Loosely wound short-arm two-wire Archimedean spiral antennas are investigated. It is shown that good circularly polarized waves with axial ratio less than 2 dB are obtained when the outer circumference C of the spiral antenna is in the range of about 1. 3λ < C < 1. 5λ, where λ is the free-space wavelength. To improve the antenna characteristics further, spiral antennas combined with a parasitic loop are examined. It is clarified that the parasitic loop greatly contributes to the improvement of the axial ratio and power gain.

Backfire quadrifilar helical antennas combined with parasitic loops are investigated in detail, focusing on clarifying the function of parasitic loops. First, the basic property is examined for the case of one parasitic loop, and it is found that the loop behaves as a director when the circumferential length of the loop is nearly 0. 9λ, and a reflector when the circumferential length of the loop is nearly 1. 2λ provided the distance between the parasitic loop and the top plane of helical antennas is approximately 0. 1λ, where λ is the wavelength. Next, the function of the parasitic loop is investigated by comparing the current distributions on the helices and the loop with those on a monofilar helix with a ground plane. It is found that the function of the parasitic loop is quite different from that of the ground plane. Then, the case of two parasitic loops is examined, and it is shown that the use of two parasitic loops is very effective and simple measures to control the radiation pattern and gain of the backfire quadrifilar helical antennas. Finally, for this type of antennas with two parasitic loops, an example of structural parameters suited to the use in satellite communications is presented.

The reflection characteristics of large alternating-phase fed single-layer waveguide arrays with center-feeds are investigated to identify the mechanism for bandwidth narrowing effects. Firstly, the overall reflection for the whole array is analyzed by FEM and fine agreement with measurements is demonstrated. It is deviating from the conventional prediction based upon a simple sum of reflections from components in the array, such as the multiple-way power divider, the slot waveguides and the aperture at the antenna input. Careful diagnosis reveals that the mutual coupling between the alternating phase waveguides via external half-space is the key factor in reflection accumulation. Amongst all, the slot with strong excitation whose position depends upon the aperture illumination design produces the dominant contribution in the mutual coupling.

In this paper, small sized arrays with a few elements are investigated. The antenna diameter is assumed to be less than 3λo. The focus of this paper is to compare the gain characteristics of a triangle arrangement with these of a uniform arrangement. The method of moments is used to calculating the gain characteristics. It is shown that the triangle arrangement is not always sufficient to obtain maximum gain for a small-sized antenna with only a few elements. Also, the type of antenna element used greatly influences the required number of elements and the element configuration.

In order to achieve omni-directional coverages on base station antennas for fixed wireless access systems (FWA), a TM01 mode conical horn with 4.6λ aperture size was employed as a feed horn for an axisymmetrical reflector antenna. Here, a shaped dielectric lens was inserted in the conical horn so as to achieve low sidelobe radiation characteristics. However, it was pointed out that radiation pattern shaping ability was degraded in this small lens antenna. In this paper, deteriorations of aperture distributions in a shaped lens are clarified through FDTD calculations. Severe phase delays are shown in the aperture phase distributions. A novel lens shaping method of compensating the phase delays is developed. Aperture distributions and radiation patterns of the corrected lens are estimated through FDTD calculations. Satisfactory uniform phase distributions in aperture distributions and low sidelobe radiation patterns are ensured.