Design and Experimental Research on a Miniaturized Archimedean Spiral Antenna

Abstract

The Archimedean spiral (ARSP) antenna is widely used in many wide band electronic systems due to its good radiation performances. This paper designed and fabricated a specific planar ARSP antenna within the operating frequency range of 1 GHz to 9GHz. The meander line technique was employed to miniaturize the planar ARSP antenna. The designed ARSP antenna was fed by a wide band miniaturized bent microstrip Balun. The diameter of the fabricated ARSP antenna was 82 millimeters. A metal cavity filled with absorber materials was used to obtain the unidirectional radiation patterns and its height was 30 millimeters. The parameters of designed ARSP antenna were determined by numerical simulations. A practical designed ARSP antenna was fabricated according to designed parameters and the experimental results of the fabricated ARSP antenna are provided. The experimental research results demonstrate that the fabricated ARSP antenna has radiation performances of wide beam and approximately circular polarization. The fabricated ARSP antenna can be used in several practical electronic systems such as wide band radar systems.