Design, analysis and optimisation of quadrifilar helix antennas on the European Metop spacecraft

The design and analysis methodology for three quadrifilar helix antennas on-board the European Metop spacecraft is discussed. The performance of the low-frequency, intermediate frequency and high frequency helix antennas is assessed using a combination of a moment method approach and high-frequency methods. It is shown that by optimising the radiation properties of the antennas with the amplitude of the backward radiated copolar and crosspolar signals as penalty functions, the spacecraft interaction is reduced, thus improving the installed antenna performance in the field-of-view