Electrically Equivalent Model Design of a Ku-Band Helical Antenna Matching Section for Ease of 3D Printing Technology Use

Abstract

In this study, we design and build a helical antenna operating at the Ku-band using a hybrid 3D printing technology. A non-uniform surface roughness can reduce the conductivity of printed metals. Therefore, through simulation and equations, we demonstrate that a triangular metallic matching section of a helical antenna can be equivalently replaced with a strip-line matching section. As the proposed antenna has fewer physically printed parts, the reduction in the conductivity of the printed metallic parts at high frequencies is avoided. The simulated results are verified experimentally. The impedance characteristics are well matched, whereas the absolute value of the gain is degraded. This might be owing to the non-exact expectation of the material characteristic of the immersed epoxy used for adhesion of the printed antenna part and connector in the simulation.