A Novel Miura-Ori Origami Reflectarray Antenna for CubeSat Applications

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel high-gain Reflectarray Antenna (RA) design on a foldable structure, which is based on the Miura-Ori origami pattern. The antenna was designed to operate at 8.425 GHz for deep space communication. The origami RA was excited by a $4\times 2$ circular polarized truncated corner patch array, positioned at a distance of $14\lambda$ with a 10° offset angle. The proposed reflectarray can be efficiently stowed onto a 6U CubeSat, and in its deployed state it provides a large surface area of 459,566mm ² . Therefore, it is well suited for small satellites and terrestrial tactical applications.