Design and performance analysis of a Dual Band Waveguide Dipole Feed Cassegrain antenna and link budget optimization

This paper deals with the design and performance analysis of a very small size, low-cost, low-profile, high gain and high directivity Dual Band Waveguide Dipole Feed Cassegrain antenna considering the link budget optimization. The proposed antenna system has a gain of 28.49 dB, directivity of 28.87 dBi, return loss of -18.837447 dB, Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) of 1.2582, bandwidth 433.7 MHz (6.4354 to 6.8691 GHz) at C band and at X band it operates in two regions with 195.2 MHz (8.1748 to 8.37 GHz) and 253 MHz (11.241 to 11.494 GHz), antenna efficiency of 91.56% and 3 dB angular beamwidth i.e., the Half Power Beamwidth (HPBW) of 2.9 deg. The resonant frequencies of the antenna are 6.678, 8.2778 and 11.386 GHz respectively. The proposed antenna system can be used for both C-band and X-band applications like satellite communications transmissions, Wi-Fi, cordless telephones, weather radar systems, medical applications and other wireless systems. The antenna system is designed and simulated in the CST Microwave Studio. Link budget optimization is performed in order to analyze the critical factors in the transmission chain and to optimize the performance characteristics. The link budget determines what size antenna i s to use, power requirements and in general, the overall customer satisfaction.