significantly affect the mechanical structure of
tion and the deployment stage. Compared to [37], which the CubeSat and reduce the available surface area for the
uses part of the CubeSat’s body as cavity reflector, the use electronic components inside the CubeSat. Another limitation

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TABLE 5. Proposed dipole, monopole and Yagi-Uda antenna designs for CubeSats.

FIGURE 27. Slot antenna: (a) configuration of slot antenna, and

(b) on a 2U CubeSat [37].

is the possibility of losing communication with ground station

during the maneuvering of the CubeSat as only one antenna
on one face is present.
The authors of [38], presented a low profile cavity backed
crossed slot antenna for communication between CubeSats FIGURE 28. Cavity backed crossed slot antenna [38].
and ground stations as well as intersatellite links. The key idea
is to use the cavity backed tapered crossed slot with a com- possibility of losing communication link with the ground
bined probe feed; see Fig. 28. This is important as it enhances station and other CubeSats during the reorientation of the
the impedance bandwidth. Moreover, orthogonal crossed CubeSat. This is because the antenna designs are proposed
slots with slightly different lengths and 45◦ phase shift in to be placed on only on face of CubeSat and their beam are
the x and y axis are used to achieve CP and hence enhance not steerable.
signal reception. This is important as it helps in establish-
ing cross link communication between CubeSats, especially III. DIPOLE AND MONOPOLE ANTENNAS
during maneuvering. The proposed antenna has a low reflec- Dipole and Monopole antennas are the simplest and well
tion coefficient of −34 dB (measured) and −38 dB (simu- understood designs. In this section, the performance of
lated) and provides a total measured RHCP gain of 5.8 dBi four dipole and monopole antenna designs, i.e., those
at an operating frequency of 2.44 GHz. It also achieved in [39]–[42], for CubeSats are reviewed in terms of their
a −10-dB bandwidth of 2.05% (2412 – 2462 MHz). The pro- total gains, size, bandwidth, reflection coefficient and deploy-
posed crossed slot antenna design has a small physical size, ment mechanism. As set out in Table 5, these dipole antenna
i.e., 38mm × 38mm. however, its main limitation is its narrow designs operate at the Very High Frequency band (VHF) and
bandwidth. In terms of gain, the designs in [36], [37] provide S-band. They achieve gains ranging from 2.06 to 5.03 dBi.
higher gain than the proposed antenna design in [38]. The The printed S-band dipole antennas of [40], [41], have high
main limitations of all designs reported in [36]–[38], is the gain, wide bandwidth and smaller reflection coefficient as

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compared to deployable dipole antenna designs in [39], [42].

Moreover, the monopole design in [42] achieves the small-
est reflection coefficient of −35 and −42 dB at 144 and
435 MHz respectively; however, its bandwidth is very narrow,
i.e., 4.86% for VHF and 5.98% for UHF.
The use of more than one antenna for different functions on
the CubeSat such as telemetry and telecommands, occupies
more space and increases the interferences between the anten-
nas and the electronic components [43]. To reduce the number
of antennas used for the CubeSat, the authors of [39], pro-
posed a dual band single monopole antenna that operates at
146 MHz (VHF) and 438 MHz (UHF) to transmit and receive
data simultaneously. The main idea is to use a diplexer for the
transmission and reception of data with a single antenna. As a
result, the antenna can be used for both uplink and down-
link communication. This is important as it provides more
space on CubeSat for solar cells and reduces the interference FIGURE 30. Dual band VHF/UHF monopole antenna [39].
between the antennas and the electronics inside the CubeSat.
Fig. 29 shows the proposed diplexer which consists of three
ports: transmission port (on the left), reception port (on the
right) and antenna port (in the middle). Fig. 30 shows the
proposed monopole antenna which consists of a strip that
holds it to the CubeSat’s surface. The authors reported a total
gain of 2.06 dBi at the receive frequency of 146 MHz (VHF)
and 3.35 dBi at transmit frequency of 438 MHz (UHF).
They reported reflection coefficients of −18.5 and −21 dB
at 146 MHz and 438 MHz, respectively. The main limitation
of the proposed deployable monopole antenna is the risk of
mechanical failure in the deployment system which might
lead to loss of communication with the ground station and
hence mission failure. Another limitation is the reported low
FIGURE 31. Proposed printed dipole antenna array [40].
gains of 2.06 and 3.35 dBi for uplink (VHF) and down-
link (UHF) respectively. This only enables short distance
communication and low data rate communication. bandwidth while relaxing the requirements of a deployment
mechanism.
The main advantage of the proposed antenna design is its
capability of steering the beam electronically which allows
for a flexible and reliable communication link. The 3 × 1
dipole antenna array is implemented on 80mm × 80mm
ground plane. Each dipole has a length of 62.5mm and a width
of 1mm and is parallel with the other dipoles. The antenna
achieved a total gain of 5.03 dBi, and a small reflection
coefficient of −27.35 dB at 2.45 GHz with a bandwidth, i.e.,
4.8%. However, its main limitation is its large size which
covers a large area on CubeSat, i.e., 80mm × 80mm on each
CubeSat’s face. Compared to the designs in [39], [42], the one
in [40] does not require a deployment mechanism and has the
ability to steer the beam.
FIGURE 29. Proposed diplexer [39]. In [41], the authors presented a square-shaped printed
dipole antenna for 1U CubeSat. As shown in Fig. 32, the pro-
Dipole antennas can also be implemented as printed posed antenna consists of four dipoles which are integrated
elements placed on the surface of the CubeSat. In [40], with a phase delay line. To make the antenna operates in
Liu et al. proposed a cluster of three 3 × 1 printed dipole a balanced power mode, a balun is added underneath each
antenna array for use on 1U CubeSats; see Fig. 31. The main dipole. The proposed structure leads to a CP which allows a
idea is to implement each 3 × 1 subarray on a different link to be established when re-orienting the CubeSat in space.
CubeSat’s surface. This enhances the gain, directivity and Moreover, the proposed printed dipole antenna has a total size

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FIGURE 33. Proposed LC-Loaded antenna designs for 1U CubeSat:

(a) dipole and (b) monopole [42].

IV. REFLECTOR BASED ANTENNAS

Reflector antennas have a large profile and can provide gains
FIGURE 32. Compact square-shaped CP dipole antenna [41]. higher than 30 dBi at operating frequency ranging from
0.3 to 300 GHz [44]. Recently, reflector antennas have
of 55mm × 55mm and achieved a bidirectional radiation. received considerable attention for higher orbits and deep
The antenna has a wide bandwidth, i.e., 33.46% and small space CubeSat applications at orbits above LEO and in deep
reflection coefficient, i.e., −27.5 dB at 2.45 GHz. Moreover, space due to their superior gains which can provide long dis-
the proposed printed dipole antenna design provides a total tance communications. The main challenge is the large size
gain of 3.49 dBi at 2.45 GHz. The main advantage of the of the reflector antennas making them hard to be integrated
proposed design is its small size and wide bandwidth. In terms on the limited CubeSat volume. To address this challenge,
of bandwidth, the proposed antenna in [41], has achieved all the reflector-based antenna designs require a deploy-
wider bandwidth as compared to the dipole antenna designs ment mechanism. As shown in Table 6, six reflector-based
presented in [39], [40], [42]. its main limitation, however, antenna designs have been proposed for CubeSat, i.e., those
is its low gain. in [45]–[50]. These reflector antenna designs achieve
Another dual band antenna design that used the diplexer very high gains ranging from 28 to 48.7 dBi operat-
approach using only one antenna as a transmitter and receiver ing from X-band to W-band. However, their main limi-
is proposed. In [42]. Schraml et al. proposed a deploy- tation is their large sizes, which occupies large area on
able dual band dipole and monopole antennas operating the CubeSat. Another limitation is the complexity of their
in VHF (144 MHz) and UHF (435 MHz) bands using. deployment mechanism. Moreover, compared to the designs
A dual-band antenna is used for both uplink and down- in [46]–[48], [50], the design of [49] achieved the highest gain
link, thus, provides more space on the CubeSat as com- of 48.7 dBi at Ka-band (34.2-34.7 GHz).
pared to using two antennas. The authors load the proposed The main limitation of existing antenna designs such as
antennas with a LC circuit and used the CubeSat’s surface dipole and patch antennas that are used for LEO CubeSats is
as a ground plane (image method for monopole antenna). their low gains which makes them unsuitable for deep space
Fig. 33 (a) depicts a dual band dipole antenna with a total communications. In addition, moving from LEO to deep
length of 980mm when it is fully deployed. It achieves a space communications requires a Ka-band or X-band antenna
high reflection coefficient of about −14.5 dB at 144 MHz designs that can provide high gains of 42 and 30 dBi respec-
(VHF), −15 dB at 435 MHz (UHF). It also provides a tively. To address the aforementioned challenges, the authors
total gain of 2.59 dBi at 144 MHz (VHF) and 3.91dBi at of [45] proposed a high gain deployable reflector antenna for
435 (UHF). As shown in Fig. 33 (b), the authors have also 6U CubeSat deep space communication. The antenna is the
presented a deployable dual band monopole antenna which first reflector antenna that was proposed for deep space mis-
has a total length of 313.5mm. This monopole antenna design sions operating at Ka-band. The authors used an unfurlable
achieves a small reflection coefficient of about −35 dB at meshed reflector with 32 ribs. The proposed reflector antenna
144 MHz (VHF) and −42 dB at 435 MHz (UHF). It also consists of a feed horn, four struts, hyperbolical reflector,
achieved a total gain of 2.14 dBi at 144 MHz (VHF) and and 0.5m deployable mesh reflector. It occupies a size of
4.35 dBi at 435 (UHF). Compared to a dipole antenna, 100mm × 100mm × 150mm when it is folded. As soon as the
the monopole achieved a smaller reflection coefficient, higher CubeSat reaches the specified orbit, the 0.5m mesh reflector
gain with a reduced length. Compared to the monopole deploys. Fig. 34 shows the proposed antenna design after
antenna design presented in [39], the antenna design reported fully deployed with the meshed reflector antennas along with
in [42] has a smaller size and higher gain for uplink and the feed horn in the middle. Moreover, the proposed antenna
downlink communications. design achieved an efficient of 60% and a superior gain

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TABLE 6. Proposed reflector and reflectarray antenna designs for CubeSats.

The authors of [46], proposed and described two novel

high gain deployable reflect-array antennas for CubeSat. The
first design is the Integrated Solar Array and Reflect-array
Antenna (ISARA) which operates at 26 GHz (K/Ka-band);
see Fig. 35 (a). It consists of three 33.9cm × 8.26cm
reflect-array panels and is proposed to be used for 3U Cube-
Sat. The second design is a Telecom reflect array antenna
that operates at 8.425 GHz (X-band); see Fig. 35 (b). It has
a three 33.3cm × 19.9cm reflect arrays and is proposed
to provide a bent pipe telecommunication link between the
ground station and the 6U CubeSat. The proposed ISARA and
MarCO antenna designs provide high gains with extremely
low stowed volume in LEO and deep space. They deploy
FIGURE 34. Deployable reflector antenna on 6 CubeSat [45]. when they reach the orbit. The ISARA proposed antenna
design achieves a maximum measured gain of about 33 dBi
at 26 GHz; see Fig. 36 (a) and a bandwidth exceeds 0.38 %,
of 42.8 dBi at an operating frequency of 34 GHz (Ka-band). while the X-band (MarCO) antenna design achieves a total
This is important as it provides long distance communications gain of about 28 dBi at 8.425 GHz; see Fig. 36 (b) with a
and significantly enhances the antenna performance. Its main bandwidth that exceeds 1.19%. In terms of gain, the deploy-
limitation, however, is its complex deployment mechanism able reflector antenna design reported in [45], has higher
which increases the probability of deployment failure and gain as compared to the deployable reflect-array designs
hence failure of the whole mission. in [46].

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FIGURE 35. Proposed antenna designs: (a) ISARA and (b) X-band reflect
array [46].

In [47], Hodges et al, presented the development of

X-band deployable folded-panel reflect-array antenna for use FIGURE 36. Radiation patterns: (a) ISARA at 26 GHz and (b) MarCO at
8.425 GHz [46].
on 6U (10cm × 20cm × 34cm) CubeSat that they presented
in [46]; see Fig. 37. It has low mass and low cost Folded-
Panel Reflect-array (FPR) design that is mounted on the
6U CubeSat. The FPR is stowed by folding the three flat
panels against the side of the spacecraft occupying a small
stowage volume. As shown in Fig. 37 (a), the proposed
antenna occupies a small stowage volume when it is folded
consuming about 4% of the applicable spacecraft payload
volume. The deployable reflect-array antenna panel consists
of three 19.9cm × 33.5cm flat panels folded on one side
of 6U spacecraft. These panels are attached to each other
using spring-loaded hinges to form a signal panel stack.
Fig. 38 (a) and (b) present the reflection coefficient and radia-
tion pattern of the proposed antenna respectively. The authors
FIGURE 37. The MarCO antenna design: (a) stowed and (b) deployed [47].
reported a total gain of 29.2 dBi at 8.425 GHz, reflection
coefficient of −32 at 8.3 GHz and an efficiency of ∼42%.
The stowage volume and deployment complexity of reflec- the horn feed. This reflector antenna has a diameter of 100mm
tor antennas are the main challenges for designing such and can be placed inside 1U CubeSat. Both reflector and
antennas. To address this challenge, Mishra et al, proposed horn antennas occupy a volume of 1U CubeSat. Fig. 40,
a high gain circular polarized feed horn antenna for W-band shows the proposed feed horn and parabolic reflector anten-
CubeSat applications [48]. The main idea is to feed an offset nas integrated together inside 6U CubeSat’s model. The feed
parabolic reflector antenna using the horn antenna with elec- horn and reflector antenna achieved a measured reflection
trical dimensions of 7.2λ × 3.9λ × 1.4λ; see Fig. 39 (c). This coefficient of −24 dB at 83 GHz with a bandwidth of 9.88%.
horn antenna presents a polarizer structure which consists of Moreover, the feed horn provided a LHCP gain of about
circular cavities. This is important as it provides LHCP and 8.8 dBic at 83 GHz and 9.2 dBi at 86 GHz while the proposed
reduces the overall length as compared to conventional polar- offset parabolic antenna achieved superior measured RHCP
izers. Fig. 39. (d), shows the fabricated reflector antenna with gain of about 33.77 dBi at 83 GHz and 34.36 dBic at 86 GHz.

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FIGURE 40. Proposed offset parabolic reflector integrated with the

proposed feed horn antenna inside the 6U CubeSat Simulation
model [48].

a deployment mechanism. However, its main limitation is the

weight of the horn antenna.
In [49], Chahat et al, proposed a novel high gain one-
meter deployable mesh reflector for deep space network
telecommunication; see Fig 41. The proposed antenna
is suitable for 12U CubeSat and operates at X-band
(i.e., uplink: 7.145-7.19 GHz; downlink: 8.4-8.45 GHz)
and Ka-band (i.e., uplink: 34.2-34.7 GHz; downlink: 31.8-
FIGURE 38. Results: (a) reflection coefficient, (b) radiation patterns at 32.3 GHz). The proposed antenna allows discovering and
8.425 GHz [47].
exploring of interplanetary space. The challenging part is the
design of the deployment mechanism that deploys the mesh
reflector when it reaches deep space. Moreover, the antenna
is stowed during launch and prior to deployment, occupy-
ing a volume of 3U CubeSat. In order to achieve better
performance, the authors used a 40 opening per inch (OPI)
mesh reflector for Ka-band and a 30 OPI for the mesh grid.
As shown in Fig. 42 and 43, the feed is located on 12U Cube-
Sat’s bus and the boom deploys the 1m mesh reflector away
from the feed. The mesh reflector has an effective diameter
of 1m and focal length of 0.75m. The proposed deployable
mesh reflector antenna provides a high gain at X-band of
36.1 and 36.8 dBic for uplink and downlink frequency bands,
respectively. Moreover, at Ka-band, the antenna provides a
superior gain of 48.4 and 48.7 dBic for uplink and down-
link frequency bands, respectively. Compared to the designs
of [45]–[48], [50], the proposed deployable mesh reflector
antenna in [49], provides higher gain at Ka-band.
A large area deployable reflectarray operating at X-band
was proposed in [50]. The proposed antenna can be stowed
in a 4U CubeSat volume and presents a large aperture
of 1.5m x1.5m when deployed. The main aperture consists
of 4340 crossed dipoles etched on polymide sheet arranged in
a rectangular lattice. The lengths of the dipoles are optimized
FIGURE 39. Proposed reflector antenna, (a) front view, (b) side view, to provide the required reflection phase profile across the
(c) fabricated feed horn and (d) fabricated feed-reflector antenna
configuration [48].
aperture and collimate the beam at the desired direction.
Furthermore, the aperture is placed 5 mm above the ground
Compared to the designs in [45]–[47], the proposed antenna plane ensuring a large phase swing and increased bandwidth.
design in [48] has a smaller antenna size and does not require The main novelty of this design is the collapsible substrate

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FIGURE 44. Large area deployale reflect array [50].

FIGURE 41. Drawing model of deployable mesh reflector [49].

helix and are normally mounted on a ground plane [51].

They are widely used in many satellite applications because
they are inexpensive, easy to construct and can provide a
circularly polarized radiation. To increase their bandwidths,
gains and improve their deployment structures, many tech-
niques and approaches have been presented in [52]–[57].
Amongst all designs listed in Table 7, the design in [54] has
the highest gain. However, the use of three helical antennas
on one surface of the CubeSat occupies a large area and
hence reduces the available area for solar cells. In terms of
bandwidth, the design in [52], has the largest bandwidth as
compared to all helical antenna designs listed in Table 7.
Moreover, the UHF-band design in [53] has higher gain
FIGURE 42. Deployment of proposed 1 m mesh reflector [49].
than UHF antenna designs of [52], [56]. However, its size,
i.e., 1371.6 x 355.6 mm2 rules it out for use on 1U CubeSat.
The main limitations of existing dipole and monopole
antennas are their low gains and narrow bandwidths. On the
other hand, helical antennas can provide high gains by reduc-
ing the back-lobe radiation, which might cause an inter-
ference with the CubeSat electronics as well [58]–[60].
To reduce the back-loop level, the authors of [52] present
a deployable modified helical shaped antenna design for
3U CubeSat. The antenna achieves a unidirectional pattern
with a wide bandwidth at UHF. As shown in Fig. 45, the
FIGURE 43. Model of proposed mesh reflector antenna on 12U
CubeSat [49].

made of quartz-epoxy composite material, which provides the

gap between the ground plane and the aperture and allows the
reflectarray to be folded and unfolded, see Fig. 44. In addi-
tion, the dielectric losses are minimized since there is no
dielectric material used in the substrate. Several cycles of
RF and packaging tests were performed on the deployable
reflectarray, proving that the proposed antenna can achieve
a high gain of 39.6 dB at 8.4 GHz while maintaining its
planarity and stiffness.

V. HELICAL ANTENNAS
Helical antennas are made of conducting wires with the FIGURE 45. Modified helical shaped deployable antenna
same or different lengths which are wound in a form of a for 3U CubeSat [52].

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TABLE 7. Proposed helical antenna designs for CubeSats.

ground plane of the proposed antenna has large dimen-

sions of 120mm × 120mm after deployment in space. This
enhances the bandwidth and increases the total gain by redi-
recting the back-lobe radiation pattern forward. The proposed
CP antenna achieves a wide bandwidth, i.e., 78.18%, high
gain of 8.44 dBi and a small reflection coefficient of −20 dB
at 550 MHz.
In [53]. Ochoa et al. developed a low-profile high gain
deployable helical antenna for use on 1.5U CubeSat. The
developed antenna operates in UHF band and can be stowed
to occupy a total volume of 50mm × 100mm × 100mm (0.5U FIGURE 46. Helical antenna: (a) folded and (b) fully deployed [53].

CubeSat); see Fig. 46 (a). This is achieved by folding and

taping the flexible structure of the helical antenna together. Moreover, the use of three antennas increases the power con-
Fig. 46 (b) shows the proposed helical antenna after full sumption, complexity, and interference between antennas.
deployment with a total large size of 1371.6mm × 355.6mm. In terms of total gain, the helical antenna design in [54] has
Compared to the helical antenna design presented in [52], higher gain than those design presented in [52], [53] but at
the one reported in [53] has higher gain of 13dBi at 400 MHz higher frequency range, i.e., 6 – 40 GHz.
(UHF). However, its main limitation is the large size of the Quadrifilar helix antennas have gained attention recently
proposed antenna which adds an extra weight to CubeSat. as a suitable design for satellite communication [61], [62].
The authors of [54] presented an antenna system which This is because they are cheap, simple, and have a good
consists of three high gain quasi-tapered helical antennas radiation performance. One of the uses of the quadrifilar
for 6U CubeSat to monitor Radio Frequency (RF) emission helical antenna designs is on Global Position Systems (GPS)
from earth. These antenna designs are conical helix; see applications [63], [64]. They provide circular polarization
Fig. 47 (a), uniform helix; see Fig. 47 (b) and quasi taper and high gains at a single operating frequency. In [55],
helix; see Fig. 47 (c) which operate at frequency bands Costantine et al. proposed a deployable quadrifilar helix
of 6-11 GHz, 11-22 GHz and 21-40 GHz respectively. The antenna for CubeSat. To achieve a circular polarization
proposed antenna system is mounted on one side of a 6U and increase the bandwidth, they used four twisted arms
CubeSat and occupies a surface area of 80mm × 20mm when with the same diameter of 7.12 mm and different lengths,
they are folded. Each helical antenna design has a height i.e., arm 1 (440mm), arm 2 (392.5mm), arm 3 (350mm)
of 250mm and a ground plane size of 50mm × 50mm. The and arm 4 (390mm), to form a helical shape; see Fig. 48.
proposed antenna system provides high gains ranging from These four orthogonal helices are rotated 90◦ with respect
12 dBi at 6 GHz to 20 dBi at 40 GHz. However, their main to each other and are deployed over a 300mm × 300mm
limitation is that they occupy large space on the CubeSat. rectangular ground plane. The proposed multi-band antenna

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Another UHF deployable quadrifilar helical antenna

design for a 6U CubeSat is presented in [56]. As shown
in Fig. 49, the proposed antenna consists of four conduc-
tive beryllium arms with the same length and rotated 90◦
with respect to each other. This is important as it leads to
a circular polarization which is an important feature as it
helps establishing communication links between satellites
and ground station regardless of the antenna orientation.
Moreover, the authors proposed an effective structure that
leads to an efficient packaging and deployment mechanism.
This reduces the probability of deployment failure. The
proposed antenna has a height of 500mm with a diameter
of 115.2mm and when it is folded it can fit inside a 2U
CubeSat (100mm × 100mm × 200mm). The authors reported
a bandwidth of 7.12% ranging from 352 to 378 MHz, with
a reflection coefficient of about −27 dB and a total gain
FIGURE 47. A High gain antenna for CubeSat (a) Conical Helix (b) Uniform
Helix (c) Quasi Taper [54].
of 8.38 dBi at operating frequency of 365 MHz (UHF).
The proposed antenna achieved high gain, small reflection
coefficient, small size and wide bandwidth as compared to
the quadrifilar helix presented in [55]. However, its main
limitation is the resulting narrow bandwidth of 7.12%.

FIGURE 49. Proposed deployable helix antenna. (a) fully folded and
(b) fully deployed [56].

The main limitations of existing Monofilar Square Spiral

Antennas (MSSA) antennas is their large size and hence
they cannot be used for CubeSat [57]. To address the afore-
mentioned limitations, the authors in [57] proposed a low
FIGURE 48. Proposed deployable Quadrifilar antenna for CubeSat [55]. profile and wide bandwidth printed Monofilar Square Spiral
Antenna for micro and CubeSat satellites; see Fig. 50. The
key idea is to use a simple and low-cost square cavity which
operates in the UHF band with frequencies ranging from leads to a significant increase of the antenna total gain by
270 to 450 MHz. It achieved gains of 3.56 dBi at 270 MHz, redirecting the back-lobe radiation forward. It also leads to
4.7 dBi at 350 MHz, 5.64 dBi at 400 MHz and 5.41 dBi at a significant reduction of the total size, i.e., 15mm × 15mm
450 MHz. The smallest achieved reflection coefficient was with a square cavity’s size of 18mm × 18mm × 14mm, which
−19 dB with bandwidth of 6.15% at an operating frequency in turns provides more space for solar cells. To address the
of 270 MHz. The maximum −10 dB bandwidth was 6% issue of high impedance matching, e.g., >50 , the authors
at 350 MHz and 4.67% 450 MHz. The main limitations of offset the feeding position of the probe and added a short
the proposed antenna are its narrow bandwidth (i.e., 6.15%) stub for matching. This leads to a 50  input impedance
and large ground plane which makes the proposed antenna matching and an enhancement in the impedance bandwidth.
unsuitable for 1U and 2U CubeSat. Compared to the designs The results show that the proposed MSSA antenna with cavity
in [53], [54], the one reported in [55] has much smaller size. achieves a high gain of 8.5 dB at 12.2 GHz (Ku-band).

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TABLE 8. Proposed other antenna designs for CubeSats.

on CubeSat. As shown in Table 8, these antenna designs

include inflatable reflector [65], horn antenna [66], millime-
ter and sub-millimeter wave antennas [67]–[69], Yagi-Uda
antennas [70], [71], meanderline antenna [72], and metasur-
face antennas [73], [74].

A. INFLATABLE REFLECTOR ANTENNAS

Existing dipole and monopole antennas that are proposed
for CubeSat communication in LEO have a maximum gain
of about 6 dBi and operate in frequencies ranging from
VHF to S-band. These antennas are cheap and easy to build;
however, they are not suitable for deep space applications
which require high gain, i.e, >24 dBi and high date rate
to provide a communication link with the ground stations.
To address this limitation, the authors of [65] propose the use
of an inflatable reflector with a patch antenna. The authors
claim that they presented the first developed high gain inflat-
FIGURE 50. A wideband printed monofilar square sprilal antenna for able antenna design for deep space CubeSat communication.
microsatellites and CubeSats [57].
This is important as using CubeSats to explore deep space
and carry out scientific experiments might be cost effective.
MSSA also provides measured reflection coefficients of As shown in Fig. 51 (a) and (b), the proposed antenna is made
−27 dB at 13 GHz and −24 dB at 14 GHz with −10-dB of an inflatable reflector (conical or cylindrical shape) of 1m
bandwidth of 15.57%. in diameter which proposed to be attached at the back of a 3U
CubeSat. This reflector occupies a small space on the Cube-
VI. OTHER ANTENNAS Sat when it is folded and provides a large reflector dish when
Different techniques and approaches have been applied to it is deployed at space and hence achieves a superior gain of
different antenna types to enhance their performance for use about 25 dBi. A patch antenna of a 90mm × 90mm is used

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FIGURE 51. Model of the proposed inflatable antenna with dielectric

structure modelled in (a) conical shape and (b) cylindrical shape [65].

FIGURE 52. The proposed deployable Vivaldi-fed conical horn

to feed the parabolic reflective surface. The proposed antenna antenna [66].
provides a maximum gain of 25 dBi. This high gain enables
CubeSats to establish long distance communications links as sensing CubeSat application employing millimeter-wave
required by deep space missions, transmit data at a higher horn antennas as its sensing instrument [67]. More specifi-
rate and from a further distance. However, its main limitation cally, five horn antennas were used to realize a space-based
is the large volume of the reflector after deployment which millimeter-wave calibration measurement to be used in cos-
add weight to the CubeSat. mic microwave background polarization experiments as seen
in Fig. 53. Each conical horn antenna is fed by a rectangular
B. HORN ANTENNAS single-moded waveguide as well as a Gunn diode and a pas-
Horn antennas with pointing mechanisms have been used by sive multiplier, resulting in 47.1, 80, 140, 249 and 309 GHz
micro and large satellites for communication with ground coherent linearly polarized beams, respectively. The gain of
station because of their unidirectional pattern and superior each horn was approximately 20 dBi with low cross polariza-
gains [75], [76]. However, the limited area on CubeSats make tion levels of −60 dB when a wire-grid polarizer was installed
it difficult to use such an antenna for CubeSat communication at the aperture.
with the ground station.
In [66], Gupta et al. proposed a high gain and deployable
Vivaldi-fed Conical horn antenna that operates in frequency
ranging from 2 to 13 GHz with a wide −15 dB bandwidth
of 11.11% for use on a 6U CubeSat (10cm × 20cm ×
34cm). The proposed antenna is made up of very light and
stiff material that makes the antenna able to fold and deploy
autonomously. This is important as it addresses the weight
and size limitations on CubeSat. To achieve a wide impedance
matching and a circular polarization, the antenna structure
includes two Vivaldi shaped fins orthogonal to each other; see
Fig. 52. The proposed antenna achieved a high gain ranging
from 10 dBi to 17.5 dBi over a frequency band ranging from
2 GHz to 13 GHz. It provides a gain of 12 dBi at 6 GHz,
and 17.5 dBi at 9 GHz. The proposed antenna achieved an FIGURE 53. CalSat subsystems including antenna subsystem [67].
ultra-wide −10 dB bandwidth of 11.11% ranging from 2 to
13 GHz with a small reflection coefficient of −37 dB at Another example of a remote sensing CubeSat mission
6 GHz and −23 dB at 10 GHz. The main advantage of the is the Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Sys-
proposed antenna is its ultra-wide bandwidth and high gain, tems also known as TEMPEST [68]. TEMPEST comprises
which the possibility of high data rate and long-distance com- of a CubeSat constellation of 5 CubeSats each equipped
munications. Compared to the inflatable reflector antenna with a five-frequency mm-wave radiometer operating at
design in [65], the conical horn antenna design presented 91,165,176,180 and 183 GHz able to provide an 825km wide
in [66] has wider bandwidth, smaller reflection coefficient swath from 400km altitude. The goal of TEMPEST was to
and antenna size but lower total gain. study the time evolution of clouds and identify the conditions
for transition to precipitation. Therefore, the CubeSats in
C. MILLIMETER AND SUB-MILLIMETER WAVE ANTENNAS the constellation are placed 5-10 mins apart to provide a
Millimeter and sub-Millimeter Wave antennas have been temporal information of 5 successive measurements at five-
used on CubeSats for remote sensing applications as indi- minutes intervals. As shown in Fig. 54, the radiometer fits
cated by [67]–[69]. CalSat is an implementation of a remote in a 3U CubeSat volume and uses a scanning reflector and a

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include six linear elements of Yagi-Uda antenna with a

deployable solar system; see Fig. 56. This system is called
extendable Solar Array System (XSAS) and it can be stowed
into a volume of 100mm × 10mm × 150mm (1.5U). When
the antenna is completely deployed, it will approximately
extend to 1.2m providing a high gain of 11.8 dBi at 435 MHz.
The proposed XSAS achieved a bandwidth of 12.18% and
small reflection coefficient of −19 dB at 435 MHz. However,
its main limitation is the large antenna size that results in
a non-negligible effect on the limited area on CubeSat for
payload and solar panel installation.

FIGURE 54. The TEMPEST millimeter-wave radiometer instrument on 3U

CubeSat scans at 30 rpm [68].

dual frequency feedhorn which is connected to two receivers

operating at 91 and 165-183GHz, respectively.
The design of [69] is IceCube which was proposed for
remote sensing mission. IceCube is a sub-millimeter wave
FIGURE 56. Proposed extendable Yagi-Uda antenna for CubeSat [70].
radiometer operating at 883GHz and its mission was to detect
ice content in clouds. It was the first time that this frequency
was used in LEO generating the first ever global ice map. Another Yagi-Uda antenna design is proposed in [71] for
As shown in Fig. 55, the payload instrument fits in a 3U use on 3U CubeSat. The proposed antenna is simple and
CubeSat and it comprises of a 2 cm offset parabolic reflector is printed on board to avert deployment mechanism. The
which is able to cover a 10km 3-dB footprint and a feed horn authors used the surface of a CubeSat as a reflector to redirect
operating at 862-886GHz. the back-lobe pattern forward to increase the total gain. The
back lobe is reduced because of the large 3U CubeSat’s sur-
face and hence a unidirectional pattern is achieved. As shown
in Fig. 57, the printed Yagi-Uda antenna has a total size
of 150mm × 100mm and is mounted on a 3U CubeSat. The
proposed antenna achieved a good impedance matching with
a small reflection coefficient of - 26.47 dB at the desired
frequency of 2.47 GHz, and a −10dB impedance bandwidth
of 5.42%. It also provides a total gain of 6.41dB at 2.47 GHz.
Its main limitation is that it occupies a large surface area on
the CubeSat. Compared to the designs proposed in [65], [66],
the printed Yagi-Uda antenna design in [71] has smaller size
and its structure is less complex as it does not require a
deployment mechanism.

E. MEANDER LINE ANTENNAS

The authors of [72] presented a low profile deployable UHF
meanderline antenna for CubeSat. To address the limitation
FIGURE 55. IceCube miniature radiometer [69]. of large size antennas at low operating frequencies, i.e., UHF,
the authors used meandering and miniaturization techniques
D. YAGI-UDA ANTENNAS to reduce the antenna’s size and increase its bandwidth. This
The main limitation of many existing antenna designs that is important as it leads to miniaturization without affecting
are used for CubeSats and operate at low frequency (UHF the antenna’s radiation performance. Fig. 58 (a) and (b) show
band) such as dipole antennas is their small gains. To address the proposed flexible meanderline antenna design in flat and
the aforementioned limitation, the authors of [70], designed bent configuration, respectively. The proposed antenna oper-
a Yagi-Uda antenna that provides a superior gain at 435 MHz ates at 437 MHz and has a deployment mechanism based
(UHF) for CubeSat communication. The main idea is to on flexible Nylon material. The antenna design achieved a

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FIGURE 57. Proposed printed Yagi-Uda antenna array for CubeSat [71].

FIGURE 59. Fabricated MTS antenna, (a) front view of Block 1 with MTS
element and the circular waveguide feeder, (b) back view of block 1 with
the waveguide divider and the matching sections, (c) zoom to central
region of (a), and (d) front view of block 2 with RW input [73].

MTS antenna was manufactured from aluminium using metal

additive manufacturing process and CNC milling. The MTS
was able to generate a RHCP pencil beam in the frequency
range of 30.8-32.3GHz (Ka-band) with a maximum gain
of 24.4 dB at 31.5GHz. The metallic structure of the MTS
FIGURE 58. Deployable flexible meanderline antenna. (a) flat
antenna ensures no dielectric losses or electrostatic discharge
configuration (b) bent configuration [72]. issues. Its high gain performance and low profile highlights
its feasibility for space and deep-space CubeSat applications.
bandwidth of 5% and reflection coefficient of −22 dB at Along similar lines, a Si/GaAs holographic metasurface
437 MHz (UHF) while in a flat configuration, it provides a antenna for CubeSat applications was proposed in [74]. The
smaller bandwidth of about 3.66% and a high reflection coef- antenna, as shown in Fig. 60, operates at 94 GHz and can
ficient of −14.12 dB. Moreover, for the bent configuration, generate 3 different beams in azimuth with 45◦ spacing using
the antenna provides a total gain of 4.1 dBi while in the flat the same aperture. The operating principle of the antenna is
it achieves 3.88 dBi. The main limitation of this proposed
antenna designs is its narrow bandwidth.

F. METASURFACE ANTENNAS
Recently, the concept of metasurface (MTS) antennas
have been considered for CubeSat applications [73], [74].
MTS antennas have been considered for CubeSat applica-
tions [73], [74]. MTS antennas provide low profile and low
mass characteristics which can be beneficial for CubeSat
applications. A metal-only modulated metasurface is reported
by the authors of [73]. The main benefit of the MTS antenna
from a CubeSat point of view is that the radiation aperture as
well as the feed are co-located in the same plane. The radi-
ating aperture consists of elliptical cylinders with different
orientations, heights and ratios arranged in a square subwave-
length lattice; see Fig. 59 (a) and (c). The feed is a circular
waveguide that launces a TM surface wave which interacts
with the periodically modulated surface reactance, thus giv-
ing rise to leaky wave radiation. The MTS antenna is able
FIGURE 60. Proposed Si/GaAs Holographic metasurface antenna,
to control both the aperture field as well as the polarization (a) silicon wafer in the middle of through-etch, (b) the etched
due to the space-dependent anisotropic reactance obtained by metasurface layer onto substrate and (c) fabricated Si/GaAs metasurface
the elliptical geometry of the unit cells. A prototype of the antenna placed on a supporting structure [74].

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based on the holographic approach where the reference-wave TABLE 9. Antenna design challenges for CubeSats.
is represented by a guided mode generated by a quasi-optical
pillbox beamformer. This reference wave excites the meta-
surface layer consisting of subwavelength slot-shaped unit
cells to achieve an objective function which is the aperture
field of interest. The pillbox structure consists of 4 layers
with two substrate layers of Si and GaAs and 2 conductive
layers. On top of the pillbox, a metasurface layer is placed
giving a total antenna thickness of 525 microns. Furthermore,
a parabolic reflector is embedded in the pillbox, coupling
the Si and GaAs layers. The proposed antenna is fed by a
three CPW ports where each port excites a SIW H-plane horn
via a CPW to SIW waveguide transition located in the Si
layer. The pillbox coupler is responsible for transforming the
cylindrical waves by the SIW horns to plane waves having
the desired phase gradient. Following that, a guided mode on
the GaAs layer (located on top of the Si layer) will couple to
the slots of the metasurface layer, hence radiating into free
space. The antenna was fabricated in JPL utilizing a vari- limitation of the cavity approach, however, is the increased
ant of a semiconductor micromachining process. The main total antenna profile and weight as a consequence of the
challenge faced during fabrication was the vertical parabolic used cavity. The authors of [23], [25], [35]–[38], [57] used
reflector rim used as coupling between the two substrate different types of cavity approaches that include fabry-perot
layers. The antenna operates from 93 GHz to 95 GHz with cavity, metallic walls, cavity slot (meander lines), resonant
good isolation between the ports and frequency dependent cavity and cavity reflector. They reported gains ranging from
radiation direction. Three different beams were generated by 4-15 dBi and bandwidths ranging from 2.05-40% at different
switching between the three feeding ports with a maximum operating frequencies, i.e., UHF-band, S-band, X-band and
directivity of 31.9 dBi reported at 94 GHz. Finally, the pro- Ku-band.
posed metasurface antenna can be used as an electrically large
high gain flat metasurface antenna architecture which can be 2) SUBSTRATE INTEGRATED WAVEGUIDE (SIW)
scaled to other frequencies for a variety of applications. This approach was firstly introduced by the authors of [77]
and [78] in 2005 and 2007; respectively. SIW is a waveguide
in a rectangular structure and it is constructed using two
VII. CHALLENGES AND APPROACHES
slots embedded in a substrate which is sandwiched by two
From the current literature on CubeSat antennas, several
parallel metal plates. Compared to conventional waveguides
challenges such as high gain, operational bandwidth, small
(i.e., CPW, strip lines), the SIW approach has low loss (high
size, low mass and circular polarization have been identified
Q-factor), and it allows for integration of microwave and
as outlined in Table 9. In this section, each of these chal-
millimeter wave passive and active components on the same
lenges will be presented and analyzed according to different
substrate dielectric. The other advantage of SIW is its ability
approaches that address these challenges. The suitability of
to control the surface waves at high operating frequencies and
each approach for each antenna type as well as the perfor-
hence increases the antenna efficiency. The SIW approach
mance improvement/achievement gained by the approach are
was adopted by antenna designs that are suitable for different
summarized in Table 10.
applications that include satellite, radar, RF, ISM-band, and
Ku-band applications. However, the main limitation of SIW
A. HIGH GAIN is the dielectric loss which is considered the largest loss com-
1) CAVITY ponent of transmission losses. In [34], the authors proposed
High gain antennas provide long distance communications, SIW slot antenna array for intersatellite communications. The
and they can be used for intersatellite links. A popular proposed antenna operates in the C-band and provides a gain
approach that improves the antennas’ gains is the cavity of 4.98 dBi. However, its bandwidth is narrow, i.e., 1.99%.
technique. More specifically, a cavity backed technique is
used to suppress and eliminate the surface waves, hence a 3) INFLATABLE, FOLDABLE AND FLEXIBLE STRUCTURES
smoother radiation pattern is achieved. It also suppresses the The antenna gain is proportional to the aperture size, making
back-lobe radiation improving the antenna’s directivity and the integration of high-gain antennas such as reflectarrays,
gain. Another technique is the use of a MSS as a resonant patch arrays and reflectors on CubeSats a challenging task.
cavity model where the resonant cavity is formed by the Therefore, the CubeSat community has adopted several tech-
metasurface and ground plane. As a result, the total gain is niques to fit a large aperture inside the CubeSat that can be
improved, and the back-lobe pattern is reduced. The main deployed once in orbit. Such techniques involve, folding of

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TABLE 10. Approaches used to address antenna design challenges for CubeSat.

the aperture or use collapsible substrates as in the case of 2) APERTURE COUPLED AND STACKED STRUCTURE
reflectarrays [47], [50], using copper etched membranes to This approach was introduced by D. Pozar in 1985 [79]. It was
implement patch antenna arrays [20] or replacing the tra- proposed for microstrip slot antennas to improve their band-
ditional reflectors with inflatable volumes [65]. Using the widths. The main idea of this feeding technique is to separate
aforementioned techniques high gains in the excess of 30 dBi the microstrip feedline from the radiating patch element by
can be achieved, greatly expanding the CubeSat capabilities placing a ground plane between them. The upper substrate
from LEO to interplanetary exploration. However, there are contains the radiating element, and the low substrate contains
several factors such as the hinges on the folded panels or the feed-line and hence there is no direct connection between
the surface roughness and planarity of the flexible materials the radiating patch element and the feed-line. This approach
used that could potentially degrade the RF performance of the has been developed and improved by researchers to enhance
antenna. the performance of the aperture coupled microstrip antennas.
The development includes achieving impedance bandwidths
B. BANDWIDTH ranging from 5-50%, integration and use for active arrays and
1) SHORTING PINS introducing different shapes (i.e., patch shape, radomes, feed
One of the well-known effective techniques for enhancing line type, etc). Aperture coupled microstrip antennas are used
patch antennas’ bandwidth and reducing their sizes is the for integrated phased array systems. It is also proposed and
use of shorting pins and walls. Placing these shorting pins suitable for satellite communications including CubeSats.
at the edge of the patch lowers the first resonant frequency One of the limitations of using this feeding approach is the
mode and hence widens the bandwidth. They are also used use of two different substrate layers which leads to an increase
to achieve antenna miniaturization by increasing the patch in the antenna total size and complexity. Moreover, the aper-
antenna effective electrical length. However, one of this ture coupled feeding can be combined with the concept of
approach’s limitation is that the impedance bandwidth is stacked patches where the top patch element is considered
significantly affected by the spacing between the shorting as parasitic. Hence, the coupling of resonances between the
pins and the feeding probe. One solution to address this bottom fed patch and the top patch provides the broadband
drawback can be by placing the pin in the proximity to behavior as in the case of the X-band array on [27] that
the feed-point to achieve good matching between the input reported a bandwidth of 15.9%. For CubeSat applications, the
impedance and the 50 ohms feeding line. To that end, there authors of [12], [25] used the aperture coupled feeding tech-
is a need for wideband antenna designs for different small nique to enhance the bandwidth of their antenna designs. The
satellites’ applications that require downloading more data design of [12] operates at X-band and reported a bandwidth
at high speed [9]. These applications include remote sensing of 16.21% while the design of [25] operates at S-band and
where images are downloaded from the satellite to the ground reported a wide bandwidth of 32.6%.
station. The authors of [19] applied the shorting pins approach
to their F-shaped patch antenna design which is proposed for 3) QUADRIFILAR STRUCTURE
communication with the ground station. They reported a wide Quadrifilar approach was introduced by Kilgus in [80]–[82]
impedance bandwidth of 45.75%. for helical antennas. QHA structure contains orthogonal

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quadrifilars which are rotated 90◦ with respect to each other. operating frequency. The meanderline geometry is formed
This is an important structure as it provides CP and enhance and shaped by folding and bending the conductors back and
the bandwidth. The helices of QHA are fed by a power divider forth and hence reduce the antenna size. The meander line
such as Wilkinson divider. The main limitation of QHA is can be considered as an equivalent inductor and the param-
its large profile. QH antennas are proposed for satellite and eters of its shape control the antenna performance [86]. The
ground station applications where their radiated energy is antennas that use the meander-line technique provide wide
concentrated in a cone shape. The authors of [55] and [56] bandwidths and occupy small surface area on the communi-
proposed QH antennas for use on 3U and 6U CubeSats; cation system. They are also used for different applications,
respectively, to provide communications with ground sta- include RFID in health care applications [87] and satellite
tion. They provide a CP and bandwidth ranging from 6.15 communications. Their main limitation, however, is that the
to 7.12%. inductor equivalent models of the meander-line do not offer
flexibility for changing the spacing between meander-line
4) SUBWAVELENGTH PERIODICITY sections. In [24], [28], [72], the authors used the meander-line
Subwavelength periodicity is a well know technique used in approach to achieve miniaturization and good antenna
reflectarrays to increase the gain bandwidth of the antenna performance. They reported bandwidths ranging from 5-
where the reflectarray elements or unit cells are arranged 28.7%, and antenna sizes ranging from 0.46lλ0 × 0.20λ0 to
in a grid with a spacing less than half wavelength [83]. 2.52λ0 × 1.24λ0 .
In all the reported CubeSat reflectarrays the technique of sub-
3) MESHGRID
wavelength periodicity is used to satisfy the gain bandwidths
of each design allowing CubeSat to be used in deep space Meshing reflector apertures is an attractive approach used
missions [46], [47], [50]. Nevertheless, when this technique in CubeSat reflector-based antennas [45], [49]. The idea
is used, the fabrication tolerances of the reflectarray elements behind this technique is to approximate the parabolic surface
become strict which can result in a reduced reflection phase of conventional reflectors by a mesh. This leads to weight
range and hence gain degradation [84]. reduction and ease the stowage and deployment mechanism
of the reflector antenna. Moreover, mesh reflectors allow for
electrically larger apertures that have never been attempted
C. SMALL SIZE AND LOW MASS
on CubeSat as in the case of the 1-m dual band mesh reflec-
1) SOLAR PANEL INTEGRATION
tor proposed in [49]. Consequently, the achievable gain can
Solar panels are one of the most important subsystems exceed 40 dBi at Ka-band. In terms of RF performance,
onboard CubeSats as they provide the required power to the presence of supporting ribs or structures and the surface
the rest of the satellite’s subsystems. The amount of solar mesh (OPI) of the reflector must be considered. Also, when
energy gathered is proportional to the surface area occupied the frequency is increased, e.g., Ka-band, the surface accu-
by the solar cells, therefore, it is crucial to reserve enough racy of the mesh and the thermal distortion become critical
real estate for solar panel installation. Solar panel integrated metrics that must be included during the antenna simulation
or transparent antennas is one of the most popular approachs and accounted for in the required radiation pattern.
of antenna designs that cater for mass and size reduction.
The main benefit of this approach is that the CubeSat real 4) DIPLEXER AND LC LOADING
estate is shared among the antenna and the solar cell sub- A diplexer makes each antenna works as a transceiver and
systems of the satellite without sacrificing extra payload hence reduce the number of antennas. This will also allow
volume. Furthermore, this approach is mainly suitable for for transmission and reception at different operating bands.
patch [13], [15], [16], [18], [22], [23], [26], reflectarrays [46] A diplexer consists of different filter type (i.e., low pass, high
and Yagi-Uda [70] antennas and it can be realized in two pass and band pass) at different frequencies to sufficiently
different ways [85]. The first way is by using optically trans- separate the inputs and outputs. Diplexers are used for dif-
parent substrates and meshed patches as the radiators and ferent communication applications including satellite com-
the second way is direct installation of the antenna as slots in munication system and mobile telephony. This approach has
between the solar cells gaps or behind the solar panels. The two advantages; enabling the use of one antenna by multiple
most important factor to consider, is maintaining the optical transmitters and hence provide space and reduce the mass on
transparency of the antennas above 90% to ensure that the the communications system. However, designing the diplexer
efficiency of the solar cells is kept on high levels. On the other circuit is challenging as it needs to have high isolation and
hand, from an RF point of view, the effect of the solar cells as low insertion loss to avoid the interference and to achieve the
lossy substrate must be considered in the gain performance desired function. In addition, wire antennas can be loaded
of the antenna. with an LC circuit that can act as a passband or stopband
filter at certain frequencies allowing for dual band operation.
2) MEANDERING The dipole and monopole antenna designs of [39] and [42]
The meandering technique is applied for patch antennas to used the diplexer and LC loading technique which allows
achieve antenna miniaturization without increasing antenna each antenna to operate at VHF and UHF bands for CubeSat

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communication with ground stations. This is important as it VIII. QUALITATIVE EVALUATION

provides more space and less mass on the CubeSat. While the previous sections looked at the antenna through
their types, in this section, we provide a qualitative com-
D. CIRCULAR POLARIZATION
parison of different types of proposed antenna designs for
1) CORNER-TRUNCATED AND SEQUENTIAL-FEEDING use on CubeSats at different operating frequency bands.
One of the challenges in space communications is polariza- Table 11 summarizes their features and performance in terms
tion mismatch and signal attenuation which can be allevi- of operating frequency band, size, bandwidth, gain, reflection
ated by using circular polarized antennas. This is because coefficient and deployability. Antennas are classified based
circular polarization (CP) renders the up/downlink or the on their operating frequency and we can see that most pro-
intersatellite communication insensitive to antenna misalign- posed antennas are planar (e.g., patch and slot) antennas and
ment. Especially for the communication between CubeSats operate in the 2.4-2.5 GHz S-band. This is because planar
and ground stations when a signal is transmitted through antennas (e.g., patch and slot) are cheap, easy to fabricate and
the atmosphere, the effect of ‘‘Faraday rotation’’ can be do not require deployment. Moreover, the 2.4-2.5 GHz band
eliminated by using CP antennas at the terminals [88]. The is the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM)
concept behind achieving CP is to excite two orthogonal band, meaning the end user is not required obtain a govern-
modes with 90◦ phase difference and equal amplitude around ment permit to use the antenna.
the resonant frequency [89]. One important metric is the
Axial Ratio (AR) bandwidth which shows the polarization A. VHF-BAND ANTENNAS
purity with respect to frequency and must stay below 3dB. All VHF-band antenna designs listed in Table 11 are deploy-
The two most popular approaches that have been adopted able, do not have steering capability, provide low gain and
by the CubeSat antenna designers are the sequential feeding narrow bandwidth. The deployment mechanism incurs extra
and the corner truncation which are mainly applied to single cost and complexity. Also, there is a risk that the antenna
patch antennas, patch antenna arrays or reflectarray feeds. might not deploy, which contributes to the likelihood of
The use of square patches with truncated corners can intro- mission failure. The helical antenna design in [55], achieves
duce control over the dimensions of the patch to generate the the higher gain of 4.7 dBi at 350 MHz and wider bandwidth
two quadrature orthogonal modes required for CP radiation of 6% as compared to [39], [42]. However, its size is large,
when fed at the appropriate location. On the other hand, i.e., exceeds 200 mm, and is suitable only for 3U CubeSats.
CP radiation can also be achieved by sequentially feeding In terms of reflection confection (S11 ), the monopole design
the individual patches, in the case of patch arrays, with 90◦ of [42] has the smallest reflection confection, i.e., −35 dB at
phase difference. This requires a sequential-phase feeding operating frequency of 144 MHz, however, its bandwidth is
network where the phase at port 1 varies by 900 in respect to very narrow, i.e., 4.86%.
port 2 and so on. Power dividers such as the Wilkinson power
divider containing impedance transformers with delay lines B. UHF-BAND ANTENNAS
is a popular solution, achieving high isolation between output In Table 11, there are 10 antenna designs that operate in UHF-
ports and good matching [14]. One of the main considerations band that are suitable for CubeSat communication. These
when using sequential-phase feeding is the loss associated antenna types are slot, dipole, monopole, helical, Yagi-Uda
with the feedlines which can deteriorate the overall efficiency and meander-line antennas. Amongst all UHF-band antenna
of the antenna [27]. designs listed in Table 11, only the slot antenna design
presented in [35] does not require deployment and hence
2) POLARIZER it does not add extra cost and complexity. Compared to
Most of the high-gain CubeSat antennas are accomplished by the designs of [35], [39], [42], [52], [53], [55], [56], [72],
using reflector antennas with CP horn feeds. To achieve CP, the Yagi-Uda antenna design of [70] has the highest
polarizers are used at the feeds with an Orthomode Trans- gain, i.e. 11.5 dBi at 435 MHz. Moreover, the monopole
ducer (OMT). To generate a CP wave using an OMT, a dual- antenna design of [42] has the smallest reflection coeffi-
input source is required that may exceed the complexity and cient of −42 dB as compared to other UHF-band designs
volume permitted by the CubeSat standards [48]. For this in [35], [39], [42], [52], [53], [55], [56]. This shows the
reason, the polarizer OMT must be custom made to fit in the antenna achieves good impedance matching and hence most
antenna stowage volume [49] or it can be realized without of the power is radiated into space. However, its main limita-
OMT by integrating the polarizing structure (cavities) in the tion is the resulting low gain, e.g., 4.3 dBi. The helical antenna
horn waveguide [48]. Moreover, polarizers with horn anten- design in [52] provides higher gain of 8.44 dBi at 550 MHz
nas are easier to be realized and used at higher frequencies and wider bandwidth of 78.7% as compared to the designs
in the mm-wave domain. The design of a CP feed-polarizer of [35], [39], [42], [53], [55], [56].
system is of great significance for the performance of
reflector antennas as it dictates the AR bandwidth and can C. L-BAND ANTENNAS
minimize the edge diffractions by keeping the edge taper Table 11 presents only one L-band patch antenna [21] that
around −10 dB. was proposed for 3U CubeSat communication. The proposed

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TABLE 11. Comparison between all types of proposed antennas for CubeSat based on their operating frequency.

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TABLE 11. (Continued.) Comparison between all types of proposed antennas for CubeSat based on their operating frequency.

dual band antenna provides a total gain of 6 dBi, has small reported in [54] has higher gain, i.e 12 dBi at 6 GHz and a
reflection coefficient of −27 dB at 1.57 GHz (band 1) with much wider bandwidth, i.e., 62.5%. Compared to the designs
−10 dB bandwidth of 9.55%. We see that the antenna has of [13], [17], [18], [54], the slot antenna array design in [34],
a large size of 110 mm × 110 mm as it operates at low has the smallest size of 70.5 mm × 23.5 mm.
frequency. Because of it is large size, the proposed antenna
is proposed for 3U CubeSats and it is not suitable for 1U F. X-BAND ANTENNAS
CubeSat. The proposed antenna also operates in the S-band, As set out in Table 11, the proposed X-band antenna designs
i.e., 2.2 GHz and provides good performance which will be provide gains ranging from 5.3 to 39.6 dBi, operating at
listed and discussed in next section. a frequency range from 7.4 to 11.2 GHz, −10 dB wide
bandwidths ranging from 360.64 to 4000 MHz and reflection
D. S-BAND ANTENNAS coefficients (S11 ) ranging from −13 to −40 dB. Amongst
There are 18 S-band antenna designs listed in Table 11 pro- all X-band antennas designs listed in Table 11, only the
posed for CubeSat communications. Most of the proposed designs in [46], [47], [49], [50], [66] are deployable. More
S-band antennas operate in the unlicensed Industrial, Sci- specifically, the mesh reflector [49] and reflectarray [50]
entific and Medical (ISM) band (e.g., 2.4-2.5 GHz), are antennas provide the highest gains of 36.8 and 39.6 dBi
patch antennas and do not require deployment mechanism. at 8.4 GHz respectively. However, they have large sizes
Moreover, they provide gains ranging from 4 to 30.5 dBi, and hence they are proposed for 6U and 12U CubeSats.
−10 dB bandwidths ranging from 1.65 to 45.75% and reflec- Compared to X-band antenna designs proposed for CubeSat
tion coefficients (S11 ) from −16 to −45 dB. Compared to all in [11], [12], [18], [46], [47], [66], the antenna design of [23],
S-band antenna designs presented in Table 11, the deployable has much wider bandwidth, i.e. 40%. In terms of reflection
patch antenna array design of [20] provides the highest gain, coefficient, the patch antenna array design presented in [11],
i.e. 30.5 dBi at 3.6 GHz. However, this antenna design has provides the smallest reflection coefficient of −40 dB at
a large profile and is suitable only for 6U CubeSats as it 8.25 GHz as compared to all X-band antenna designs listed
has a large stowage volume. Amongst all S-band antenna in Table 11.
designs listed in Table 11 below, the F-shaped patch antenna
design in [19] and the patch antenna array in [14] achieve G. KU-BAND ANTENNAS
the widest bandwidths of 45.75% and 44.9%, respectively.
The printed Monofilar square spiral antenna in [57], is the
The patch antenna array design in [14], also reported the
only Ku-band antenna design for CubeSat listed in Table 11.
smallest reflection coefficient of −45 dB at 2.45 GHz as com-
It provides a gain of 8.5 dBi at an operating frequency
pared to all S-band antenna designs in [15], [16], [19]–[22],
of 12.2 GHz, wide −10 dBi bandwidth, i.e., 15.57% and small
[24]–[26], [36]–[38], [40]. In terms of antenna size,
reflection coefficient of −22.5 dB. It also has a small size
the meshed patch antenna design of [16], has the smallest
of 18 mm × 18 mm, hence, it is suitable for use on standard
size of 24.1 mm × 24.8 mm. Its main limitation, however,
1U CubeSats.
is its low gain of 4.8 dBi at 2.45GHz and narrow bandwidth
of 2.45%.
H. K/Ka-BAND ANTENNAS
E. C-BAND ANTENNAS In [45], [46], [49] and [73], the authors propose high gain
For C-band antennas proposed for CubeSat communications, K/Ka-band reflector, reflectarray and metasurface antenna
there are only 5 antenna designs [13], [17], [18], [34], [54] designs respectively. These antenna designs are proposed for
listed in Table 11. These C-band antennas provide total gains different CubeSat sizes ranging from 1U to 12U. Moreover,
ranging from 4.98 to 12 dBi, operating frequency range amongst all K/Ka-band antennas listed in Table 11, only the
from 5 to 8 GHz, −10 dB bandwidths ranging from 1.2 to designs of [45], [46], [49] are deployable. The antenna design
62.5% and reflection coefficients (S11 ) from −17 to −21 dB. of [49] provides the highest gain of 48.7 dBic at operating
Moreover, all these C-band antennas do not require deploy- frequency of 32 GHz. To date, the designs in [45], [46]
ment except the helical antenna design of [54]. Compared and [73] are the only K/Ka-band designs that are proposed
to C-band antenna designs in [13], [17], [18], [34], the one for CubeSat deep space missions.

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FIGURE 61. Suitability of each antenna type according to the intended CubeSat application.

I. W-BAND ANTENNAS such as reflectors and reflectarrays. Moreover, only one patch
As set out in Table 11, there are two W-band proposed antenna was found that was proposed for GPS application on
antennas for CubeSat, which include the feed horn reflector CubeSat. Besides, CubeSats have been considered for remote
antenna design [48] and the holographic metasurface antenna sensing applications where horns, reflectors and metasurface
design [74]. Both designs are not deployable and provide antennas operating at mm and sub-mm-wave bands are the
superior gains higher than 30 dBi. The design of [48] is most suitable candidates. The most prevailing antenna types
proposed for 6U CubeSat and used reflector antenna while for deep space missions are the inflatable or mesh reflectors,
the design of [74] is proposed for 1U CubeSat and used the reflectarrays and the all-metal metasurface antennas.
metasurface antenna. Compared to [74], the design of [48], The current CubeSat antenna design’s challenges were
has higher gain and smaller reflection coefficient. found to be high gain, wideband, multi band, low profile,
and CP. Several techniques were identified that can address
J. mm AND sub-mm-BAND ANTENNAS those challenges which can be applied either on a single or
Some antenna designs proposed for CubeSat remote sens- multiple antenna categories as outlined on Table 10. The most
ing applications operate in the millimeter and submillimeter popular technique that can be used to increase the gain is the
wave bands. Table 11 presents two mm-band horn anten- cavity technique and the use of inflatable, foldable or flexible
nas [67], [68] and one submm-band reflector antenna [69]. structures. The cavity approach is more suitable for slot and
The proposed antennas are part of CubeSat radiometer and helical antennas, while the inflatable, foldable or flexible
polarimeter systems that are suitable for 3U and 6U. These structures can be applied to patch helical, reflectors and
antennas have different operating frequencies ranging from reflectarrays. To improve the bandwidth of CubeSat antennas,
140 to 886GHz and provide gains ranging from 16 to 20 dBi. the most attractive technique was found to be the aperture
coupled feeding and the stacked patches while in the case of
IX. DISCUSSION reflectarrays the subwavelength periodicity can increase the
A. CRITICAL ANALYSIS gain bandwidth. Another challenge of high importance is the
From the existing literature the following antenna types reduction of the size and mass of the antenna. In this case,
are considered as suitable candidates for CubeSat missions, the concept of patch, slot and Yagi-Uda antennas integrated
namely planar, slot, monopole/dipole, reflectors, reflectar- with solar panels was the most prominent approach. This
rays, horns, Yagi-Udas, metasurface and helical antennas. approach has an additional benefit of sharing the CubeSat
Those antenna types have been used and proposed for a real estate among the antenna and the solar cell subsystems.
variety of applications by the CubeSat community such as, In addition, achieving CP on CubeSat antennas is a stringent
ground communication or TT&C, intersatellite communica- requirement to ensure reliable communication links. There-
tions, high-speed data downlinks, remote sensing, GPS and fore, the most widely used approach by CubeSat designers
deep space missions. The suitability and frequency of usage is the corner truncated patches which can also be applied to
of each antenna type according to the intended application reflectarray feeds and the sequential feeding which can be
is given in Fig. 61. It is obvious that low or medium gain used in conjunction with microstrip antenna arrays.
patch, slot, helical, monopole and dipole antennas are the A qualitative evaluation was performed where factors such
most popular solutions when it comes to ground and inter- as gain, bandwidth, and reflection coefficient at each oper-
satellite communications. On the other hand, to establish ating frequency were compared. In addition, the effect of
high-speed data downlinks, high gain antennas are preferred the antenna size and the deployment mechanism was taken

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into consideration during the qualitative comparison. It was establish high gain reconfigurable intersatellite and ground
discovered that planar antennas operating at S- or C-band links that are vital for LEO mega constellations. The main
are the most popular antenna candidates for CubeSat com- drawback of reconfigurable reflectarrays is their limited gain
munication. The main advantages are their low profile, low bandwidth which can be lower than 4%. Hence, an inter-
cost, and their beam steering capabilities in the case of patch esting combination that can be explored in future CubeSat
antenna arrays. Furthermore, most of the planar antennas implementations is the concept of tightly coupled reflectarray
would not require a deployment mechanism which greatly antennas [93]. Finally, the antenna will be a critical design
simplifies the antenna integration with the CubeSat. On the aspect of future CubeSat missions. The design and integration
other hand, the most promising antenna type for deep space of antennas must be considered through the mission design
missions would be Ka-band and X-band reflector, reflectarray cycle which involve modelling and optimization of antennas
and metasurface antennas due to their superior gain perfor- along with the satellite structure. Likewise, the fabrication
mance. UHF and VHF bands are mainly implemented using of antennas is also a significant factor where 3D printing
either helical or monopole/dipole antennas which present a technologies can be utilized to lower the cost and accelerate
large size and require a deployment mechanism. the prototyping process.
Finally, it has been noticed that some antennas for CubeSat
B. FUTURE TRENDS were designed to operate at different operating frequency
The future of CubeSat antenna designs will be mainly bands without considering the radio regulations provided by
driven by emerging CubeSat applications. These appli- International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Federal
cations include both communications e.g., 5G hybrid Communication Commission (FCC) which control the radio
satellite-terrestrial (5G S-T) architectures, Internet of Space spectrum and frequency bands allocations [94]. Therefore,
Things (IoST), Low Earth Orbit Internet of Things (LEO any antenna designs for space applications should consider
IoT), and scientific such as remote sensing and interplane- the ITU and FCC regulations for frequency and radiation
tary exploration [9], [10], [90]. Therefore, those applications patterns to avoid interference.
would require CubeSats that can form and maintain coop-
erative LEO mega constellations and can realize deep space X. CONCLUSION
missions. In this paper, we have presented a comprehensive survey
To achieve the aforementioned requirements while keeping of different proposed antenna designs for CubeSats. Firstly,
a small form factor and low mass, antennas need to operate the antennas were categorized according to their type. Their
in the mm-wave and sub-mm-wave frequency ranges. This individual performance was analyzed in terms of gain, band-
would unlock and expand the current CubeSat capabilities width, reflection coefficient, size, and the requirement of a
by introducing multibeam and beam steering functionalities deployment mechanism. The applications of each presented
as indicated by the recent holographic flat-panel metasurface antenna design were listed and discussed. Moreover, the pro-
antenna that operates at W-band [74]. In addition, metasur- posed approaches to address the current CubeSat antenna
face based antennas at those frequencies can be implemented design’s challenges such as high gain, wideband, multi band,
in silicone-based substrates by using SIW technology and the low profile and CP are analyzed. The reviewed antennas were
concept of pillbox beamformer. This then classified and evaluated based on their operating fre-
means that they can be integrated with other active elec- quencies. To conclude, the choice of the antenna type would
tronic components such as amplifiers or mixers. Further- be dictated by many factors such as the operating frequency,
more, all metal metasurface antennas represent another major the gain and bandwidth requirements of the mission and the
candidate for future CubeSat missions especially in deep available area on the CubeSat for antenna installation.
space [73]. The absence of the dielectric material makes the
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SUHILA ABULGASEM (Student Member, IEEE) received the B.E. degree PANAGIOTIS (YANI) IOANNIS THEOHARIS
from the College of Electronic Technology, Tripoli, Libya, in 2005, and the (Student Member, IEEE) was born in Athens,
M.S. degree in information technology from the University of Wollongong, Greece, in 1993. He received the B.Eng. degree
Wollongong, NSW, Australia, in 2013, where she is currently pursuing (Hons.) in telecommunications engineering from
the Ph.D. degree in telecommunications engineering, under the Australian the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW,
Government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship. Her research Australia, in 2018, where he is currently pursuing
interests include slot and patch antenna designs for CubeSat applications. the Ph.D. degree under the Australian Govern-
ment Research Training Program (RTP) scholar-
ship. His research interests include antenna design
for CubeSat applications, reconfigurable antennas,
reflectarray antennas, and wearable antennas.

FAISEL TUBBAL (Senior Member, IEEE)

received the B.E. degree from the College of
Electronic Technology, Tripoli, Libya, in 2004,
and the M.S. degree in telecommunication engi-
neering, the M.S. degree in engineering manage-
ment, and the Ph.D. degree in telecommunication
engineering from the University of Wollongong,
Wollongong, NSW, Australia, in 2012, 2013, and
2017, respectively.
He has been working as a Researcher with
the Libyan Centre for Remote Sensing and Space Science (LCRSSC),
Tripoli. He joined the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommuni- SINING LU (Student Member, IEEE) received
cation Engineering, University of Wollongong, as an Academic Assistant, the Bachelor of Engineering degree (Hons.) in
in 2012. Since 2017, he has been a casual unit Convenor with the School telecommunications engineering from the Univer-
of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, sity of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia,
Australia. He was promoted to the position of Laboratory Manager with in 2015, where she is currently pursuing the Doc-
the School of Computer, Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering tor of Philosophy degree in telecommunications
(SECTE), University of Wollongong, in 2019. He is the author of three engineering. Her research interests include design
chapters and more than 40 conference and journal papers. His research of antennas and antenna arrays for CubeSat and
interests include antenna designs for CubeSat communications, wearable CubeSat swarm applications.
antennas, reconfigurable antennas, and antenna designs using metamaterials
and metasurface antennas. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled S-band Planar
Antenna Designs for CubeSat Communications.
Dr. Tubbal is a Fellow of the Wollongong Academy for Tertiary Teaching
and Learning Excellence (WATTLE). He was a recipient of the Vice-
Chancellor’s Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning
(OCTAL).

RAAD RAAD (Member, IEEE) received the Bach-

elor of Engineering degree (Hons.) in electrical SAEID IRANMANESH received the B.E. and
engineering from the University of Wollongong, M.S. degrees in computer science from Azad Uni-
Wollongong, NSW, Australia, in 1997, the mas- versity, Tehran, Iran, and the Ph.D. degree in elec-
ter’s degree from the Switched Networks Research trical and telecommunication engineering from
Centre, University of Wollongong, and the Ph.D. the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW,
degree in neuro-fuzzy logic admission control in Australia, in 2015. He has been working as a
cellular mobile networks, in 2006. member of the Tele Research Group, School
Since 2004, he has been with the School of Elec- of Electrical, Computer, and Telecommunication
trical, Computer and Telecommunications Engi- Engineering, University of Wollongong. He was
neering, University of Wollongong, where he works as the Deputy Head of appointed as an Assistant Professor with Azad
the School. His current research interests include wireless communications, University, for a period of year. He is currently appointed with the Melbourne
CubeSat, the IoT, and antenna design. He received an Australian Post- Institute of Technology, Sydney, NSW. His research interests include wire-
graduate Award (APA) that was matched by Telstra Research Laboratories less networks, intelligent transportation systems, and smart cities. His Ph.D.
(TRL). He received scholarship from the Motorola Australian Research thesis was entitled as Data Management in Delay Tolerant Networks.
Centre (MARC) in the later part of his degree.

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