Date of Award

Fall 2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Richie, James

Second Advisor

Yaz, Edwin

Third Advisor

Koch, Ben

Abstract

Recently, the phantom monopole configuration was successfully simulated using wire loop antennas. The wire loop antennas have an undesirable input impedance, making them difficult to match and implement. A new type of antenna that has a more desirable impedance while still maintaining the same near magnetic field and far field radiation pattern is investigated in this work. The research done focuses on a horizontally placed helical antenna. There is little research done on a horizontally placed helical antenna so several different parameters of this antenna were investigated. A normal mode helical antenna was chosen because of its size and impedance. A helical antenna is an electrically small antenna, like the wire loop antenna, with an improved impedance compared to the wire loop. The work done included computer simulation and physical construction of the helical antenna. The physical testing was done in order to support and verify the computer modeling of the phantom monopole. Through testing and simulation, it is shown here that a horizontally placed helical antenna provides an alternative to the wire loop antenna originally investigated. By placing the helical antenna horizontally, the near magnetic field and far field radiation pattern mimic the original wire loop configuration. The phantom monopole is recreated using a new type of antenna that has an improved input impedance.

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