Height Reduction of the Axial-Mode Open-Ended Quadrifilar Helical Antenna

Author

Takacs, Alexandru ; Fonseca, Nelson J G ; Aubert, Hervé

Author_Institution

Lab. for Anal. & Archit. of Syst. (LAAS), Univ. of Toulouse, Toulouse, France

Volume

9

fYear

2010

fDate

7/2/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

942

Lastpage

945

Abstract

This letter addresses the miniaturization of the open-ended quadrifilar helical antenna for satellite VHF frequency band telemetry links systems. The miniaturization is achieved using combinations of sinusoidal profiles, and several designs are obtained using an optimization process based on intensive electromagnetic simulations. The design and experimental validation are reported in this letter, and a significant height reduction from 48% to 72% is obtained using various combinations of sinusoidal profiles (i.e., wires mathematically described by sinusoidal functions) without a significant degradation of the radiation pattern, directivity, and polarization purity. Moreover, the input matching is slightly improved for the compact antennas. It was observed that the efficiency and gain do not decrease linearly with the reduction of the antenna height.

Keywords

VHF antennas; antenna radiation patterns; helical antennas; optimisation; radiotelemetry; satellite antennas; axial-mode open-ended quadrifilar helical antenna; compact antennas; input matching; intensive electromagnetic simulations; optimization process; polarization purity; radiation pattern; satellite VHF frequency band telemetry links systems; sinusoidal profiles; Antenna radiation patterns; Atmospheric modeling; Helical antennas; Impedance matching; Optimization; Wires; Miniaturization; VHF antennas; optimization; quadrifilar helical antennas (QHAs); sinusoidal profile;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-1225

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LAWP.2010.2081966

Filename

5590280