Design and Benchmarking of High Gain Terahertz Antennas for Cubesats

The rapid advancement of technology in recent years has brought forth new opportunities and challenges in the field of satellite communications, particularly for small satellite platforms such as CubeSats. CubeSats, due to their compact form and relatively low development costs, have emerged as key...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Bou Capdevila, Gerard
Tipo de recurso: tesis de maestría
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/425722
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/425722
Access Level:acceso embargado
Palabra clave:Artificial satellites in telecommunication
Antennas (Electronics)
Terahertz
Antennas
CubeSats
Satèl·lits artificials en telecomunicació
Antenes (Electrònica)
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica::Satèl·lits i ràdioenllaços
Descripción
Sumario:The rapid advancement of technology in recent years has brought forth new opportunities and challenges in the field of satellite communications, particularly for small satellite platforms such as CubeSats. CubeSats, due to their compact form and relatively low development costs, have emerged as key players in academic research and space exploration. As communication needs between CubeSats and ground stations or other satellites increase, innovative solutions in antenna design are required to meet these growing demands. This thesis addresses the development of high-performance antennas operating at terahertz frequencies, specifically at 220 GHz, for CubeSat missions. The importance of utilizing terahertz frequencies lies in their potential to provide high data rates and improved spectral efficiency, essential for space-based communication systems. This research focuses on the design, simulation, and evaluation of three distinct types of antennas, with the goal of identifying the optimal configuration for integration into a CubeSat mission currently being developed by the Ultrabroadband Nanonetworking Laboratory (UNLab) in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The antennas designed for this thesis aim to meet the rigorous requirements of a space environment while achieving the necessary performance characteristics for efficient and reliable communication at 220 GHz.