SURIANO / SURIANO /HOLMES /YU
Antenna fundamentals
A proper understanding of antennas requires familiarity with electromagnetics, circuit theory,
electronics, and signal processing.
CANDACE SURIANO, PH.D.
Suriano Solutions
JOHN SURIANO, PH.D.
Nidec Motors
Auburn Hills, MI
TOM HOLMES
Agilent Technologies
Tipp City, OH
QIN YU
Alcatel-Lucent
Columbus, OH
H
OW DOES AN ANTENNA PICK UP A
signal and convert it to something
useful to a receiving circuit? What
is the current path for the signals received
or transmitted from an antenna? Why are
there different types of antennas, and why
do they have different shapes? What are the
standard engineering terms associated with
antenna technology? How are signals from
antennas amplified?
The subject of antennas may seem beyond
reach for many engineers, but a working
knowledge of the operation and functional
characteristics of antennas is an essential
component of the EMC knowledge base. It
is the starting point for understanding many
EMC requirements and test procedures and
for resolving compliance issues. The basics of
antennas can be deduced from fundamental
principles of electromagnetics and electric
circuits. Even a rudimentary understanding
can prove to be invaluable in solving EMC
problems.
HOW DO ANTENNAS DETECT SIGNALS?
Antennas have two complementary func-
InterferenceTechnology.com
ANTENNAS
tions: converting electromagnetic waves
into voltage and current used by a circuit,
and converting voltage and current into
electromagnetic waves which are transmitted
into space. Signals are transmitted through
space by electromagnetic waves consisting
of electric fields measured in Volts per meter
and magnetic fields measured in Amps per
meter. Depending on the type of field being
detected, the antenna takes on a particular
construction. Antennas designed to pick
up electric fields, like the antenna of Figure
1(a), are made with rods and plates while
antennas made to pick up magnetic fields, as
in Figure 1(b), are made from loops of wire.
Sometimes parts of electric circuits may have
characteristics that unintentionally make
them antennas. EMC is concerned with re-
ducing the probability of these unintentional
antennas injecting signals into their circuits
or influencing other circuits.
Consider the antenna of a car radio. As
the electric field (V/m) hits the antenna it
impresses a voltage along its length (m*V/m
= V) relative to ground. The receiver detects
the voltage between the antenna and ground.
Another way to think of this type of antenna
I
Electric
Magnetic
Field
Field
V
I
Figure 1. (a) Electric field antenna and (b)
magnetic field antenna.
INTERFERENCE TECHNOLOGY 1
ANTENNAS
is as one lead of a voltmeter measuring
the potential in space. The other lead
of the voltmeter is the ground of the
circuit.
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AN
ANTENNA’S SHAPE?
Some antennas are made of loops of wire.
These antennas detect the magnetic field
rather than the electric field. Just as a
magnetic field through a coil of wire is
produced by the current in that coil, so
too a current is induced in a coil of wire
when a magnetic field goes through that
coil. The ends of the loop antenna are
attached to a receiving circuit through
which this induced current flows as the
loop antenna detects the magnetic field.
Magnetic fields are generally directed
perpendicular to the direction of their
propagation so the plane of the loop
should be aligned parallel to the direc-
tion of the wave propagation to detect
the field.
Some types of electric field antennas are
biconical, horn, and microstrip. Generally,
antennas that radiate electric fields have
two components insulated from each other.
The simplest electric field antenna is the
dipole antenna, whose very name implies its
two-component nature. The two conductor
elements act like the plates of a capacitor with
the field between them projecting out into
space rather than being confined between
the plates. On the other hand, magnetic
field antennas are made of coils which act as
inductors. The inductor fields are projected
out into space rather than being confined to
a closed magnetic circuit. The categorization
of antennas in this way is somewhat artifi-
cial, however, since the actual mechanism of
radiation involves both electric and magnetic
fields no matter what the construction.
HOW DO ANTENNAS FORM AND
RADIATE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS?
As previously mentioned, electric field
antennas can be related to capacitors.
Consider a simple parallel plate ca-
pacitor shown in Figure 2(a). The electric
field that occurs when a charge is placed
on each of the plates is contained in be-
tween the plates. If the plates are spread
apart so that they lie in the same plane,
the electric field between the plates ex-
tends out into space. The same process
occurs with an electric field dipole an-
2 INTERFERENCE TECHNOLOGY
tenna as shown in Figure 2(b). Charges
on each part of the antenna produce a
field into space between the two halves
of the antenna. There is an intrinsic
capacitance between the two rods of
the dipole antenna as shown in Figure
2(c). Current is required to charge the
dipole rods. The current in each part of
the antenna flows in the same direction.
Such current is called antenna mode
current. This condition is special be-
cause it results in radiation. As the signal
applied to the two halves of the antenna
oscillates, the field keeps reversing and
sends out waves into space.
The charge and current on the dipole
create fields that are perpendicular to
each other. The electric field, E, flows
from the positive charge to the negative
charge placed on the elements by voltage
applied to the antenna as shown in Figu-
re 3(a). Charging current applied to the
antenna makes a magnetic field, H, that
circulates around the wire according to
the right hand rule as shown in Figure
3(b). God made it so that when electrons
move along the wire a magnetic “wind”
is produced which circulates around the
wire. Directing one’s right thumb in the
direction of the current flow, the fingers
wrap around the wire in the direction
of the magnetic field. The circulation
of this magnetic field results in induc-
tance of the antenna. The antenna is
therefore a reactive device having both
Figure 2. (a) Capacitor circuit, (b) dipole, (c) dipole showing intrinsic capacitance and
charging current.
Figure 3. (a) Electric field E and (b) magnetic field H and TEM field from dipole charge and
current.
ANTENNA FUNDAMENTALS
capacitance from the charge distribu-
tion and inductance from the current
distribution.
As shown in Figure 3(c), the E and H
fields are perpendicular to each other.
They spread out into space from the
antenna in a circular fashion. As the
signal on the antenna oscillates, waves
are formed. Transverse Electromagnetic
(TEM) waves are produced in which E
and H are perpendicular to each other.
The antenna can also convert a TEM
wave back into current and voltage by
something called reciprocity. The anten-
na has complementary behavior when
sending and receiving.
The condition of antenna radiation
is shown in Figure 4. The reactive com-
ponents of the antenna store energy
in the electric and magnetic fields su-
rrounding the antenna. Reactive power
is exchanged back and forth between
the supply and the reactive components
of the antenna. Just as in any L-C cir-
cuit where the voltage and current are
always 90° out of phase, so too with
an antenna the E field (produced by
voltage) and the H field (produced by
current) are 90° out of phase if the resis-
tance of the antenna is neglected. In an
electric circuit, real power is delivered
only when the load has a real compo-
nent to its impedance that causes a
component of the current and voltage
to be in-phase. This circumstance also
EMC DIRECTORY & DESIGN GUIDE 2007
SURIANO / SURIANO /HOLMES /YU
Figure 4. Power flow resulting in radiation.
holds true with antennas. The antenna
has some small resistance so there is
a component of real power delivered
that is dissipated in the antenna. For
radiation to occur, E and H fields must
be in-phase with each other as shown in
Figure 3(c). With the antenna acting as
both a capacitance and an inductance,
how can this radiation take place? The
in-phase components are the result
of propagation delay. The waves from
the antenna do not instantly form at
all points in space simultaneously, but
rather propagate at the speed of light.
At distances far away from the antenna,
this delay results in a component of the
E and H fields that are in phase.
Thus, there are different components
of the E and H fields that comprise the
energy storage (reactive) part of the field
or the radiated (real) part. The reactive
portion is dictated by the capacitance
and inductance of the antenna and exists
predominately in the near field. The real
portion is dictated by something called
radiation resistance, caused by the pro-
pagation delay, and exists at large dis-
tance from the antenna in the far field.
Sometimes receiving antennas, such as
those used in EMC testing, may be pla-
ced so close to the source that they are
influenced more by the near field effects
than the far field radiation. In this case,
the receiving and transmitting antennas
are coupled by capacitance and mutual
inductance. The receiving antenna thus
acts as a load on the transmitter.
HOW DOES THE ANTENNA IMPEDANCE
CHANGE WITH FREQUENCY?
Antenna impedance is a function of
frequency. The current and charge
distribution on the antenna change
with frequency. The current on a di-
pole is generally shaped as a sinusoidal
function of position on the antenna as
dictated by the frequency. Since the
wavelength of a signal is dependent on
the frequency, at certain frequencies
InterferenceTechnology.com
Figure 5. (a) Dipole current with ½ wave excitation, (b) full wave excitation, (c) dipole
impedance.
the antenna length is equal to key frac-
tions of a wavelength. The current on
a dipole for frequencies resulting in ½
and 1 wavelength is shown in Figure 5(a)
and 5(b), respectively. At ½ wavelength,
the current from the source is maximal.
The input impedance of the antenna at
this frequency is therefore minimum,
equivalent to the resistance of the an-
tenna (actual + radiation resistance). At
a frequency that has a wavelength the
same as the antenna length, the current
from the source is zero; and therefore,
the input impedance is infinite. A plot
of the impedance vs. frequency is shown
in Figure 5(c).
DO ANTENNAS RADIATE IN ALL
DIRECTIONS?
The power from an antenna radiates in
a pattern that may not be uniform in all
directions. To characterize the antenna
gain, the ratio of the power radiated in
a given direction to the power density
if radiation occurred uniformly in all
directions (distributed over the sur-
face of a sphere) is used. For a dipole
antenna, most of the power radiates in
the direction perpendicular to the axis
of the antenna as shown in Figure 3. The
directivity of an antenna is the gain in
the direction of the maximum power,
which is the direction perpendicular to
the axis of a dipole. Gain is measured
in dBi = 10*log (Gain).
The three- or two-dimensional ra-
Figure 6. (a) Side view of half wave dipole array and (b) top view with power distribution.
ANTENNAS
diation pattern from an antenna is also
called a power pattern, power plot, or
power distribution. It visually illustrates
how an antenna receives or transmits
in a certain range of frequencies. It is
normally plotted for the far field. An
antenna radiation pattern is primarily
affected by the geometry of the antenna.
It is also affected by the surrounding
landscape or by other antennas. Some-
times multiple antennas are used in an
antenna array to affect directivity. As
shown in Figure 6(a), two antennas fed
by the same source can be used to cancel
the fields in the plane of the antennas if
they are spaced by ½ wavelength. The
top view of this arrangement is shown
in Figure 6(b) with a sketch of the power
pattern.
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL: WHAT
IS THE IMPORTANCE OF REFLECTIONS?
When we look into a mirror, we see the
effect of reflections of electromagnetic
radiation. Why do waves bounce off
conductive surfaces? What is the result
of these reflections on radiation? The
basis for reflections is the boundary
condition of the fields on the surface of
a conductor. Boundary conditions for
E and H fields are shown in Figure 7.
Inside the conductor, charges are free to
move when influenced by electric fields
and current is induced by time-varying
magnetic fields. A charge nearby the
conductor causes charges to migrate on
INTERFERENCE TECHNOLOGY 3
ANTENNAS ANTENNA FUNDAMENTALS

HOW ARE SIGNALS FROM ANTENNAS

CONDITIONED AND AMPLIFIED?
Antennas are connected to transmitters
or receivers through transmission lines.
Since the antenna impedance is not a
constant function of frequency, it cannot
A A be matched to the transmission line at
all frequencies. When the antenna im-
pedance does not match the impedance
of the transmission line (usually 50 Ω
or 75 Ω), reflections are formed at the
B B connection to the antenna. Waves that
come from the source are reflected back
down the transmission line reducing the
ability to transmit power. The VSWR,
voltage standing wave ratio, is a measure
of the mismatch. VSWR is the ratio of
C C the maximum voltage to minimum
voltage on the transmission line. With
an impedance mismatch, the VSWR is
greater than one, indicating the presence
Figure 7. (a) E and H fields are disrupted by perfect conductor, (b) tangential E and normal of reflections. As the impedance at the
H must be zero at boundary, (c) image of charge or current in conductor to satisfy boundary end of the transmission line becomes
conditions. higher—approaching open circuit, the
VSWR approaches infinity, indicating
the conductor surface. Any tangential conductive surfaces such as the Earth, that all the power is reflected. This situ-
component of the E field would cause or the sheet metal of a car or airplane, ation is similar to the incidence of a light
the charges to move until the tangential or the ground plane of a circuit board. beam at an interface between two media,
component of E is zero. The resulting ef- The fields that radiate into space are such as air and water, in which some
fect is equivalent to the image, or virtual the sum of those from the antenna and light is reflected and some goes into
charge, located below the conductor those from the image. If we consider the the water. VSWR reduces the amount
surface shown in Figure 7(c). The image E-field from a dipole, it is easy to see the of power transmitted to the antenna
isn’t real, but represents the charge that effect. In Figure 8(a) a dipole parallel or reduces the signal from the antenna
would cause an equivalent effect to the to conductor is shown with its image. when it is used to receive signals. The
actual result. When the dipole is perpendicular to change in VSWR and the proportion
A magnetic field that is time-varying the ground plane, an image of the dipole reflected are shown in Figure 9(a) and
induces a current in the perfect conduc- with inverted charge exists below it—as 9(b), respectively, for a 50-Ω system, in
tor. The current opposes the magnetic shown in Figure 8(b). In these two exam- which the load resistance is varied.
field so that no normal component can ples, the field at some point in space is Another problem with connecting
penetrate the conductor surface. Thus the sum of the fields from the dipole and to antennas is signal unbalance caused
the current image shown in Figure 7(c) its image. When the field radiating from by a ground plane. Figure 10(a) shows a
causes the resulting normal component a dipole hits the conductor, as shown in dipole antenna connected to a source
of H to disappear at the surface. Figure 8(c), the reflection can be inter- through a shielded cable. The shield is
The effect of the image is very impor- preted as the wave from the image. connected to the ground plane. Parasitic
tant because antennas are often nearby capacitance between the antenna and
the ground plane causes some current
to flow through the ground plane ra-
ther than through the shield. When
this occurs, the current on the antenna
is unbalanced, and the antenna loses
efficiency. To correct this imbalance,
a device called a balun (balanced to
unbalanced) is used. A simple type of
balun is shown in Figure 10(b). Here, the
balun is comprised of a ferrite cylinder
Figure 8. (a) Dipole parallel and (b) perpendicular to conductor and image and (c) (bead) placed over the coaxial cable. The
reflection of wave from dipole explained by considering effect of image. ferrite increases the impedance only for

4 INTERFERENCE TECHNOLOGY EMC DIRECTORY & DESIGN GUIDE 2007

SURIANO / SURIANO /HOLMES /YU ANTENNAS

plifier also raises the ambient by 20 dB

to –7 dBμV. Since the amplifier has an
8-dB noise figure, it then adds another
8 dB to the ambient making it +1 dBμV.
The noise floor of the receiver (-3 dBμV)
is below this figure and thus does not
affect the result. The new signal-to- noi-
se ratio is 19 dBμV.

SUMMARY
Figure 9. (a) VSWR and (b) ratio of reflected to forward power as load resistance varies in A proper understanding of antennas
50W system. requires familiarity with electromag-
netics, circuit theory, electronics, and
signal processing. Such knowledge is
indispensable to the EMC engineer
who must interpret test results, improve
accuracy and sensitivity of tests, and
suggest ways to eliminate unintentional
antennas from product designs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
W.L. Weeks, Antenna Engineering, McGraw-Hill
Book Co., New York, 1968
William H. Hayt, Jr., Engineering Electromagnet-
ics, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1981
Figure 10. (a) Common-mode current due to ground plane coupling and (b) use of simple Warren L. Stutzman and Gary A. Thiele, Antenna
balun. Theory and Design, Second Edition, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1998.
the common mode current and has no good amplifier can be used to increase Clayton R. Paul and Syed A. Nasar, Introduction
effect on the normal differential mode this margin as shown in Figure 11(b). to Electromagnetic Fields, McGraw-Hill Book
current in the cable. Consequently, the Here, a 20-dB amplifier raises the signal Co., New York, 1982.
current that causes the unbalance is level from 0 dBμV to 20 dBμV. The am- “Fundamentals of RF and Microwave Noise Figure
reduced, improving the operation of
the antenna. For receiving antennas,
the incoming signal may induce current
on the shield that causes the unbalance.
The ferrite bead reduces the current on
the shield.
Antennas are used to receive very
small signals. It is therefore often neces-
sary to use an amplifier to increase the
signal-to-noise ratio. The thermal noise
floor of the environment, if detected by
a 9-kHz bandwidth, is approximately
–27 dBμV (-134 dBm). However, when
signals are processed and amplified to
useable levels, noise is introduced. The
noise figure of an amplifier is defined as
the difference between its noise floor
and the ambient noise of the environ-
ment. Consider an antenna picking up
a signal that is only 0 dBμVas shown in
Figure 11(a). The signal may be 27 dB
above the ambient; but to a receiver
with a 24-dB noise figure, the signal is
only 3 dB above the noise floor. Thus,
the signal-to-noise ratio is only 3 dB. A Figure 11. Signal to noise ratio (a) without and (b) with amplification.

InterferenceTechnology.com INTERFERENCE TECHNOLOGY 5

ANTENNAS
Measurements,” Agilent Application Note 57-1, Agilent Technologies
Clayton R. Paul, Introduction to Electromagnetic Compatibility, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., New York, 1992.
CANDACE R. SURIANO received her doctorate in Electrical Engineering in
2003 from the University of Dayton. Candace is involved with consulting,
IEEE Southeastern Michigan work and parenting under the auspices of
Suriano Solutions. She is a member of the Kettering University Electrical
Engineering Department Advisory Board. She has one patent in the area of
EMC. Candace has been chair of the Basic Antenna and Probe Workshop at
four of the IEEE EMC symposiums. Candace and John Suriano work together
in many areas—they have had six children and five papers together.
JOHN R. SURIANO received his doctorate in Electrical Engineering in 1992
from Purdue University. He works for Nidec Motors & Actuators. John has
13 patents and has authored numerous papers on electric machines and
electromagnetic compatibility.
TOM HOLMES is an Applications Engineer for Agilent Technologies special-
izing in RF/microwave measurements and Electromagnetic Compatibility
(EMC). He has a BEE from Kettering University (formerly GMI) and
extensive experience in automotive electronic systems and EMC, as well
as RF and microwave measurements. He holds three patents for emissions
6 INTERFERENCE TECHNOLOGY
ANTENNA FUNDAMENTALS
suppression circuits, and has published several papers on EMC suppression
and modeling. Interests include his awesome wife Barbara, his grandson
EJ (age 12), ham radio, and Corvettes.
QIN YU, of Alcatel-Lucent, is a 1996 graduate (Ph.D.) from The Ohio State
University in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Qin received her
M.S. degree in 1988 and B.S. degree in 1985 from Southeast University in
China in the Department of Electrical Engineering. She worked on prod-
uct EMI related modeling, design and troubleshooting and suppression
while working for ITT Automotive, Inc. as an EMC design engineer. Qin
is presently a Member of Technical Staff at Alcatel-Lucent. Her current
job function is to ensure the compliance of products with both regulatory
EMC and radio equipment certification requirements, including defin-
ing the product regulatory requirements, conducting radio equipment
certification, reviewing product EMC design and trouble-shooting and
suppressing product EMI problems. The OneBTS Common Platform Project
that Qin worked on won 2002 Bell Laboratories President’s Gold Award.
The CDMA Modcell Platform Evolution and Cost Reduction Project on
which Qin worked was named as a Silver Award winner of the 2002 Bell
Laboratories President Award. Qin was also presented with 2002 Lucent
Technologies Hill Climbers Innovation Award. Qin published more than
18 technical papers as the primary author on journals and proceedings of
international conferences. ■
EMC DIRECTORY & DESIGN GUIDE 2007