Simulation & measurement analysis for innovative lightweight, circularly polarized, ultra wideband, wide coverage, single turn axial mode Monofilar helical antenna for space applications

This paper discusses the simulation & measurement analysis for Lightweight, Circularly Polarized, Ultra wideband Wide coverage single turn axial mode Monofilar helical antenna for space applications. Single Turn axial mode Monofilar helical Antenna shows ultra wideband characteristics having bandwidth of 35GHz i.e. 450% of the designed frequency for the antenna for VSWR <; 2. The bandwidth span starts from 7.5GHz & end up to 42.5GHz. During this span single antenna covers X-Band, Ku-band, K-Band & Ka-band. Antenna has wide coverage i.e. 3dB beamwidth of 70° & has gain up to 8.2 dB for desired frequency. Axial ratio of 1.6 dB has been achieved for design frequency. Antenna is extremely lightweight as it involves just wound copper wire single turn & teflon as dielectric base plate with connector. Antenna meets EIRP requirement through the use of high power transmitter to meet link margin. Design & Simulation of Single Turn axial mode Monofilar Helical Antenna has been done on Ansoft HFSS v11.