DESIGN OF AN

ARCHIMEDEAN
SPIRAL ANTENNA

PROJECT GUIDE:
Lt Cdr Dhiraj Khanna

PROJECT SYNDICATE:
Lt Varun Saini 51982-K
Lt R K Roy 51891-H
 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project “DESIGN OF AN

ARCHIMEDEAN SPIRAL ANTENNA” has been
successfully completed by the officers of the
under mentioned syndicate.

PROJECT SYNDICATE:

Lt Varun Saini 51982-K

Lt R K Roy 51891-H

GUIDE:

Lt Cdr Dhiraj Khanna

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We express our gratitude to our guide

Lt Cdr Dhiraj Khanna for his able guidance, which

has helped us immensely towards the completion of

the project. We would also like to thank Cdr

Praveen Chandra, Lt. Lawrence D’Cunha and rest

of the staff of NEU, Jamnagar for their help, without

which the completion of this project would not have

been possible.

Lt Varun Saini 51982-K

Lt R K Roy 51891-H

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

CONTENTS

1. Aim of the Project

2. Introduction

3. Theory of Frequency Independent Antennas

4. Theory of Spiral Antennas

5. Flow of the Project

6. Antenna Beam Patterns

7. Limitations and Future Scope

8. Conclusion

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AIM OF THE PROJECT

The aim of the project is to design an Archimedean Spiral

Antenna and also an appropriate feeding network. The

syndicate will further attempt to carry out analysis of the

various antenna parameters and to plot the antenna beam

pattern.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

INTRODUCTION

1. An antenna is a transducer designed to transmit or receive radio waves which

are a class of electromagnetic waves. In other words, antennas convert radio frequency
electrical currents into electromagnetic waves and vice versa. Antennas are used in
systems such as radio and television broadcasting, point-to-point radio communication,
wireless LAN, radar, and space exploration. Antennas usually work in air or outer
space, but can also be operated under water or even through soil and rock at certain
frequencies for short distances.

2. Physically, an antenna is an arrangement of conductors that generate a radiating

electromagnetic field in response to an applied alternating voltage and the associated
alternating electric current, or can be placed in an electromagnetic field so that the field
will induce an alternating current in the antenna and a voltage between its terminals.
Some antenna devices (parabola, horn antenna) just adapt the free space to another
type of antenna.

3. Antennas have practical uses for the transmission and reception of radio
frequency signals (radio, TV, etc.), which can theoretically travel over great distances at
the speed of light (in the transmission medium). These signals can also pass through
non-conducting walls (although often there is a variable signal reduction depending on
the type of wall, and natural rock can be very reflective to radio signals).

4. The vast majority of antennas are simple vertical rods a quarter of a wavelength
long. Such antennas are simple in construction, usually inexpensive, and both radiate in
and receive from all horizontal directions (omni-directional). One limitation of this
antenna is that it does not radiate or receive in the direction in which the rod points. This
region is called the antenna blind cone or null.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

5. There are two fundamental types of antennas, which, with reference to a specific
three dimensional (usually horizontal or vertical) plane are:

(a) Either Omni-directional (radiates equally in all directions), such as a

vertical rod or

(b) Directional (radiates more in one direction than in the other).

All antennas radiate some energy in all directions in free space but careful construction
results in substantial transmission of energy in a preferred direction and negligible
energy radiated in other directions.

6. By adding additional conducting rods or coils (called elements) and varying their
length, spacing, and orientation (or changing the direction of the antenna beam), an
antenna with specific desired properties can be created, such as a Yagi-Uda Antenna
(often abbreviated to "Yagi"). An antenna array is two or more antennas coupled to a
common source or load to produce a specific directional radiation pattern. The spatial
relationship between individual antennas contributes to the directivity of the antenna.

7. The term active element is intended to describe an element whose energy output
is modified due to the presence of a source of energy in the element (other than the
mere signal energy which passes through the circuit) or an element in which the energy
output from a source of energy is controlled by the signal input. An antenna lead-in is
the medium, for example, a transmission line or feed line for conveying the signal
energy from the signal source to the antenna. The antenna feed refers to the
components between the antenna and an amplifier.

8. An antenna counterpoise is a structure of conductive material most closely

associated with ground that may be insulated from or capacitively coupled to the natural
ground. It aids in the function of the natural ground, particularly where variations (or
limitations) of the characteristics of the natural ground interfere with its proper function.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

Such structures are usually connected to the terminal of a receiver or source opposite to
the antenna terminal. An antenna component is a portion of the antenna performing a
distinct function and limited for use in an antenna, as for example, a reflector, director,
or active antenna.

9. Parasitic elements are usually metallic conductive structures which reradiate into
free space impinging electromagnetic radiation coming from or going to the active
antenna. An electromagnetic wave refractor is a structure which is shaped or positioned
to delay or accelerate transmitted electromagnetic waves, passing through such
structure, an amount which varies over the wave front. The refractor alters the direction
of propagation of the waves emitted from the structure with respect to the waves
impinging on the structure. It can alternatively bring the wave to a focus or alter the
wave front in other ways, such as to convert a spherical wave front to a planar wave
front (or vice versa). The velocity of the waves radiated has a component which is in the
same direction (director) or in the opposite direction (reflector) that of the velocity of the
impinging wave.

10. A director is usually a metallic conductive structure which reradiates into free
space impinging electromagnetic radiation coming from or going to the active antenna,
the velocity of the reradiated wave having a component in the direction of velocity of the
impinging wave. The director modifies the radiation pattern of the active antenna and
there is no significant potential relationship between the active antenna and this
conductive structure.

11. A reflector is usually a metallic conductive structure (e.g., screen, rod or plate)
which reradiates back into free space impinging electromagnetic radiation coming from
or going to the active antenna. The velocity of the returned wave has a component in a
direction opposite to the direction of velocity of the impinging wave. The reflector
modifies the radiation of the active antenna. There is no significant potential relationship
between the active antenna and this conductive structure. An antenna coupling network
is a passive network (which may be any combination of a resistive, inductive or

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

capacitive circuit(s)) for transmitting the signal energy between the active antenna and a
source (or receiver) of such signal energy. Typically, antennas are designed to operate
in a relatively narrow frequency range. The design criteria for receiving and transmitting
antennas differ slightly, but generally an antenna can receive and transmit equally well.
This property is called reciprocity.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

FREQ UE NC Y I NDE PEN DEN T A NTEN NA S

1. An antenna that can be completely specified by angles is frequency independent.
The impedance and pattern performance of a frequency independent antenna are
constant with frequency. In practice, an antenna must have a finite size so it only
exhibits frequency independent behaviour over a certain frequency range. A practical
spiral antenna exhibits frequency independent behaviour over a frequency range
determined by its inner and outer. We derive the idea of self scaling or frequency
independent antennas from the principle of frequency scaling used in model
measurements. As we decrease the wavelength (increase the frequency), we decrease
the model size in the same proportion. To build wide band antennas, we need
structures that can be their own scale models.

2. One approach as has already been said is to remove any characteristic lengths
by specifying the antenna only in term of angles. The method leads to continuously
scaled spiral antennas. The second approach is to include antenna parts that scale a
portion of the antenna exactly at discrete frequency intervals. We scale these parts
logarithmically so that the intervals between frequencies of the perfect scaling grow with
frequency. These log periodically scaled antennas have varying characteristics between
the points of scaling whose ripple decreases as the scaling constant approaches 1
(continuous scaling), but the number of parts increases.

3. A continuous or log periodically scaled structure has no ends, but we must be

able to truncate a successful frequency independent antenna with a little affect on
pattern. A self scaling antenna must be a transmission line structure that delivers power
to an active region where we feed the high frequency end and it serves as a
transmission line for lower frequency portion. The currents must decay after a radiating
active region so that the structure can be stopped without adversely affecting antenna

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

properties. We identify the finite active region by truncation constants that we use to
size the design. Although the spiral radiates most of the input power in a finite active
region we improve the pattern by loading the end of the arms to prevent radiation of
currents flowing in the reverse direction and accept loss.

4. The active region radiates most of the power for a particular frequency. A true
frequency independent antenna has a constant beam width over its band, although we
expect small variations between the frequencies of exact scaling (log periodic). We
obtain constant beam widths only if the active region dimensions scale with wavelength.
The truncation requirement affects the pattern. A self scaling antenna cannot radiate in
the direction of the expanding structure. If the antenna did radiate in that direction,
portions of the structure would be excited in higher order modes beyond the normal
truncation point. Log periodic and conical logarithmic spirals backfire towards the feed
point.

5. We can make a structure with logarithmically scaled radiating parts along a

transmission line and still not achieve a successful broadband antenna. The parts must
couple electromagnetically, not just through the connection of the feeder. We place
dipoles of the log periodic dipole antenna close together to produce the coupling
needed for rapid attenuation. Similarly we closely space the turns of a spiral so that the
arms couple and there is sufficient length in the active region along which to radiate.
Usually we can account for the rapid attenuation of currents through loss of power in
radiation by considering a single mode.

6. A successful self scaling antenna structure satisfies these requirements.

(a) The antenna contains its own scale model parts – continuous or discrete –
that can be scaled to an infinitesimal size.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

(b) The antennas radiates most of the power in a finite active region so that it

can be terminated with minimal effect.

(c) Fed from the high frequency end. The antenna must be a transmission

line to carry power to the low frequency end.

(d) The dimensions of the active region must scale with wavelength.

(e) The antenna must not radiate in the direction of the expanding structure.

(f) The parts must have significant direct coupling outside the transmission

line feeder.

An Equiangular Spiral Antenna

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

A Conical Log-Spiral Antenna

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

A Log-Periodic Antenna

SPIRAL ANTENNAS
1. Spiral antennas, a type of frequency independent antenna, have been studied for
over 40 years. Frequency independent antennas provide uniform electrical
characteristics over a wide frequency band. However, frequency independent antennas
typically have broad radiation patterns and low gain, which is not suitable for many
applications. One method to overcome this limitation is to use an array of frequency
independent antenna elements. This approach allows for pattern control and higher
gains, but the wideband characteristics of the frequency independent element are lost in
the array environment. Inter-element spacing usually limits array bandwidth to a value
much less than a frequency independent element can achieve outside an array.

A 1 arm Spiral Antenna

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

2. Much of the early work on spiral antennas was published in the late 1950’s and
early 1960’s. The planar equiangular spiral antenna and the unidirectional equiangular
spiral or conical log spiral antenna were presented by Dyson. Bandwidths of greater
than 20:1 were observed with nearly constant impedance and pattern performance.
Bawer and Wolfe collected much of the previous work on spiral antennas and
summarized the performance of the spiral antenna for variations in different parameters.
They looked at the equiangular, Archimedean, and square spiral antennas.

3. Much of the early work on spiral antennas was based on experiment and the
band theory. The band theory essentially means that the spiral operates in the region
where the circumference of the spiral is equal to a wavelength. In the early 1960’s more
rigorous mathematical explanations were pursued. Curtis derived the radiation patterns
for an Archimedean spiral by approximating the spiral as a series of semicircles.
Wheeler looked at the radiation from various regions of an equiangular spiral using a
similar technique to Curtis, but without the semicircle approximation. A more general
explanation of the spiral antenna was given by Cheo. He solved Maxwell’s equations for
an equiangular spiral consisting of an infinite number of coplanar arms. It was found that
the frequency independent behaviour of the spiral is dependent on the curvature of
each arm of the spiral.

4. Spiral antennas are typically backed by a lossy cavity. The lossy cavity improves
the low frequency impedance behaviour and axial ratio of the spiral by reducing
reflections from the end of the each arm of the spiral. The lossy cavity also absorbs the
back radiation from the spiral providing for a larger pattern bandwidth by reducing the
reflection from the ground plane that causes pattern nulls. Spirals with bandwidths of
9:1 or greater are common. The bulk of the lossy cavity and the gain reduction due to
the loss are the two major drawbacks of using a cavity-backed spiral. As a result,

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

conductor backed spirals have gained some popularity for certain applications.
Experiments have shown a 1.2:1 circular polarization bandwidth for conductor backed

spiral antennas. For very low profile designs a slot spiral can be used to further reduce
the height of the antenna. Slot spirals with bandwidths of 25:1 and depths of one
hundredth the wavelength of the lowest frequency have been demonstrated.

5. Size reduction of spiral antennas has been studied for many years. Material
loading is one way to reduce the size but material loss and weight can be a problem in
some applications. Slow-wave spiral techniques were developed to overcome the
problems inherent in material loading. Adding some type of high frequency profile, such
as a zigzag or sine wave, to the spiral and increasing the circumference of the spiral,
such as the square spiral, are ways of producing a slow-wave spiral. The radiation zone
for a specific wavelength is moved closer to the centre of the spiral when slow-wave
techniques are employed. This effectively reduces the velocity of propagation along the
length of the spiral, which reduces the low frequency cut-off of the spiral providing for
size reduction. The low frequency cut-off may also be reduced by resistively terminating
the end of each arm of the spiral to reduce reflections from the end of the spiral, but
these reduces efficiency, and, thus, gain.

ADVANTAGES OF SPIRAL ANTENNAS

6. Spiral antennas have the following advantages over conventional antennas

(a) They can be microstrip/ stripline based but this constrains their power
handling capability. Enhanced power handling can be ensured with a
multilayered design/ dielectric loading etc,

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

(b) They can be conformally mounted on a metallic surface with the aperture
being protected form weather effects by a radome.

(c) Broadband property is brought about by the design rather than the nature

of the microstrip/ stripline material. Such designs are usually spirals/ planar log

periodic arrays. The later are not truly conformal but can be made to have a very

low foot print. Therefore spirals backed by cavities make them unidirectional,

conformal and broadband. From the point of view of Naval Ship borne

application, they are readily amenable for conformal installation

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

ARC HIM E DEA N SPI RA L A NTE NNA S

The Archimedean spiral antenna is a popular frequency independent antenna. Previous
wideband array designs with variable element sizes (WAVES) have used the
Archimedean spiral antenna as the radiating element. The Archimedean spiral is
typically backed by a lossy cavity to achieve frequency bandwidths of 9:1 or greater. A
self-complementary Archimedean spiral antenna is shown in fig 1. A spiral antenna is
self-complementary if the metal and air regions of the antenna are equal. The input
impedance of a self-complementary antenna can be found using Babinet’s principle,
giving

(1)

where η is the characteristic impedance of the medium surrounding the antenna. For a
self-complementary Archimedean spiral antenna in free space the input impedance
should be

(2)

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

Each arm of an Archimedean spiral is linearly proportional to the angle, φ and is

described by the following relationships

(3)

where r1 is the inner radius of the spiral. The proportionality constant is determined from
the width of each arm, w, and the spacing between each turn, s , which for a self
complementary spiral is given by

(4)

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

Fig. 1 Geometry of Archimedean spiral antenna.

The strip width of each arm can be found from the following equation

(5)

assuming a self-complementary structure. Thus the spacing or width may be written as

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

(6)

where 2 r is the outer radius of the spiral and N is the number of turns. The above
equations apply to a two-arm Archimedean spiral, but in some cases four-arm spirals
may be desired. In this case the arm width becomes

(7)

and the proportionality constant is

(8)

The Archimedean spiral antenna radiates from a region where the circumference of the
spiral equals one wavelength. This is called the active region of the spiral. Each arm of

the spiral is fed 180o  out of phase, so when the circumference of the spiral is one
wavelength the currents at complementary or opposite points on each arm of the spiral
add in phase in the far field. The low frequency operating point of the spiral is
determined theoretically by the outer radius and is given by

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

(9)
where c is the speed of light. Similarly the high frequency operating point is based on
the inner radius giving

(10)

In practice the low frequency point will be greater than predicted by (9) due to
reflections from the end of the spiral. The reflections can be minimized by using
resistive loading at the end of each arm or by adding conductivity loss to some part of
the outer turn of each arm. Also, the high frequency limit may be less than found from
(10) due to feed region effects.

FLOW OF PROJECT

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

1. The project started with the aim of designing a printed slot spiral antenna. The

syndicate decided to fabricate the printed antenna in-house with the facilities available

in the PCB lab. Towards this end, the syndicate generated a spiral for the required

antenna in MATLAB. The printout of the spiral was taken on a transparency. This

transparency when used for the fabrication of the PCB yielded no result since the

quality of print out on the transparency was not up to the mark. Hence the UV light

passed through resulting in no pattern on the substrate.

2. The syndicate decided to make a second attempt keeping in mind the

experiences of the first one. This time, good quality printouts were taken on four

transparencies and they were fixed back to back to present a more opaque structure for

the UV light. However the project hit a dead end view non-availability of developer with

the PCB lab and no chance for immediate procurement in the future.

3. The syndicate was now left with two choices. First, to outsource the entire

fabrication of the design to an external agency and second, to revise the aim slightly

and to have another go at it.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

4. Till now duroid was supposed to be the dielectric backing for the antenna. The

syndicate was advised by the guide to explore the possibility of plywood as the dielectric

view the following reasons.

(a) Plywood has comparable dielectric constant (2.5) vis-à-vis duroid(3.5)

(b) It is cheaper, readily available and easier to work with.

(c) Since the antenna has no cavity, the role of dielectric is restricted.

5. As is commonly known that when an electromagnetic wave propagates through a

dielectric, both its velocity and wavelength reduce while the frequency remains

constant. Hence a substance with high dielectric constant shall offer greater attenuation

in wavelength and velocity during the course of propagation. Since a cavity is required

to be placed at a minimum distance of λ/4, the greater the reduction in wavelength, the

closer shall be the cavity and hence a compact design. However the dielectric constant

should not be too high to attenuate the wave totally, which will lead to nil radiations.

6. After the selection of dielectric, it was decided to fabricate an Archimedean Spiral

Antenna view the following reasons.

(a) The earlier design involved cutting of slots (which are the main radiators).

This is a precision job and couldn’t be undertaken in-house.

(b) The dimensions involved were too small to work with without precision

cutting tools.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

(c) Archimedean spiral allows one to work with convenient dimensions and

shapes without significantly compromising performance.

DESIGN OF ARCHIMEDEAN SPIRAL ANTENNA

7. The antenna has been designed for a frequency range of 100 MHz to 400 MHz.

hence fhigh = 400 MHz and flow = 100 MHz. Hence from equation (9) and (10)

r2 = 47.8 cm

r1 = 11.94 cm

It was decided to make a three turn spiral keeping in view the dimensions of the

plywood available. Hence N = 3.

Since Archimedean spiral is a self complimentary structure, hence from equation (6)

s = w = 3 cm

From equation (4)

r0 = 1.91 cm/rad

Hence from equation (3) the Archimedean spiral antenna can be described by the

following relationship.

r = 1.91 φ + 11.94 cm

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

MATLAB PROGRAM FOR GENERATION OF SPIRAL

%arcspiralwidth.m

%Generation of Archimedean Spirals with Defined width

% and defining Max dimension of Spiral set

spi1=fopen('spi1.dat','w');

spi2=fopen('spi2.dat','w');

a=1.91; %Rate of growth

r0=11.937; %Initial position of first set of spirals

width=(2*a*pi)/4; %Width of spirals

max=150.5; %Max Dimensions allowed for set.

r10=r0-(a*pi); %Initial position of second set of spirals

n=3; %Number of spirals

%First set of spirals

for the=0:0.005:(2+(2*(n-1)))*pi;

r=r0+(a*the);

rw=r+width;

if rw<=max

fprintf(spi1,'%f %f\n',the,r);

fprintf(spi1,'%f %f\n',the,rw);

end;

end;

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

%Second set of spirals

for theta=pi:0.005:(3+(2*(n-1)))*pi;

r1=r10+(a*theta);

r1w=r1+width;

if r1w<=max

fprintf(spi2,'%f %f\n',theta,r1);

fprintf(spi2,'%f %f\n',theta,r1w);

end;

end;

fclose(spi1);

fclose(spi2);

load spi1.dat;

x1=spi1(:,1);

y1=spi1(:,2);

polar(x1,y1);

hold;

load spi2.dat;

x2=spi2(:,1);

y2=spi2(:,2);

polar(x2,y2);

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

TABLE OF ANTENNA DIMENSIONS AT VARIOUS ANGLES

0 11.937 400 25.26456 800 38.59211

10 12.270189 410 25.59774 810 38.9253
30 12.936567 420 25.93093 820 39.25849
40 13.269756 430 26.26412 830 39.59168
50 13.602944 440 26.59731 840 39.92487
60 13.936133 450 26.9305 850 40.25806
70 14.269322 460 27.26369 860 40.59124
80 14.602511 470 27.59688 870 40.92443
90 14.9357 480 27.93007 880 41.25762
100 15.268889 490 28.26326 890 41.59081
110 15.602078 500 28.59644 900 41.924
120 15.935267 510 28.92963 910 42.25719
130 16.268456 520 29.26282 920 42.59038
140 16.601644 530 29.59601 930 42.92357
150 16.934833 540 29.9292 940 43.25676
160 17.268022 550 30.26239 950 43.58994
170 17.601211 560 30.59558 960 43.92313
180 17.9344 570 30.92877 970 44.25632
190 18.267589 580 31.26196 980 44.58951
200 18.600778 590 31.59514 990 44.9227
210 18.933967 600 31.92833 1000 45.25589
220 19.267156 610 32.26152 1010 45.58908
230 19.600344 620 32.59471 1020 45.92227
240 19.933533 630 32.9279 1030 46.25546
250 20.266722 640 33.26109 1040 46.58864
260 20.599911 650 33.59428 1050 46.92183
270 20.9331 660 33.92747 1060 47.25502
280 21.266289 670 34.26066 1070 47.58821
290 21.599478 680 34.59384 1080 47.9214
300 21.932667 690 34.92703
310 22.265856 700 35.26022
320 22.599044 710 35.59341
330 22.932233 720 35.9266
340 23.265422 730 36.25979
350 23.598611 740 36.59298
360 23.9318 750 36.92617
370 24.264989 760 37.25936
380 24.598178 770 37.59254
390 24.931367 780 37.92573
790 38.25892

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

FABRICATION OF THE ANTENNA

The MATLAB generated spiral was used to mark the actual spiral dimensions on an

aluminium sheet. It was then cut in-house. The same dimensions were also marked on

the plywood. The next challenge was to fix this aluminium spiral onto the plywood as

per the proper marking. Since the cutting of the spiral was crude, the aluminium sheet

had developed a lot of torsion and internal stress during the course of cutting. Hence

the first effort of fixing the spiral with the help of an RF transparent adhesive was a

failure. With no other viable solution in sight, it was finally decided to nail this spiral onto

the plywood. Smallest possible size of nail was chosen so as to keep the damages to

the minimum.

The next step was to excite the antenna using a 50 ohm coaxial cable. The spiral

antenna was mounted on the turn-table in NEU(J) and the beam pattern was plotted.

With a network analyzer the VSWR of the antenna was found and was observed to be

on the higher side.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

ANTENNA BEAM PATTERN

100 MHz 200 MHz 300 MHz 400 MHz

1. In the field of antenna design the term radiation pattern most commonly refers to
the directional (angular) dependence of radiation from the antenna or other source. It is
a fundamental property of antennas that the receiving pattern (sensitivity as a function

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

of direction) is identical to the radiation pattern. This is a consequence of the reciprocity

theorem. Thus when determining the pattern of an antenna by measurement, the
antenna may be either receiving or transmitting, whichever is more convenient.

2. Here the spiral antenna was kept as the receiving antenna on the turn table. The
transmission was done at 100MHz, 200 MHz, 300 MHz and 400MHz and the beam
pattern was plotted using the facilities available at NEU(J). To check the polarisation of
the antenna, both vertically as well as horizontally polarised beams were radiated and
the beam pattern in either case was found to be similar.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE

1. Due the limitation of the cutting tools and the decision of the syndicate to opt for
professional help for the fabrication of the antenna, the overall structure of the antenna
is very crude.

2. It has been scientifically proved that slot spiral antennas and equiangular spiral
antennas have much smaller size, better performance and better frequency response
than the Archimedean Spiral antennas, but due to the limitation of the fabrication
process, the lack of expertise in cutting slots and the inability to fabricate a slot spiral
antenna in the PCB lab, these designs could not be realised.

3. The attempt to use an RF transparent adhesive for sticking the spiral onto the
plywood was a failure and hence the spiral had to be nailed. It is common knowledge
that any cavity tends to act like a resonator and tends to cause out of band radiations,
whose frequency depends on the dimensions of the cavity. Due to nailing, certain such
cavities are bound to have been created, which further reduces the performance of the
antenna.

4. An Archimedean Spiral tends to radiate in both the directions and hence leads to
poor performance. The radiations in one side can be absorbed and even reflected by
the use of a cavity. If such a cavity is fabricated for this antenna, the performance is
bound to improve.

5. The use of duroid would have further improved the performance of the antenna if
the cavity had been used. A backplane with a higher dielectric constant allows us to
place the cavity closer to the backplane and thus reduces the overall dimension of the
antenna.

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

6. The VSWR of the antenna is on the higher side. This can be attributed to the
unoptimized feeding arrangement and the lack of a proper matching network for the
antenna. The antenna impedance has to be matched to the 50 ohm coaxial line that is
feeding the antenna. Attempts are on for designing such a matching network.

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CONCLUSION

1. The necessity of alternate antenna designs has been fostered by stringent

design requirements to reduce the ship Radar Cross section (RCS). Conventional
paradigms of ship construction depended, obsessively, on provisioning adequate real
estate in the higher reaches of the ship superstructure, whereby antennas could be
located at adequate height to increase the radio horizon sufficiently. With the result the
superstructure invariably comprised a couple of high masts with structurally large
horizontal appendages called yardarms on which the various communication V/UHF
antennas were installed. Befittingly then, the phrase a ‘yard arms length’ was coined to
signify their inordinately large size which often had posed nightmarish stability problems
to the designers. In addition these also contributed generously to enhance the ship
RCS.

2. As tactical thinking evolved older precepts like “total radio silence” became
virtually redundant. Present day paradigms like ‘Network Centric Warfare’ (NCO), by
their characteristic insistence on co-operative engagements have ushered in a new era
of extreme reliance on maintaining communications at ‘all times and anywhere’. These
concepts have also drawn succor form the developments in commercial
communications. These COTS components of technology have become
commonplace, owing to their low lead times in development and deployment, they are
now dictating the pace and rapidity of change. The mode of communications was the
first to be transformed. A protocol with elaborate synchronization procedures was first
put in place. The requisite modifications in transmitter and receiver technologies to
support these protocols came in next. Attendant with the advancements was the urge to
make them smaller and portable. Rapid reductions in size followed. However, the only

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one component that held out and didn’t lend itself to easy engineering re-design was
ironically the oldest ingredient of communication technology, the antenna.

3. One of the primary reasons for such persistence with vintage ship designs has
been a lack of ability to design and operate ‘reduced size’ antennas. Generic antennas
for V/UHF communication were usually dipoles. In HF and low band VHF (30-88 MHZ)
monopoles are also extensively used. Reduction in the size of these antennas wasn’t
possible beyond certain finite limit with significantly compromising their efficiency.
Further, these antennas were linearly polarized and provided omni-directional coverage.
But in commercial terms omni-directional coverage often proved to be the troublesome
factor. On the contrary use of directional antennas meant more signal strength within
the arc/ sector of coverage. For defense application these developments have
bestowed a much awaited opportunity to redefine tactical communications.

4. Developments in material technology gave the much need boost to antenna

miniaturization design efforts. Dielectric coated antennas could be realized to give the
much need reduction n size and weight. However one problem still nagged the ready
application of these designs. This was the requirement of ‘broadbanding’ i.e. the
antenna had to be made to operate with permissible efficiency over a sufficiently large
range of frequencies. Coupled with the reduction in size such antenna designs were
always envisioned to be the ultimate solution to all tactical communication problems.
One of the first attempts was to utilize a array of dipoles to achieve the requisite
directional and broadband performance. These designs however proved counter
productive owing to their large spatial requirements. Log Periodic dipole antennas were
tried out with measurable success but these had a large RCS foot print whereby their
application is limited.

5. Spiral antennas are the technology of the future. They are able to achieve the
required frequency response and are flexible enough to be used in a wide variety of

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 Design of Archimedean Spiral Antenna

applications. These antennas are conformal in nature and hence can be installed on a
ship, without significantly increasing the RCS. They can replace all the communication
antennas of the ship and will completely do away with the requirement of the inefficient

antenna based tuners. The following illustration shows one of the ways in which spiral
antennas can be mounted on a ship’s mast.

Spiral Antenna No, Spiral Antenna No,

01 03

Spiral Antenna No,

02

Schematic of proposed conformal antennas mounted on the surface of the mast

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Balanis, Constantine A. Antenna Theory Analysis and Design. Arizona : John

Wiley & Sons, 1997.
2. Warren L Stutzman, Gary A Thiele. Antenna Theory and Design. New
Jersey : John Wiley and Sons, 1998.
3. Milligan, Thomas A. Modern Antenna Design. New Jersey : John Wiley and
Sons, IEEE Press, 2005.
4. Dyson, John D. The Equiangular Spiral Antenna. IRE Transactions On
Antennas And Propagation. 1959.
5. Volakis, John L. A BROADBAND VHF-L BAND CAVITY-BACKED. Air
Force Research Laboratory /University of Michigan. 2005.
6. Volakis, M W Nurnberger and J.l. Extremely Broadband Slot Spiral Antenna
with Shallow Reflecting cavities. Electromagnetics. 2000, Vol. 20.
7. KAISER, JULIUS A. The Archimedean Two-Wire Spiral Antenna. IRE
Transactions on Antennas and propagation. 1959.
8. Caswell. Analysis of Archimedean Spiral Antenna. IEEE Trasnsactions On
Antennas And Propagation. 2000.
9. Antenna, A Theoretical Study Of The Equiangular Spiral. Edward Mast.
Antenna laboratory US Air Force. 1958.

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