Study of Foldable Transmission Lines Mounted on a Membrane Surface

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted to realize large deployable antennas that are lightweight and easy to store by attaching thin antenna elements on a large-area membrane. Such a large membrane antenna requires a transmission line to feed power to the antenna elements. This transmission line must satisfy both mechanical and electrical design requirements, such as being foldable and having low electromagnetic loss. In this study, we design a foldable transmission line using knowledge of origami engineering and investigate how to wire it.