Small satellite applications in UHF bandwidth

Thanks to their small footprint and simplicity of design, miniaturized satellite systems quickly became popular as a viable alternative to classic satellite systems. In particular, the low cost and reduced energy consumption have allowed an increasing use, first in research fields and later in the commercial and industrial fields.

Furthermore, in recent years, in the industrial field, the concept of the constellation and formation (or swarm) of nano satellites is becoming more and more widespread as a system capable of replacing single, more cumbersome satellite platforms. These solutions offer obvious advantages in terms of mission reconfigurability (thanks to the possibility of changing the configuration of the constellation in real time) and reliability (with respect to the breakdown of the individual constellation elements).

The advent of new integrated navigation and communication applications and the availability of wide BW SDR equipment allow unprecedent flexibility and versatility of operations both in space and on ground in a several commercial, scientific, and public sectors.

Consequently, the need to install multiple communication services on these nano satellites, to allow an increase in communication capacity both with ground radio base stations and with nearby satellite elements, has become even more pressing.

Then, on those platforms the need to install new high performing antennas also has become more pressing, to satisfy the request for an increase capacity and flexibility for the management of multiple services, linked to the increase in the number of functionalities of the nano satellite and on-board instrumentation.

The potential application and market for antennas in the UHF bandwidth so in 300-3000 MHz:

• Messaging

• Store &forward

• Mobile communications

there are new interesting looming applications such:

• Air traffic control /management services/ADS-B space (see figure

• M2M/IoT data collection /communications

• AIS services

• Personal communications

• EM source localization or SIGINT/ELINT particularly because of EGNSS interference and defence assessment of low frequency radar that can detect even stealth aircraft.

Most of those services can provide revenues and improved services completing or complementing coverage and real time data distribution. However, most of these commercial satellites belong to the small satellite mass range and not to the microsatellites one.