Realising personal satcom antennas

The worldwide interest in personal mobile satellite communications using constellations of low-orbiting satellites highlights the handset antenna as a component that has a critical effect on the overall system viability. The antenna design is, however, influenced by many factors and the purpose of this overview is to identify key design aspects, their interrelation and prospects for optimisation. Fundamental engineering design issues, difficulties and trade-offs are considered first, followed by a note of research and an outline appraisal of the power budget that should be achievable. The antenna requirements are application dependent and the future customer base is conjectured upon together with suggestions for alleviating the stringent antenna design constraints