(a) single helical antenna

(b) eight by eight helical antenna array

Figure 9. Field plots for magnitude of the electric field in YZ planar cross section. Comparison of field strength of

helix array to single helix demonstrates constructive interference between array elements. Calibrated color bar at bottom

gives the magnitude of the electric field from 0.0 dB (red), -35 dB (green) to -70 dB (black).

Table 3. Performance metrics, number of elements, and array configuration.

array

Gain

HPBW

dBi

deg

# elements

configuration

1

1

2

40

2

1x2

9

30

4

2x2

12

20

64

8x8

21

10

256

16 x 16

26

2.5

50

40

30

20

10

0

1

2

4

64

256

array elements

Figure 10. HPBW width vs. number of array elements.