Helical antenna performance in wideband communications

In this paper, we employed the electromagnetic theory to the design of a 2.4-GHz wideband helix antenna. The designed antenna was first simulated across wide bandwidth using 4NEC2 software, and then two identical antennas were made from available materials and finally measured using a vector network analyzer. The measured and simulated results are found to be in a quite agreement. Moderate discrepancies among measured and simulated resonant frequencies noted are contributed chiefly to the use of a high-loss PVC pipe as the drums for the coils and, to a smaller degree, to the loss in the copper at microwave frequencies and to the influence of the wire insulation.