Design of a Broadband Inverted Conical Quadrifilar Helix Antenna

Jingyan Mo,Zhongchao Lin,Weidong Fang,Haigao Xue,Wei Liu

doi:10.1155/2016/5109875

Abstract

This paper introduces the design of a broadband inverted conical circularly polarized quadrifilar helix antenna (QHA). The antenna has many good characteristics, including wide beam and broad bandwidth, which are achieved by utilizing inverted conical geometry and adjusting the dimensions of the inverted conical support. The antenna is fed by a wideband network to provide 90° phase difference between the four arms with constant amplitude. The antenna impedance and axial ratio bandwidth values are more than 39% and 31.5%, respectively. The measured results coincide well with the simulated ones, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed design.

Highlights

With the rapid development of GPS and SNS, antenna plays a more crucial role on the system performance
The design works of the proposed inverted conical printed quadrifilar helical antenna (ICPQHA) are carried out with CST Microwave Studio software based on the finite integration technique (FIT) method
The measurement of S-parameter was carried out with vector network analyzer Agilent 8722ES, and the simulated and measured |S11| of the ICPQHA are shown in Figure 8 for comparisons

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of GPS and SNS, antenna plays a more crucial role on the system performance. Cardioid-shaped radiation patterns with good circular polarization in a broad bandwidth are required tremendously for satellite communication and navigation systems [1]. Quadrifilar helix antenna (QHA), because of its small size, cardioid-shaped radiation pattern, and excellent circular polarization over a wide angular range, is a promising candidate for the GPS and SNS applications [2]. In the literature [4], by introducing the conical helix geometry, an 18.5% bandwidth can be achieved. In the literature [6], a technique by adding a shorted parasitic helix is presented, and the folded printed QHA obtains 30% of impedance bandwidth in axial mode.

Antenna Structure

Results and Discussion

Conclusion