Design and demonstration of a novel conformal slot spiral antenna for VHF to L-band operation

This paper proposes a new class of cavity backed slot spiral antennas that achieve low frequency and broadband operation. Computational tools are extensively used to optimize various parameters of the slot spiral including the slot width, dielectric filling, cavity depth, growth rate, etc. Also, a new meander line slot concept is proposed and shown to further improve both the low and high frequency response. A miniaturization factor of 3 or higher is achieved in addition to gain increases of as much as 15-20 dB at low frequencies.