Sandwiched Metasurface Antenna for Small Spacecrafts in IoT Infrastructure

In this study, low-profile probe-excited crossed antenna with sandwiched metasurface is proposed for very small and ultra-small spacecrafts at X-band. The designed metasurface antenna is lightweight, low cost, and occupies physical size suitable for very small/ultra-small spacecrafts. The main targets of this study are the use of an optimized sandwiched metasurface for increasing return loss and peak gain of proposed antenna at X-band. Moreover, the sandwiched metasurface is used for minimizing levels of generated back lobes and so interferences with electronic components inside the spacecraft box. The constructed sandwiched metasurface antenna, therefore, achieves a bandwidth of about 350 MHz and increases the antenna total gain by about 1.10 dBi at X-band despite its very small size. These results are in general very suitable for very small and ultra-small spacecrafts communications.