Dispersion of Electromagnetic Waves Guided by an Open Tape Helix Ii

The dispersion equation for electromagnetic waves guided by an open tape helix for the standard model of an infinitesimally thin and perfectly conducting tape is derived from an exact solution of a homogeneous boundary value problem for Maxwell’s equations. A numerical analysis of the dispersion equation reveals that the tape current density component perpendicular to the winding direction does not affect the dispersion characteristic to any significant extent. In fact, there is a significant deviation from the dominant-mode sheathhelix dispersion curve only in the third allowed region and towards the end of the second allowed region. It may be concluded that the anisotropically conducting model of the tape helix that neglects the above transverse-current contribution is a good approximation to the isotropically conducting model that takes into account this contribution except at high frequencies even for wide tapes.