Miniaturization of quadrifilar helix antenna for VHF band applications

This paper addresses the miniaturization of the VHF band quadrifilar helix antenna. The design and experimental validation are reported in this paper. Such a helix could be used, e.g., for telemetry link in Space-based Multi-band Variable Object Monitor satellite project. Compared to the reference quarter wavelength quadrifilar helix antenna, a significant height reduction from 48% to 62.5% is obtained. Moreover, the measurement and simulation results reveal the capability of the resulting compact antennas to improve slightly the well-known poor impedance matching of classical quarter wavelength quadrifilar helix antennas. A simple and low-cost manufacturing technique is finally detailed for validation purpose.