Design of a Dielectric Loaded Antenna with Earth Coverage Beam

This paper introduces a new dielectric-loaded antenna with earth coverage beam. This type antenna provides the data transmission channel between the low earth orbit satellite and terminals on the earth. A circularly polarized earth coverage beam antenna is developed based on the dielectric-loaded method. The proposed antenna is composed of feeding network, source and loaded dielectric. The dielectric includes bottom cylindrical and top hemisphere parts. Source is embedded inside the dielectric structure. The designed antenna operates at C band. The gain is greater than 0 dBic with the axial angle ranges from 0° to 64°. The measured gain is about 5. 2 dBic at the angle position of 40°. The radiation beams feature with good spatial cutoff characteristic. The size of the proposed antenna is compact enough for Cube satellite applications.