Deployable Cylindrical Parabolic Antenna Design for Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Applications

In this paper, a cylindrical parabolic antenna with dual linear polarization broadside microstrip array feed antenna is designed for Cube Satellite (CubeSat) Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) systems operating in Ka band. The cylindrical parabolic reflector surface has a deployable mesh structure, so it can be easily stored inside the CubeSat while complying with the CubeSat weight and size restrictions. This mesh structure is provided with Tungsten cables due to its suitability for space conditions and also this mesh structure is modeled by defining the impedance value for the cylindrical parabolic reflector surface in HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator) software. Also since the structure is deployable, deformations may occur on the surface while being opened in space or due to physical environment conditions. The phase distortions caused by the deformed reflective surface in the wave are calculated and the effect of these phase distortions on InSAR performance is investigated. The feed antenna structure of the antenna system described in this paper has been designed and optimized to have a reflection loss below -10 dB in the desired frequency range. The proposed antenna design provides a solution to both Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) applications and the size and gain constraints of CubeSat.