Design, Development and Testing of an Automotive Antenna for 5G-NTN Communications

In latest years, Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) have been increasingly drawing interest in the connectivity field, enabling almost worldwide coverage. In fact, around 40% of world’s population lives in rural areas, where terrestrial coverage is poor and cabled connection is not provided; in these areas, satellite connection constitutes a valid alternative. For the same reasons, NTN connectivity is sparking an interest also in the automotive industry and it is in this framework that the following project takes place. In this thesis, the work realized in cooperation with ASK Industries will be presented: design, development and measurement of an antenna operating in S-band (1.7 ÷ 2.7 GHz) for connection with NTN LEO satellites. A variety of different antenna solutions suitable for the NTN system are here analyzed, with a particular interest in wideband circularly polarized antennas. Considering the results found in this research, the design, prototyping and measurement of an innovative solution is here proposed, together with the results obtained at each step.