Analysis and design of a satellite-borne wide-beam conical quadrifilar helical antenna

In this paper, a novel conical quadrifilar helical antenna for GPS application is presented. The antenna behaves wide beamwidth and circular polarization. Numerical simulations show that the pitch angle and the length of radiating arms are main factors which influence the beamwidth of this kind of antenna. The model antenna designed working at center frequency of 1.5968GHz characterizes: (1) about 180 degrees of 3dB beamwidth which satisfies the requirement of the hemisphere radiation, (2) about 0. 35 GHz of 3dB axial ratio bandwidth, and (3) VSWR under 1.5 : 1 covering 1.5859~1.6075 GHz. Details of the antenna design along with simulated results are presented and discussed.