700 MHz Quad Port Helical Antenna Array for

MIMO Applications
Fayez Hyjazie, Wen Tong and Halim Boutayeb
Antenna Department, Huawei Technologies Canada Co., Ltd., Kanata, Canada, fayez.hyjazie@huawei.com

Abstract— Quad helical antenna is designed for Multiple layer and the four rectangular conductive strips are printed
Inputs Multiple Outputs (MIMO) application in the 700 MHz on the inner most surface of the bottom layer as in Figure 1.
Europe 2020 allocated band for wireless communications. The
quad printed helical antenna with four collocated independent
ports has S11<-20dB 13% band width from 694 MHz – 790
MHz band. We present the element and a staggered column
array with simulation results of radiation patterns, and s-
parameters for the single stand- alone quad antenna and in the
array. The staggered array is designed and fabricated.
Experimental results and field tests will be presented.
Index Terms— quad antenna, helical antenna, wide band,
700 MHz band, Europe 2020 allocated bands, MIMO

I. INTRODUCTION
The quad port helical antenna (QPHA) is designed in the
700 MHz frequency band (694 – 790 MHz) assigned for
wireless broad band services in Europe 2020 [1]. The QPHA
element is intended for use in MIMO as four collocated
helical elements with four independent ports. It is inherently
wideband and has compact size compared to other collocated
antennas.
When its ports are fed with proper amplitudes and phases,
the QPHA can provide linear or circular polarization [2-3].
For this application, it is operating as four independent ports
feeding four helical elements. Other techniques of the
quadrifillar helical antenna have been proposed in the
literature for various applications [4-14]. The bonded inner and outer flexible substrate layers
Fig. 1.
In this work, we present results of simulations of the 700 are wrapped around a mandrill.
MHz QPHA, carried out using ANSYS HFSS Ansoft
Software (based on Finite Elements method). Radiation
patterns, reflection coefficients and mutual coupling results
are presented for the QPHA four ports and in the array. The
QPHA array is being fabricated. Test results will be
presented at the conference.
II. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
The QPHA antenna consists of two flexible layers, each
is 0.127mm thick, of Dupont Pyralux AP 8555R flexible
substrate material with 3.4 relative permittivity, and 0.002
loss tangent. The two layers are bonded by a 0.0254mm
Dupont Pyralux FR adhesive material with 3.5 relative
permittivity and 0.02 loss tangent (Figure 1). The bonding Port2
procedure is described in Figure 1, where the bonded layers Port1 22
are wrapped around a cylindrical mandrill of radius 71 mm
Fig. 2. QPHA has 4 independent ports: ports 1, 2, along the positive x and
and height 100 mm. The four helically shaped ½ ounce y axes with diametrically oppositte ports 3 and 4, respectively.
copper conductive traces are printed on the outer most top
 (a)

(b)
Fig. 4. (a) Coupling between side and diagonally opposite ports: 1-2, 3-4 and
1-3 (b) Return loss dB of the four QPHA independent ports: 1,2,3, and 4.

Fig. 3. The QPHA array is being assembled.

The parameters of the helical structure are helical length

= 240mm, number of turns=0.5225 and pitch angle= 14.3º.
Each trace has an independent port. Only two of the 4 ports
are shown in Figure 1. Ports 3 and 4 are diametrically
opposite to ports 1 and 2, respectively. Opposite ports are 1
and 3, and 2 and 4. Side or adjacent ports are 1 and 2, and 3
and 4.
The array consisting of two by four staggered array with
QHA elements  vertically spaced and 2 horizontally
spaced is being fabricated shown in Figure 3.

III. NUMERICAL RESULTS

Using ANSYS software, the QHA simulated coupling
between side ports and diagonally opposite ports are shown
in Figure 4(a) for the 700 MHz band. The coupling between
side ports and opposite ports are less than -7 dB, and -14 dB,
respectively. Return loss at the four ports, shown in Figure
4(b), are better than -20 dB across the 700 frequency band.
The total radiation patterns at 694 MHz, 742 MHz and
Fig. 5. Total gain radiation patterns QPHA at 742 MHz with +x-axis port on
790 MHz are shown in Figures 5, 6 and 7 respectively.
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Fig. 6. Radiation patterns of QHA at 790 MHz with +x-axis port on

IV. CONCLUSION
A 700 MHz Quad ports helical antenna had been
designed for MIMO application. Element is used in an array
which is being fabricated and will be used in field tests. Field
tests results will be presented at the conference.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank Toby Kemp and Jeff Hill
for the Mechanical design of the prototypes.

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