Broadband Sounding Rocket Antenna for Dual-Band Telemetric and Payload Data Transmission

Jeremie Prades (1) , Anthony Ghiotto (1) , Eric Kerherve (1) , Wu Ke (2)

1 IMS - Laboratoire de l'intégration, du matériau au système
2 Poly-Grames

This paper presents and investigates a broadband sounding rocket antenna developed for dual-band data transmission of telemetric and payload systems. This single-element antenna permits the use of both the well-established 869.4-869.65 MHz and 2.4-2.4835 GHz frequency bands available in Europe to implement a redundant transmission of telemetric and tracking data desired for reliability. Furthermore, the available spectrum in the upper band offers a high-speed wireless link for transmitting payload data. To preserve the mechanical integrity and aerodynamics of rocket, the antenna is integrated in its nose cone. The proposed low-cost and low-weight structure is based on PCB (Printed Circuit Board) pieces assembled in a LEGO-like manner to form a broadband 3-Dimentional (3-D) bi-conical antenna, which is fed by a diplexer integrated in its base. A prototype has been fabricated, and validated using a reduced-length fuselage in a near-field measurement system.

Domaines: Electromagnétisme

Jeremie Prades, Anthony Ghiotto, Eric Kerherve, Wu Ke. Broadband Sounding Rocket Antenna for Dual-Band Telemetric and Payload Data Transmission. IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, 2016, 15, pp.540-543. ⟨10.1109/LAWP.2015.2457338⟩. ⟨hal-01178311⟩