The field of foldable and physically reconfigurable antennas has recently attracted significant interest from diverse scientific communities, including researchers on antennas, material science, mechanical engineering and numerical modeling. Deployable, packable and multifunctional systems are very important for many applications, including satellite communications, UAVs, CubeSats as well as airborne and spaceborne communication systems. Foldable and physically reconfigurable antennas, particularly origami-based antennas, can provide new capabilities for the aforementioned applications. In this work, we present emerging research on foldable and physically reconfigurable antennas. Such antennas morph their shape to adapt and reconfigure their EM performance (e.g., frequency of operation, bandwidth, polarization, beamwidth, etc.). Also, origami antennas provide ultra-compact stowage, easy deployment, reduced weight, enhanced EM performance and multifunctional utility.

An origami-based foldable and reconfigurable Reflectarray Antenna (RA) with multiple apertures is proposed for CubeSat applications. The proposed configuration consists of a central RA embedded in folding panels using Lamina Emergent Torsional (LET) joints based on compliant mechanisms. Depending on the folding direction of these panels (forward or backward), a new RA aperture is formed. The proposed RA along with its folding panels and hinges is fabricated using only a single PCB. A prototype of such an RA with two foldable panels is fabricated and measured. This RA operates in the Ku-band at 16 GHz and provides two pencil beams pointing at (θ = 30°, φ = 0°) and (θ = -30°, φ = 0°), and a dual-beam pointing at (θ = +27°, φ = 0°) and (θ = -29°, φ = 0°). The proposed RA provides a gain of 25 dB and 19 dB in its single- and dual-beam operations, respectively. For CubeSat applications, the key advantages of this RA are its small stowed volume, reconfigurable EM performance, beamsteering capabilities, monolithic construction, low fabrication cost, and reduced complexity.

In this paper, a novel deployable flat panel reflectarray antenna (RA) is designed on an origami folding pattern for Small Satellite applications. The RA aperture deploys into a hexagonal geometry that achieves an aperture efficiency of a least 60%, 10–20% higher than current rectangular apertures. The modified hexagonal twist folding structure can achieve high volume packing efficiency, which is 75%, and simple deployment with one degree of freedom. The mechanical and electromagnetic design considerations for two variations of our proposed structure, flat and offset panels, are presented. The aperture surface area of both structures is $58\lambda ^{2}$ . Both structures are designed to operate at 16 GHz and exhibit a realized gain that is greater than 26.4 dBi. Prototypes are fabricated for the two structures and measured. Measurements show good correlation with the simulations.

A 3D printed compact unidirectional wideband antenna based on two crossed magneto-electric dipoles is proposed in this paper. The antenna consists in folding the electrical dipole elements, thus the surface of the radiation element is reduced to 0.23λ0*0.23λ0 where λ0 is the wavelength at the lowest operation frequency for a standing wave ratio (SWR) <2.5 corresponding to a reduction factor of 48%. Despite a complex 3D structure, each dipole arm is prototyped using 3D printing technology. The excellent agreement between measured and simulated results (impedance and radiation) demonstrates the quality of such realization process for low cost prototyping of such antenna structure. In dual polarization mode, the measured input impedance bandwidth is 57% from 1.67 GHz to 2.94 GHz with SWR<2.5. Circular polarization mode is obtained by connecting a 90° hybrid coupler circuit. Broadside axial ration (AR) is lower than 3 dB in measure and simulation from 1.5 to 3 GHz.

Traditional high-gain antennas, like parabolic reflectors and phased arrays, are challenging to implement on small satellites (SmallSats) due to their reduced volume when stowed for launch. Therefore, a deployable volume-efficient Miura-ori (VEMO) reflectarray aperture is presented that achieves high gain (35.3 dBi) and high volume efficiency (96%). The design is based on a modified Miura-Ori origami folding pattern that allows for ultra-high volume efficiency and simple deployment. In its stowed state, the aperture fits in a cuboid volume (8.0 cm × 8.0 cm × 2.5 cm) that occupies just 16% of the volume of a 1U CubeSat. The aperture is deployed by releasing stored energy from strategically placed neodymium magnets in the magnetic longitudinal offset (MaLO) hinge system. The aperture has a large reflecting surface area (24.8 cm × 24.8 cm) that is stabilized by the MaLO hinges. The antenna operates in the Ka-band (38 GHz), and provides low side lobe level (-17.5 dB), high cross-polarization discrimination (37.1 dB), and acceptable efficiency (27.4%). The main advantage of the proposed VEMO RA antenna is that it achieves high gain with a design that is straightforward, low-cost, and easily deployable while occupying only a small portion of the payload volume. These characteristics are ideal for many SmallSat applications, such as satellite communications, remote sensing, and deep space research.