Optimized sleeve monopole antenna for detection of electrostatic discharge radiation of spacecraft solar array

The spacecraft operating on a geosynchronous orbit (GEO) is affected by the plasma environment and is prone to electrostatic discharges (ESD) that affect the safe operation of the spacecraft, especially solar array, radiating electromagnetic (EM) signals of a few MHz to tens of MHz. The capture of radiated EM signals helps to better study the characteristics and suppress the occurrence of ESD. In this paper, based on the frequency band characteristics of the EM wave signal radiated by ESD in space, a novel optimized compact sleeve monopole antenna is designed by using three-dimensional EM field simulation software High Frequency Structure Simulator. The length of the proposed antenna is only about 52 mm and its center frequency is 30 MHz. The frequency band of the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2 is 28.8-31.1 MHz and that of less than 5 is 26.8 MHz-33.2 MHz, and the bandwidth is 21.3%. The sample preparation and VSWR test by using the vector network analyzer were carried out. Finally, the sensitivity test was carried out in an EM shielding room by the piezoelectric ceramic ESD simulation experiment. The test results show that the designed antenna can receive the EM wave signal radiated by the ESD stably and can be used for spacecraft discharge detection.