SIW Based Antipodal Linear Tapered Slot Antenna for Inter-Satellite Communication Links at 60 GHz

Future space exploration demands inter-satellite links (ISL) that allow high speed communication between two or more satellites. This paper is concerned with the antenna system capable of establishing and maintaining ISL at 60 GHz. A high gain corrugated and hat shaped dielectric loaded antipodal linear tapered slot antenna (ALTSA) based on substrate integrated waveguide technology for inter-satellite communications at 60 GHz is proposed in this paper. A gain of 16.2 dBi achieved with a single element corrugated ALTSA and the 1 × 2 corrugated ALTSA array has a gain of 18.5 dBi with return loss below −10 dB at 60 GHz band. Similarly, the hat shaped dielectric loaded ALTSA has gain of 17.29 dB with single element and 19.22 dB was achieved with two elements ALTSA. Both have good radiation efficiency of above 92%. Electromagnetic field simulation tools have been utilized for the design and simulation of the proposed antennas.