Design of a compact wearable single-arm spiral antenna for satellite communications

Spiral antennas are a popular choice for satellite communication systems due to their small size, broadband, circular polarisation and high gain. This paper presents a novel design of an Archimedean single-arm spiral antenna fed through a coaxial feed for operation in X and Ku frequency bands covering 8 GHz to 18 GHz frequencies. The antenna has very good impedance matching (better than -10 dB) throughout the frequency range, good right hand circular polarisation (≤3 dB) and offers a maximum peak gain of 9.1 dBi. The radiation characteristics, efficiency, gain and compact size make this antenna suitable for rigid, mobile and airborne terminals. The compact size also makes the proposed antenna good candidate for wearable/poartable wireless communication devices.