1

REDUCING THE SIZE OF HELICAL ANTENNAS BY MEANS OF

DIELECTRIC LOADING
Mike B. Young, Kevin A. OConnor, and Randy D. Curry, Senior Member IEEE
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Center for Physical and Power Electronics
349 EBW, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 USA

physical size. The final antennas radiation efficiency was

evaluated from 100MHz to upwards of 4GHz.

Abstract
Helical antennas have long been known as an excellent
choice for point to point communications. The lower the
desired operational frequency of the antenna, the larger
the physical size of the antenna. In order to overcome this
issue, the University of Missouri-Columbia's Center for
Physical and Power Electronics has been actively
researching the properties of dielectric loaded antennas.
Based on simulation models, it has been found that the
addition of a dielectric material within the core of a helix
will translate into a reduction in the operational frequency
of the antenna. Using this knowledge, a 18.6mm diameter
x 81mm tall helical antenna was designed around a core
with a dielectric constant of r=45. This yielded a 65.4%
decrease in the antenna's operational frequency from
5.13GHz to 1.775GHz as well as a 95.86% decrease in the
physical size of a comparable 1.75GHz air core helical
antenna. The program CST Microwave Studio was used
to simulate these antenna designs derived from Krauss's
formulas. The purpose of this paper is to describe the
simulations and design steps that have shown to
significantly reduce the physical size and center frequency
of an axial mode helical antenna by loading it with a high
dielectric core.
Index TermsDielectric Loading, Dielectric Core,
Helical, Helical Antenna, Helix

I. INTRODUCTION
Helical antennas are extensively used in industry and
were first introduced by Kraus in 1947 [1]. Applications
for helical antennas include line of sight communications,
particularly ground to satellite communication systems for
which size and weight are limiting factors. Advantages of
a helical antenna include circular polarization, high gain,
wide bandwidth, and high directivity[2].
Most helicals consist of a flat or parabolic ground
plane[3] attached to a single wound conductor. Varying
the pitch angle [4] as well as the circumference [5] is not
uncommon in order to achieve unique design goals.
In this article, the authors have designed and fabricated
an axial-mode helical antenna loaded with a high
dielectric core (r' = 45.0) with the goal of reducing its
operational frequency without having to increase its

978-1-4577-0631-8/12/$26.00 2011 IEEE

II. THEORY
The formulas governing the operation and behavior of
helical antennas have been long known, but are
cumbersome to derive and analyze. Over the years, good
approximations of the properties of helices have been
made.
Elical antennas are best described as an
approximation between two basic radiating elements; a
linear antenna, and a loop antenna. If one winding of the
helix was unwound, we would have a wire of length L.
The pitch angle of the antenna is best described as the
angle of inclination of the spiral and is designated as .
The pitch angle is directly related to S, or the spacing
between each turn. As the pitch angle increases, so does
the gap spacing S. C is the circumference of the spiral
and is equal to *D, where D is the diameter of the spiral
if viewed from above. If both ends of the helix were to be
slowly stretched apart, the pitch angle would increase to
90 as the coil would be stretched out into a rod, also
known as a linear antenna [6]. On the other hand, if both
ends were to be compressed, the pitch angle would
decrease all the way to 0, as would S.
At this point the coil becomes more and more
compressed until we simply have a loop antenna. The
operation of a helical antenna is best demonstrated as an
approximation of everything between the minimum and
maximum pitch angle , or a mix of linear and loop
antenna theory [8].
Helical antennas operate in two distinct modes; the
normal and the axial modes [1]. The normal mode occurs
when the length of one turn of the helix is significantly
smaller than the design wavelength ( L<< ) [7]. When
operating in this mode, the radiation pattern of the far
field will appear as a doughnut pattern around the length
of the helical. In the axial mode, the length of one turn of
the helix is significantly greater than the design
wavelength ( L >> ) [7]. When operating in this mode
the gain is concentrated in the direction that the antenna is
pointing, as seen in Figure 3.
Loading the antenna with a high dielectic material
affects the phase velocity of the propagating
electromagnetic wave [2]. Many numerical methods have

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been developed that model the behavior of the
propagating wave through a lossy dielectric [9]

III. SIMULATION IN CST MICROWAVE

STUDIO
Simulations were performed using CST Microwave
studio 2010. The simulation was based on actual
dielectric material fabricated by the University of
Missouri-Columbia (UMC) that has an average dielectric
constant of 40 over a wide frequency range. The
properties of the dielectric material were measured on an
Agilent network analyzer attached with a dielectric
measurement probe. The network analyzer sweeps from
0-4.5GHz and records the probes values of ' and '' as a
function of frequency. The probe was first calibrated by
sampling dielectrics with known constants; air and water.
Measurements of UMC's dielectric material were then
taken multiple times and averaged to ensure a high level
of precision. The resulting table of dielectric parameters
' and '' vs. frequency of our material is shown in
Figure 1. This table of parameters was then imported into
CST's dielectric dispersion list for our material, which is
modeled as the green CAD cylinder shown in Figure 2.
The inner white cylinder is modeled after a nylon rod
used to hold the final material together. The nylon rod
was simulated as lossless and was set to have a dielectric
parameter of '=3. The complete CAD model was created
using all calculated dimensions and is comprised of a
conductor wound around our hollow 18.63mm diameter
dielectric cylinder threaded with a nylon rod. All of
which are positioned on a large ground plate and fed
through a 50 coax connection. The radiating coil is fed
by port1, which simulates signal injection from a coaxial
feed. Simulation accuracy was set for -60dB. A manual
decoupling plane was set up at the location of the ground
plane to aid in CST's automatic decoupling plane
recognition algorithm. This helps to reduce erroneous
false sidelobes in order to better view the true magnitude
of real sidelobes [10].

Figure 1. Dielectric dispersion curve.

Figure 2. CST cad model of the helical antenna.

Figure 3. 3D Farfield Gain plot at 1.629GHz.

IV. CONSTRUCTION
Construction of the antenna proved to be a challenge.
We first had to manufacture the dielectric material to be
used in the antenna. Using proprietary materials and
processes, 3/4" diameter x .5" tall cylinders of compressed
material were produced. An example of a similar cylinder
produced is shown below in Figure 4. The material
appeared to have much more tensile strength than shear
strength. This made machining a bit of a cumbersome
task. Due to the presence of nano-particles within the
compound, all machining was done in a fume hood on a
small combination mill/lathe. To begin, a small amount
of surface material was shaved off of each cylinder in
order to remove residue deposited during the
manufacturing process. This left us with a cylinder that
was 18.6mm in diameter. Each cylinder was hollowed in
order to create the desired wall thickness. To accomplish
this, each block was individually mounted on the end mill,
and bored out to the proper diameter with boring bits.
This method was simpler, more accurate, and risked
damaging the material less than using a drill press.

Figure 4.
cylinders.

Machined rod composed of dielectric

The resulting hollow cylinders were held together using

a threaded nylon rod and nylon nuts. Small amounts of a
cyanoacrylate based adhesive was applied to between
each block and allowed to dry overnight to form the final
rod as shown above in Figure 4.
The constructed and simulated antennas have a pitch
angle of 12 and a total of six turns. The spacing between
the ground plane and the beginning of the first turn of the
helix was kept to a minimum. This spacing adds
capacitance to the line and its value can be tweaked in
order to finely tune the antenna where small changes have
a large effect. A nylon rod and nylon screws were used to
attach the cylinder to a large brass ground plane. Next the
antenna was wound with 3/16" copper wire and attached
to a SMA connector on the other side of the brass ground
plane. More cyanoacrylate was placed under the wire
during the winding process to adhere it to the dielectric
cylinder. The final constructed antenna is shown in
Figure 5.

Figure 5. Final antenna in our anechoic chamber.

V. RESULTS
The antenna was placed on an Agilent network analyzer
and swept to 4.5GHz. The results are shown in Figure 6.
0
0.00E+00
-10

2.00E+09

4.00E+09

-20
-30
-40
-50
Figure 6. S11 parameters.
Evaluating the S11 parameters, it can be seen that that
the antenna is best matched at 2.3GHz, with the S11
parameters reaching -38dB. For comparison, a typical
air-core helical antenna with a 18.6mm diameter and a
pitch angle of 13 will have a center frequency of
approximately 5.13GHz.
With the addition of the
dielectric, a downshift of approximately  can be
expected [11]. In this case, from Figure 1, the value of '
at 5.13GHz is approximately 36. From this we can expect
a downshift from 3.746GHz to 863MHz.

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The antenna was placed in our anechoic chamber in
order to plot find its gain as a function of frequency. The
results are shown below.
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
-12
1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

1.8

Frequency GHz)

1.9

2.1

2.2

Figure 7. Gain(dB) vs. Frequency for the antenna shown

in Figure 5.

In order to demonstrate this, the CST model antenna

shown in Figure 2 was re-simulated. The white nylon rod
in the center was removed in order for the green dielectric
cylinder to be homogeneous. The dielectric dispersion
curve shown above in Figure 8 was imported into CST's
material properties for the green dielectric rod. It was not
necessary to increase the diameter or length of the
cylinder as the higher dielectric material will result in a
greater frequency downshift in operational frequency.
This new expected center frequency of 513GHz will
match up well with the points on the dielectric dispersion
curve where the loss tangent of the material is extremely
low. The simulation was reran and swept from 1001000MHz. The results of the simulation at 597MHz is
shown below in Figure 9.

Gain was recorded from 1.6GHz to 1.95GHz at a

maximum of 4dB. The measured gain levels shown
above match up extremely well with the simulated gain of
Figure 3.
With gain occurring at 1.775GHz, further improvement
in the antennas radiation efficiency can be achieved by
better matching the S11 parameters at this frequency.
From Figure 6, the S11 parameters for the antenna at
1.775GHz is a poor -8dB. An appropriate matching
circuit would help reduce the reflection coefficient and
allow for better coupling from the signal source to the
antenna. This would help to further increase the gain.

VI. IMPROVEMENTS
In order to further reduce the operational frequency and
improve its gain, the University of Missouri of Columbia
developed a newer dielectric with a higher ' and a lower
''. The dielectric dispersion chart for the new material is
shown on the next page in Figure 8. [12]

Figure 9. Gain profile simulation for the same size

antenna shown in Figure 2 with UMC's new =100
material.
As can be seen, we are expecting a gain of 12.6dB to
occur at 597MHz. The simulations conclude that the
antenna will operate in the axial mode from 565MHZ918MHz with a maximum gain of 17.8dB occurring at
775MHz (assuming that the impedance of the antenna is
perfectly matched to its source). The gain of the antenna
along the z-axis is plotted in Figure 10.

Figure 8. Dielectric dispersion for UMC's newest high

dielectric material with =100.
At our current antennas center frequency of 1.775GHz,
the new material has a loss tangent comparable to that of
the old material. Evaluating the two dielectrics at
500MHz the newer material has a loss tangent that is 82%
lower than the older one used to construct our current
antenna. This will allow for us to ultimately achieve
higher gains at low frequencies.

Figure 10. Simulated Gain vs. Frequency along the zaxis of the antenna.
Due to the limited supply of compounds within our
dielectic material, the antenna simulated is still awaiting
construction and is expected to be finished within a

5
months' time. Seeing as how well the simulated gain
levels of our antenna in Figure 3 matched up with the
measured gain levels of the constructed antenna in
Figure 7, there is a high level of confidence that the
antenna still awaiting construction will match up nicely
with the expected gain levels shown in Figure 10.

VII. SUMMARY
A 1.775GHz helical antenna was developed in an
extremely small package (18.65mm diameter x 5" height).
The downshift in operational frequency from 5.13GHz to
1.775GHz of the antenna is due to the introduction of a
high dielectric material within the core of the radiator.
This resulted in both a 65.4% reduction in operational
frequency and a 95.86% reduction in the physical size of
the antenna.
A new dielectric material was developed with a much
lower loss tangent at low frequencies in order to improve
the gain. This material was used to simulate a solid core
helical of the same size (18.65mm diameter x 5" height)
that operates in the axial mode at with a maximum gain of
17.8dB occurring at 775MHz.

VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to acknowledge the help and advice of
Everret Farr for selection of the antennas and advice in
this regard.

IX. REFERENCES
[1] Kraus, J.D. Helical Beam Antenna. April 1947,
Electronics, pp. 109-111.
[2] Gupta, Ramesh C. and Singh, S.P., "Propagation and
Radiation Characteristics of Dielectric -Loaded AxialMode Helical Antennas," in Microwave and Optical
Technology Letters, Vol. 51, No. 5. May 2009
[3] Djordjevic, A.R.; Zajic, A.G.; Ilic, M.M.; ,
"Enhancing the Gain of Helical Antennas by Shaping the
Ground Conductor," Antennas and Wireless Propagation
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[7] Volakis, John L., Antenna Engineering Handbook 4th
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[8] E. Weeratumanoon, "Helical Antennas with
Truncated Spherical Geometry," M.S. thesis, ECE. Dept.,
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[9] Tsuboi, H.; Tanaka, H.; Fujita, M.; , "Electromagnetic

field analysis of the wire antenna in the presence of a
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Awaiting Publication