TICRA and Dcubed Advance Deployable Reflectarray Antenna Design for CubeSat Missions in ESA Project

TICRA and Dcubed have successfully completed the Technology Baseline Workshop for the ESA project “Development of a Flight Representative Deployable Reflectarray Antenna for CubeSat Applications”. The workshop, held at TICRA’s offices in Copenhagen on April 25, 2025, marks the transition to the detailed design phase of a compact, deployable, high-performance antenna system optimised for CubeSat missions.

TICRA and Dcubed teams during the Technology Baseline Workshop in Copenhagen.

Why CubeSats Need Smarter Antenna Designs

CubeSats – small, modular satellites – are widely used in missions where volume, weight, and power are limited. In this ESA-funded project, TICRA and Dcubed are developing a “zero-unit” deployable reflectarray antenna that avoids occupying valuable internal volume within the CubeSat.

The reflectarray is approximately 9 mm thick in its stowed configuration, allowing it to fit into a standard 6U CubeSat deployment pod. A newly developed low-profile feed extends just 5 mm into the satellite structure and integrates with the frame without obstructing internal payloads. Together, these features enable a 29 dB gain antenna in the 8–8.4 GHz Earth Observation downlink band, without compromising payload capacity.

Testing of the ESA CubeSat Reflectarray Antenna to verify its performance.

Project Responsibilities and Collaboration

TICRA is the prime contractor on the project and is responsible for the full RF design, manufacturing of the reflectarray panels and feed, and RF testing of the antenna system. This includes full-wave electromagnetic analysis with the antenna mounted on the CubeSat to predict performance accurately, accounting for scattering effects from the surrounding satellite structure.

Dcubed contributes its experience in mechanisms for small satellites by designing, implementing, and qualifying the mechanical systems required to deploy the reflectarray in space.

The collaboration combines advanced RF modelling from TICRA with space-qualified deployment technologies from Dcubed. This partnership brings together technical innovation and shared ambition to advance CubeSat communications technologies. ESA has identified the antenna concept as a candidate for future missions, including the compact deep-space CubeSat mission M-Argo.

From Baseline to Flight Hardware

The project is now entering the Critical Design Review (CDR) phase, with the CDR milestone scheduled for September 2025.

Final manufacturing and qualification are expected to continue through summer 2026.

Learn More

• More about the M-Argo mission
• Read the paper: Design and RF Testing of Reflectarray for CubeSat at X-Band
• More about: QUPES – TICRA’s Tool for Periodic and Quasi-Periodic Surface Analysis