Design of Low-Profile Dual-Band Printed Quadrifilar Helix Antenna With Wide Beamwidth for UAV GPS Applications

Abstract

In the paper, a low-profile dual-band printed quadrifilar helix antenna (PQHA) with wide beamwidth is presented for UAV GPS applications. The antenna is composed of a hollow dielectric cylinder with four arms of dual-helix metal strips and a hollow dielectric ring with four pairs of circular metal strips. To provide dual-band operation, different lengths of the dual-helix metal strips are applied. By loading the circular metal strips on the dual-helix metal strips, size reduction of the antenna height is realized. Moreover, wide beamwidth is obtained. A miniaturized quad-feed network is also designed to provide equal amplitude signals with sequentially quadrature phases. To validate the proposed structure, a prototype is fabricated. The height of the antenna is 18.5 mm. The experimental results show that good impedance matching (|S11| <-18 dB) and axial ratio (< 2 dB) are obtained at GPS L1/ L2 bands. At 1.227 GHz, the measured 3-dB axial ratio beamwidths (ARBWs) are 186° and 187° at xoz and yoz planes, respectively. While the values are 167° and 163° at 1.575 GHz. The measured half-power beamwidths (HPBWs) are both more than 120° at the two bands. The results indicate that the proposed PQHA is a good candidate for UAV GPS applications. INDEX TERMS Printed quadrifilar helix antenna (PQHA), dual band, GPS, wide beamwidth, miniaturization.

Spaceborne miniaturized UHF dual band helix antenna with a small frequency ratio

“…Table 1 compares the proposed QHA and previously reported QHAs: although a few reported QHAs achieve high performance, they are of large sizes 12,16‐18 . Certain reported QHAs are compact, yet their frequency ratios and sizes cannot satisfy the required parameters 10,14,15,19 . Loading IUSHSs and the cross‐shape strip enables the proposed antenna to achieve high broadside gain, small AR, and compact electrical size with a smaller frequency ratio.…”

“…12,[16][17][18] Certain reported QHAs are compact, yet their frequency ratios and sizes cannot satisfy the required parameters. 10,14,15,19 Loading IUSHSs and the cross-shape strip enables the proposed antenna to achieve high broadside gain, small AR, and compact electrical size with a smaller frequency ratio. Furthermore, it provides costeffective solutions to spaceborne antennas by avoiding dependence on space-specific dielectric materials to realize miniaturization.…”

Design and Study of a Microstrip Patch Antenna for GPS Application

“…Several microstrip patch antenna are presented in the literature for GPS applications [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. [17] proposed an antenna for a GPS system based on an open-loop resonator, a split rectangular slot, and a stub at the non-radiating edge to generate three operating bands.…”

Circularly polarized Yagi array with small size and symmetric pattern by using counter‐wound helix

“…3 The axial mode with circular polarization at the endfire direction is widely investigated and favorably used owing to its simple structure as well as wide bandwidth. [4][5][6][7] A low-profile dual-band printed quadrifilar helical antenna loaded with circular metal strips on the top of helical metal strips was proposed in Reference [6]. It achieved dual polarization with a cost of a complex feeding network.…”

“…It is well known that a helical antenna has two modes, the axial mode and the normal mode 3 . The axial mode with circular polarization at the endfire direction is widely investigated and favorably used owing to its simple structure as well as wide bandwidth 4–7 . A low‐profile dual‐band printed quadrifilar helical antenna loaded with circular metal strips on the top of helical metal strips was proposed in Reference [6].…”