2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)

Present State of Antenna Design for X-band SAR

Sensor Onboard 100 Kg Class Satellite
Prilando Rizki Akbar1, Budhaditya Pyne 2, Hirobumi Saito3, Jiro Hirokawa4, Dong-Hun Kim5
1,3
Department of Spacecraft Engineering, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of JAXA, Sagamihara, Japan,
{prilando.rakbar, saito.hirobumi}@jaxa.jp
2
Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan,
budhaditya.pyne@ac.jaxa.jp
4,5
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan,{jiro@ee.e.titech.ac.jp,
donghun.kim@antenna.ee.titech.ac.jp}

Abstract— A deployable parallel-plate slot array antenna is

being developed for the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
sensor onboard small satellite. This parallel-plate slot array
antenna is designed to operate in X-band frequency with
vertically polarized radiation. The antenna is designed entirely
by using HFSS simulator. From the results of simulation, it is
shown that at the center frequency (9.65 GHz), one antenna
panel has 35.9 dBi directivity and 65.5% efficiency.
Index Terms—slot array antenna, small satellite, synthetic
aperture radar (SAR).

I. INTRODUCTION
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a remote sensing Fig.1 The deployable antenna SAR system onboard small satellite.
sensor that can be used for a wide variety of Earth
observation applications. It is an active remote sensing satellite is proposed with specifications as shown in Table I.
sensor that can work at all times and in all weather Here, as described in Fig. 1, a deployable rectangular
conditions [1,2]. Because of these advantages, the demand parallel-plate slot array antenna with a total size about 4.9 m
for low-cost SAR sensor development is increasing rapidly. x 0.7 m is employed. By this, sufficient gain and swath width
Therefore, there is a requirement for the implementation of a can be realized in the SAR system. Parallel-plate slot array
compact SAR sensor onboard a small size satellite. Hitherto, antenna is selected because it has a simple structure, high
some medium sized satellites carrying a SAR sensor have efficiency and light-weight planar antenna [3]. A honeycomb
been launched, such as SAR Lupe and TecSAR, with their core layer, which is made from aramid paper, is used as a
total mass of about 770 kg and 300 kg, respectively. In this spacer between the parallel plates. A slotted rectangular
paper, an X-band SAR sensor onboard a 100 kg small waveguide (WR90), made from aluminum alloy, is used as
the antenna feeder and it is placed under the parallel-plate. A
TABLE I. THE PROPOSED SAR SYSTEM SPECIFICATION non-contact choke flange is applied at the deployable hinge.
All active electrical instruments are placed inside the satellite
SAR Operation Mode
Items
Strip Map Sliding Spot Light
body. A one-panel antenna weighing about 1200 grams can
Altitude 600 km 300 km be achieved with this configuration.
Resolution 3m 1m
Center Frequency 9.65 GHz
II. ANTENNA STRUCTURE AND ITS OPERATION
Swath Width 25 km 10 km
Chirp Bandwidth 75 MHz 300 MHz PRINCIPLE
Polarization V/V (Vertical/Vertical) The proposed antenna structure is described in Fig. 2. In
Antenna Size 4.9 m x 0.7 m
Antenna Efficiency 50%
this configuration, a WR 90 rectangular waveguide is placed
Transmit Peak Power 1000 up to 1100 W at the bottom of parallel-plate. Here, the waveguide feeder,
Duty Cycle 25 % which has coupling slots, is located at the middle of parallel-
System Loss 3.5 dB plate. In the feeder, TE10 mode wave is injected from the
System Noise Figure 4.3 dB antenna input; initially, it travels in the +y direction with a
Off Nadir 14 up to 45 deg.
Pulse Repetition Frequency 3000 up to 8000 Hz wavelength of λg.
Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero
-15 dB -22 dB
After it reaches the τ junction, the wave is then
(NESZ)
Signal to Ambiguity Ratio > 15 dB

978-88-907018-7-0/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 2640 #1570317292

 2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)
Fig.2 (a) Illustration of one panel of the proposed SAR antenna; and (b)
HFSS model for τ junction design.
distributed into two directions. Thus, in the feeder that has
coupling slots, the wave propagates in both -y and +y
directions. In the parallel-plate, the coupled waves
propagate to both -x and +x directions with a wavelength of
λp. By this technique, beam shift phenomenon can be
avoided in both XZ and YZ plane of our SAR antenna pattern.
The radiating slots are placed at the upper parallel-plate to
couple the TEM wave that propagates in the parallel-plate
into +z direction. In the present design, the size of one panel
of the parallel-plate slot array antenna is 689.42 mm (x
direction) x 687.4 mm (y direction). The total length of the
antenna feeder is 695.34 mm.
III. ANTENNA DESIGN AND SIMULATION RESULTS
A single coupling slot is designed by modifying single
coupling slot HFSS model in [4]. Here, another output port is
added in the parallel-plate in -x direction. In this design, 30
coupling slots are employed. The τ junction is designed by
utilizing the HFSS model in Fig. 2(b). In this model, Port 1
is assigned as an input port and others are set as output
ports. Here, the τ junction parameter (inductive wall of τ
junction length and position, window length and position)
can be attained. Furthermore, parameters for the coupling
slot located near the τ junction and their spacing (d) are then
optimized, such that the desired amplitude and in-phase
excitation can be achieved. In this case, amplitude and phase
of S41 and S51 should be equal. Similar condition is also
applied for S61 and S71. Finally, antenna feeder for one
panel (feeder with τ junction) is then optimized; thus, in-
phase excitation of the coupled wave that travels in the
parallel-plate can be attained. The procedure for designing
radiating slot at upper parallel-plate with HFSS is explained
in [4]. Here, vertically polarized radiating slot configuration
is employed.
The results of the one-antenna panel simulation are
shown in Fig. 3. Here, the antenna directivity is calculated by
assuming all antenna materials are lossless. It is shown that
antenna with directivity and efficiency of 35.9 dBi and
65.5%, respectively, can be realized at the targeted center
frequency. Also, from the simulated two-dimensional
aperture distribution, the amplitude fluctuation level with 5.4
dB standard deviation and the phase fluctuation level with
54.5° standard deviation can be observed. Moreover, the S11
2641
Fig.3 The simulation results: (a) amplitude and phase aperture
distribution at 9.5 GHz; and (b) antenna directivity and reflection.
of the antenna is below -20 dB within 300 MHz bandwidth,
which meets system requirements.
IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH
One panel of a parallel-plate antenna for SAR onboard a
small satellite mission has been designed. The antenna
design has been performed entirely by using HFSS software.
From simulation results, it is shown that the performance of
the designed antenna meets the system requirements. This
antenna is currently in the fabrication process and will be
measured in the near future. The antenna measurement
results will be presented later.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is funded by ImPACT program of Council
for Science Technology and Inovation (Cabinet Office,
Government of Japan). Also, the author is grateful to
Tomoya Fukami for helping us in performing HFSS
simulation at JAXA supercomputer.
REFERENCES
[1] R. Birk, W.Camus, E. Valenti and W. McCandless Jr., “Synthetic
aperture radar imaging system,” IEEE AES Syst. Mag., vol. 10,
no.11, pp. 15-23, Nov 1995.
[2] K. Tomiyasu, “Tutorial review of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) with
applications to imaging of the ocean surface,” Proc. of The IEEE,
vol.66, no.5, pp. 563-583, May 1978.
[3] Kunio Sakakibara, Jiro Hirokawa, Makoto Ando and Naohisa Goto,”
Sing-lelayer slotted waveguide arrays for milimater wave
applications,” IEICE Trans. Commun., vol. E79-B, no.12, pp. 1765-
1722, Dec. 1996.
[4] Prilando Rizki Akbar, Hirobumi Saito, Miao Zhang Jiro Hirokawa
and Makoto Ando,” Parallel-Plate Slot Array Antenna for Deployable
SAR Antenna onboard Small Satellite,” IEEE Trans. antenna &
propagation, vol.64, no.5, pp.1661-1671, May,2016.
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