Dual Frequency Microstrip Patch Antenna Element for SAR Applications

What is it about?

This paper presents the design of a dual frequency microstrip patch antenna. The design is presented at C and X band with centre frequency at 5.35 and 9.6 GHz respectively. The radiating element at C band is a microstrip patch while the radiating element at X band is a slot. Simulated and measured data are presented as a function of geometrical parameters.

Featured Image

Photo by Gilles Rolland-Monnet on Unsplash

Photo by Gilles Rolland-Monnet on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The antenna plays a very important role in determining the overall system performance of air-borne as well as space borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. The basic driving force for frequency and polarization selection of a SAR system is the application targeted for. SAR systems are generally operated at L, C and X band for most of the applications. There is an increasing demand of simultaneous multi-frequency SAR for space-borne and air-borne SAR systems to get images of targets of different signatures during one visit of a particular region of earth. A wholly independent antenna for each frequency band would be inefficient and considerable saving in space and weight can be achieved if multi-frequency band SAR signals can be transmitted and received via a single aperture antenna. Moreover, for airborne applications, SAR data at different frequencies like C and X band can be acquired without landing the aircraft for mounting of different antenna at different frequency bands if a multi-frequency SAR system is used on board the aircraft.

Perspectives