IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 51, NO.
6, JUNE 2003
Fig. 3(a) displays the measured return loss characteristic for the
x-cut version of the LiNbO3 hi-lo antenna. A measured bandwidth
of 9.2% centered at approximately 12.8 GHz was observed, which
is slightly lower than the z -cut antenna, but still adequate for most
wireless communication systems.
The far field radiation patterns at 12.75 GHz for the x-cut LiNbO3
hi-lo antenna are given in Fig. 3(b). As the LiNbO3 wafer and the brass
mounting block were approximately the same dimensions as in the
z -cut case, the slight ripple in the patterns is still evident. The F/B ratio
was measured to be approximately 26 dB, and a wide 3 dB beamwidth
is again observed. The cross-polarization level in each plane of the
x-cut LiNbO3 hi-lo stacked patch was more than 30 dB below the
copolarization level at broadside. The gain of the x-cut LiNbO3 hi-lo
antenna was approximately 7 dBi. The computed gain differed by less
than 1 dB from the directivity for both of the LiNbO3 antenna struc-
tures, illustrating the efficiency of the hi-lo architecture, and implying
low surface wave activity.
IV. CONCLUSION
Two hi-lo stacked patch antenna structures have been constructed
employing z -cut/x-cut LiNbO3 wafers and a low permittivity foam di-
electric. The use of the LiNbO3 material enables the full integration
of the antenna with electro-optic photonic devices. This can reduce the
size, complexity and cost of base stations or remote antenna units in
applications such as hybrid fiber-radio systems at high microwave and
millimeter-wave frequencies. The LiNbO3 hi-lo configuration yields
very good impedance and radiation characteristics. The simple nature
of the hi-lo structure is compliant with the package requirements for
OEICs, facilitating the realization of combined antenna/photonic/ mi-
crowave modules.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Y. Visagathilagar, C. P. Wu, and S.
Donovan for their assistance in the processing of the LiNbO3 wafers,
and D. Welch for the mounting structures.
REFERENCES
[1] Y. Furuhama, Research and developments of millimeter-wave tech-
nologies for advanced communications, in Proc. 3rd RIEC Symp.
Novel Techniques and Applications Millimeter-Waves, Sendai, Japan,
Dec. 1998, pp. 16.
[2] T. Nagatsuma, A. Hirata, Y. Royter, M. Shinagawa, T. Furuta, T.
Ishibashi, and H. Ito, A 120-GHz integrated photonic transmitter, in
Proc. Int. Topical Meeting Microwave Photonics (MWP 2000), Oxford,
U.K., Sept. 2000, pp. 225228.
[3] K. Takahata, Y. Muramoto, S. Fukushima, T. Furuta, and H. Ito, Mono-
lithically integrated millimeter-wave photonic emitter for 60-GHz fiber-
radio applications, in Proc. Int. Topical Meeting Microwave Photonics
(MWP 2000), Oxford, U.K., Sept. 2000, pp. 229232.
[4] D. Mirshekar-Syahkal and D. Wake, Bow-tie antennas on high dielec-
tric substrates for MMIC and OEIC applications at millimeter-wave fre-
quencies, Electron. Lett., vol. 31, no. 24, pp. 20602061, Nov. 1995.
[5] J. S. Colburn and Y. Rahmat-Samii, Patch antennas on externally perfo-
rated high dielectric constant substrates, IEEE Trans. Antennas Prop-
agat., vol. 47, pp. 17851794, Dec. 1999.
[6] W. S. T. Rowe, R. B. Waterhouse, A. Nirmalathas, and D. Novak, In-
tegrated antenna base station design for hybrid fiber radio networks, in
Proc. Int. Topical Meeting Microwave Photonics, Melbourne, Australia,
Nov. 1999, pp. 4750.
[7] G. Lefort and T. Razban, Microstrip antennas printed on lithium niobate
substrate, Electron. Lett., vol. 33, no. 9, pp. 726727, Apr. 1997.
0018-926X/03$17.00 2003 IEEE
1415
[8] T.-H Lin, Via-free broadband microstrip to CPW transition, Electron.
Lett., vol. 37, no. 15, pp. 960961, July 2001.
[9] W. S. T. Rowe and R. B. Waterhouse, Broadband microstrip patch an-
tennas for MMICs, Electron. Lett., vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 597599, Mar.
2000.
The Low-Profile Hemispherical Helical Antenna With
Circular Polarization Radiation Over a Wide
Angular Range
H. T. Hui, K. Y. Chan, and E. K. N. Yung
AbstractThe low-profile hemispherical helical antenna is studied ex-
perimentally and theoretically. This antenna can produce circular polar-
ization radiation over a wide angular range of 90 . The current distribu-
tion, the input impedance, the axial ratio, the power gain, and the radia-
tion pattern are rigorously studied. The 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of a
five-turn hemispherical helical antenna is found to be 14.6. In the range of
10 1 3, a relatively stable power gain of more than 9 dB is
obtained. The radiation patterns typically consist of a large smooth main
lobe with almost no sidelobes. These new antenna characteristics have a
potential application in mobile satellite communications.
Index TermsCircular polarization radiation, hemispherical helical an-
tenna, satellite communications.
I. INTRODUCTION
Antennas with circular polarization radiation have found wide appli-
cations in mobile satellite communications and direct satellite broad-
casting systems due to their insensitivity to the ionospheric polarization
rotation. Conventional long cylindrical helical antennas can produce
circular polarization radiation but only within a small angular range in
the axial direction [1], [2]. In [3], Nakano et al. introduced a small and
very low-profile cylindrical helical antenna which produces very pure
circular polarization radiation over a broader angular range. A quadri-
filar helix antenna [4] can produce circular polarization radiation over
the whole upper half space but it exhibits narrow-bandwidth and re-
quires a complicated feeding method. A spherical helical antenna [5]
can produce circular polarization radiation over a wide angular region
but it is difficult to maintain in a stable vertical position over the ground
plane. In this paper, we report an intensive study of the hemispherical
helical antenna proposed by Hui et al. [6]. The hemispherical helical
antenna, unlike the spherical helical antenna, is not only smaller in size,
but also provides a more robust and low-profile structure. It can pro-
duce circular polarization radiation over a wide angular range with a
relatively high gain. The current distribution, the input impedance, the
axial ratio, the power gain, and the radiation patterns are rigorously
investigated. The antenna size of the hemispherical helical antenna is
fixed irrespective of the number of turns of the helix. This leads to some
antenna characteristics such as the power gain and the radiation pattern
remaining relatively unchanged with the number of turns of the helix
Manuscript received November 22, 2000; revised April 15, 2002.
H. T. Hui is with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Division of Communication Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,
639798 Singapore.
K. Y. Chan and E. K. N. Yung are with the City University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2003.812187
1416 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 51, NO. 6, JUNE 2003

Fig. 1. Antenna geometry of the peripheral-feed hemispherical helical

antenna.

while other characteristics such as the axial ratio and the current distri-
bution being easily changed by the number of turns of the helix. Both
theoretical and experimental results will be presented.

II. GEOMETRICAL DESCRIPTION

Fig. 2. Measured axial ratio of a three-turn hemispherical helical antenna with
The antenna geometry of the coaxially fed hemispherical helical an- the elevation angle for = 1 2, = 1.95 cm, = 0.8 cm, =
tenna with an equal spacing between adjacent turns is shown in Fig. 1. 0.05 cm, and = 4 5 .
The thin helical wire is wound on a hemispherical surface. The coor-
dinates along the axis of the helical wire satisfy the following equation TABLE I
in spherical coordinates: 3-dB AXIAL-RATIO BANDWIDTHS OF THE HEMISPHERICAL HELICAL ANTENNA
WITH DIFFERENT NUMBER OF TURNS OF THE HELIX. THE DIMENSIONS OF THE
ANTENNA ARE = 1.95 cm, = 0.5 cm, = 0.05 cm, AND = 4 5
 = cos01

r = a; 6 2N
01 ; 2N    4N (1)

where a is the radius of the hemisphere and N is the number of turns

of the helix. The + or 0 sign in (1) indicates that the equation
is for a right-handed (+) or a left-handed (0) helix. Only hemi-
spherical helixes with an integral number of turns will be investigated
in this study. The length of the short straight wire joining the helix to
the coaxial line on the ground plane is denoted by h. The whole antenna
is made of a single thin wire of uniform radius rw . The coaxial aperture
has an inner radius rw and an outer radius b. In the experimental mea-
surements, the hemispherical helix was wound by using a copper wire
on the surface of a polystyrene hemisphere, which enables the antenna
to rest stably on the ground plane. The ground plane is a square copper
plate with a side length of 20 cm, which is equal to 1.96 wavelengths at
a frequency of 2.94 GHz. Theoretical analysis of the antenna is carried
out by using moment method [7].

III. THEORETICAL AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS

A. Axial Ratio and Power Gain
Fig. 2 shows the measured axial ratio of a three-turn hemispherical
helical antenna with the elevation angle  at a normalized circumfer-
ence of C= = 1.2 (where C is the circumference of hemispherical
helix and  is the wavelength) and with a = 1.95 cm, h = 0.5 cm,
rw = 0.05cm, and b = 4:5rw . It can be seen that the angular cov-
erage with circular polarization radiation (axial ratio 3 dB) is about
  
90 (040    50 ). The variation of the axial ratio and power gain
with C= and with the number of turns N is shown in Fig. 3. It is found
that an increase in the number of turns of the helix can reduce the axial
ratio. The 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidths (axial ratio 3 dB) are shown Fig. 3. Variation of the axial ratio and power gain of the hemispherical helical
in Table I. The 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth increases with the number antenna with and with the number of turns for =1.95 cm, =
of turns. The bandwidth of the five-turn antenna is almost double that 0.5 cm, = 0.05 cm, and = 4 5 .
of the three-turn antenna. The power gain shown in Fig. 3 is defined
with respect to an isotropic circularly polarized source. We see that the the power gain of a cylindrical helical antenna which increases signif-
power gain remains relatively stable with the number of turns and with icantly with the number of turns and with frequency [1].
C= for 1:0  C=  1.3. The power gain in this range varies from A comparison of the cross- and the co-polarization radiation patterns
9.19.8 dB. This characteristic is very different from the behavior of of a five-turn hemispherical helical antenna with those of a two-turn
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 51, NO. 6, JUNE 2003 1417

Fig. 4. Variations of the cross- and co-polarization with the elevation angle of a five-turn hemispherical helical antenna compared with a two-turn low-profile
cylindrical helical antenna over different -planes. The dimensions of the hemispherical helical antenna are = 1.23, = 0.5 cm, = 1.95 cm, =
0.05 cm, and = 4 5 , and the dimensions of the cylindrical helical antenna are = 0.4 cm, = 4 , = 1.0, = 0.125 cm, = 0.05 cm,
and = 4 5 .

low-profile cylindrical helical antennas studied by Nakano et al. [8] is

shown in Fig. 4 over different -planes. The dimensions of the hemi-
spherical helical antenna are C= = 1.23, h = 0.5 cm, a = 1.95 cm,
rw = 0.05 cm, and b = 4:5rw . The dimensions of the two-turn cylin-
drical helical antenna are aH = 0.4 cm,  = 4 , CH = = 1.0, h =
0.125 cm, rw = 0.05 cm, and b = 4:5rw , where aH is the radius,
 is the pitch angle, and CH is the circumference of the cylindrical
helix. We observe from Fig. 4 that although the angular ranges of cir-
cular polarization are similar for the two antennas, the purity of circular
polarization radiation of the hemispherical helical antenna is, in gen-
eral, higher in the axial direction (about 5 dB better within the range of
015    15 ).
B. Current Distribution and Input Impedance
The current distribution largely determines the operation of a wire
antenna [9]. In Fig. 5, the current distributions of a five-turn hemispher-
ical helical antenna at three normalized circumferences of C= = 1.1,
C= = 1.23, and C= = 1.3 are shown (the magnitude distributions).
The wire lengths for these three cases are, respectively, 4.4, 4.93,
and 5.2. It can be seen that except for the case with C= = 1.23, the
current distributions of the other two cases show the existence of a re-
flected current wave traveling backwards from the open end towards
the feed point. The reflected current wave will produce circular polar-
Fig. 5. Current distribution of a five-turn hemispherical helical antenna at three
ization radiation in the opposite sense from that produced by the for- ratios for = 1.95 cm, = 0.5 cm, = 0.05 cm, and = 4 5 .
ward traveling current wave and hence damages the purity of circular
polarization radiation produced by the forward traveling current wave.
Thus, the axial ratios for these two cases are 3 dB for C= = 1.1 and is approximately five wavelengths and a smoothly decaying traveling
4.9 dB for C= = 1.3. For the case with C= = 1.23, the wire length current wave along the antenna wire can be seen. This satisfies the two
1418
Fig. 6. Input impedance of a five-turn hemispherical helical antenna with
0.5 cm, = 1.95 cm, = 0.05 cm, and = 4 5 .
Fig. 7. Radiation patterns of a five-turn hemispherical helical antenna over the
plane with = 0 and 180 and the dimensions are = 1.14, = 1.95
cm, = 0.5 cm, = 0.05 cm, and = 4 5 .
conditions for circular polarization radiation produced by a wire an-
tenna [9] and a very low axial ratio of 0.5 dB is obtained.
Fig. 6 shows the measured and calculated input impedance of
a five-turn antenna with C=. It can be seen that within the 3-dB
axial-ratio bandwidth (C= = 1.1 to 1.28), the input resistance
(measured) varies from 175
to 75
while the input reactance in the direction of the horn axis over the whole frequency range. Instead,
(measured) changes from -160
to -80
. We further found that when
the number of turns of the hemispherical helix increases, the input
impedance changes more rapidly with C=.
C. Radiation Pattern
The calculated and measured radiation patterns of a five-turn hemi-
spherical helical antenna are shown in Fig. 7 over the plane with  = 0
and 180 . The radiation patterns consist of a large main lobe with al-
most no sidelobes. This characteristic persists over a wide C= range
from C= = 1.1 to C= = 1.5 and over the number of turns of the
helix from N = 3 to N = 8. The half-power beamwidths are mea-
sured to be 71 for E and 85 for E .
IV. CONCLUSION
The hemispherical helical antenna is rigorously studied both theoret-
ically and experimentally. This antenna provides a robust and low-pro-
file structure with a wide angular coverage of circular polarization ra-
0018-926X/03$17.00 2003 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 51, NO. 6, JUNE 2003
diation. The current distribution, the input impedance, the axial ratio,
the radiation pattern, and the power gain are rigorously studied. A 14.6
% 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth is obtained with a five-turn antenna. The
power gain remains relatively stable with the number of turns of the
helix and with frequency. The radiation patterns typically consist of a
large smooth main lobe with almost no sidelobes.
REFERENCES
[1] J. D. Kraus, Antennas. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.
[2] H. E. King and J. L. Wong, Characteristics of 1 to 8 wavelength uniform
helical antennas , IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-28, pp.
291296, Mar. 1980.
[3] H. Nakano, H. Takeda, T. Honma, H. Mimaki, and J. Yamauchi, Ex-
tremely low-profile helix radiating a circularly polarized wave , IEEE
Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 39, pp. 754757, June 1991.
[4] J. M. Tranquilla and S. R. Best, A study of the quadrifilar helix an-
tenna for Global Positioning System applications, IEEE Trans. An-
tennas Propagat., vol. 38, pp. 15451550, Oct. 1990.
= [5] J. C. Cardoso and A. Safaai-Jazi, Spherical helical antenna with a
circular polarization over a broad beam, Electron. Lett., vol. 29, pp.
325326, 1993.
[6] H. T. Hui, K. Y. Chan, E. K. N. Yung, and X. Q. Sheng, The coaxial-feed
axial mode hemispherical helical antenna, Electron. Lett., vol. 35, pp.
19821983, 1999.
[7] R. F. Harrington, Field Computation by Moment Methods. New York:
IEEE Press, 1993.
[8] H. Nakano, H. Takeda, Y. Kitamura, H. Mimaki, and J. Yamauchi, Low-
profile helical array antenna fed from a radial waveguide, IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propagat., vol. 40, pp. 279284, Mar. 1992.
[9] H. Nakano, S. Okuzawa, K. Ohishi, H. Mimaki, and J. Yamauchi, A
curl antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 41, pp. 15701575,
Nov. 1993.
Comprehensive Analysis and Simulation of a 118 GHz
Broadband Parabolic Reflector Horn Antenna System
Christian Bruns, Pascal Leuchtmann, and Rdiger Vahldieck
AbstractA 118 GHz parabolic reflector horn antenna system fea-
turing a broadband double ridged primary horn with a coaxial feed line
is investigated. For the ridged horn antenna it is found that the radiation
pattern, contrary to common believe, does not maintain a single main lobe
at frequencies above 12 GHz the main lobe in the radiation pattern starts
to split into four lobes pointing in off-axis directions with a dip of up to 6
dB between them along the center axis. To investigate this phenomenon in
detail, a combined method of moments and physical optics approach has
been adopted to simulate the complete antenna system.
Index TermsBroadband ridged horn antenna, method of moments
(MoM), parabolic reflector, physical optics (PO), radiation pattern
deterioration.
I. INTRODUCTION
Horn antennas are widely used devices in applications such as stan-
dard measurement equipment, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)
testing, radar, and communication systems. Generally they are simple
Manuscript received January 26, 2001; revised November 19, 2001.
The athors are with the nstitut fr Feldtheorie und Hchstfrequenztechnik,
ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092 Switzerland (e-mail: bruns@ifh.ee.ethz.ch).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2003.812236