Insensitivity Characteristics in the Dual Polarization of Deployable CFRP Reflector Antennas for SAR

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 66; no. 1; pp. 88 - 95
• Main Authors: Yoon, Seong Sik, Lee, Jae W., Lee, Taek-Kyung, Roh, Jin Ho
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-01-2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna radiation patterns; Carbon fiber reinforced plastics; Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP); Carbon fibers; Composite materials; Conductivity; deployable reflector antenna; Dual polarization radar; effective electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Fiber composites; Fiber reinforced polymers; High gain; Image detection; Image resolution; Large Deployable Reflector; Optical fiber polarization; Permittivity; Polarization; Polymer matrix composites; Reflector antennas; Satellite antennas; Synthetic aperture radar; synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2017.2772315

A large deployable reflector antenna is considered and designed for the application of a synthetic aperture radar system requiring high gain for the high resolution of a detected image within a distance of a few hundred kilometers. For its lightweight and strong characteristics, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is introduced as a composite material and fabricated for conductivity evaluation. Effective electrical characteristics are obtained as a function of carbon fiber direction, using measured S-parameters in a rectangular waveguide. By taking into account the changes of the effective electrical characteristics that depend on the fiber direction of reflector antenna, the radiation pattern is investigated at X-band in terms of gain and polarization variation effects. The proposed reflector antenna made of quasi-isotropic CFRP panel can realize the insensitive characteristics depending on the incident polarization.