The intelligent quadrifilar helix antenna for mobile satellite communications

This paper details the concept of the intelligent quadrifilar helix antenna (I-QHA) as an antenna for mobile satellite communications. The main advantage of the I-QHA is the potential diversity gain of up to 14 dB in heavily shadowed environments, which may be obtained by intelligent combining of the elements of the antenna. The I-QHA may have multiband or multimode capabilities enabling it to operate in both satellite and terrestrial mobile communications environments. The adaptive matching component of the I-QHA not only matches the antenna to different frequency bands or sub-bands, but may also counter the detuning effects caused by the user.