Study of helical antenna endowing short wire length and compact structure for high-frequency operations and its exclusive manufacturing process

Abstract

In this paper a study of a helical antenna resonating at high-frequency (HF) band with a very compact structure is reported. The designed antenna’s S11 parameter magnitude change with frequency was calculated for different geometrical parameters. For each case, first, only a single parameter was changed. Then for a fair comparison, multiple parameters were changed simultaneously while the total wire length was set to be constant. Also, shifts in resonance frequencies and variations in –10 dB bandwidths were investigated. Our results show that resonance behaviour changes distinctively with the geometrical parameters and it allows shortening of the antenna wire length. For the designed antenna, the resonances shift to lower frequencies and –10 dB bandwidths around the resonances decrease as the winding wire thickness, number of turns, and turn radius increase. Whereas as the turn spacing increases the resonances shift to higher frequencies and –10 dB bandwidths widen, although the total wire length of the antenna increases. To verify the simulation results, the designed antenna was fabricated with an exclusive manufacturing process and characterized. The measurement results are in good agreement with the simulation results. It demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed manufacturing technique, which is new in the literature and enables accurate and rigid antenna fabrication with simple and low-cost steps.