Dual shaped helix antenna for limited scan phased arrays

The article presents a dual shaped helical antenna with optimized geometry for phased array applications. The use of a directive element in steered phased arrays lets the separation between radiators to be increased above /spl lambda/ with suppressed grating lobes and decreased mutual coupling. The challenge arises from the broadband helix design of low profile with enhanced directivity. The results of numerical and experimental research of the short dual shaped helical antenna for phased array applications are reported. The phased array with such radiators consists of fewer numbers of elements because it becomes possible to increase spacing between radiators without the appearance of grating lobes.