Deployable Inverted-Hat Monopole with 3:1 Constant Gain Bandwidth

A novel deployable inverted-hat monopole (IHM) antenna is presented for satellite applications. This frequency scalable antenna was designed and verified in very high-frequency (VHF) band (40-160 MHz) for 9U CubeSats and ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) band (200-600 MHz) for 1U CubeSats. The VHF band ultrawideband (UWB) monopole antenna operates from 40 to 160 MHz on an infinite ground plane, with emphasis on constant 5 dBi gain in a deployed volume of 60 x 60 x 100 cm. On a finite ground plane, the antenna achieves a 3.2:1 bandwidth with VSWR <3 and an average gain of 0.5 dBi. A capacitive top hat loading was added to the antenna to improve matching and pattern stability. Full-wave simulations are verified with measurements of fabricated prototypes. Storability and deployability of the antenna design is confirmed with the UHF design.