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Contents
Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa Institute of Technology • Introduction
• Brief historical notes
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering • Antenna Equivalent Circuit
• Basic principle of radiation
Antennas and Radio Wave Propagation – ECEG-4304

Introduction to Antennas

AAiT – ECEG – 3404 , Ephrem Teshale Bekele, PhD AAiT – ECEG – 3404 , Ephrem Teshale Bekele, PhD 2

Introduction Introduction
• Radiation or launching of waves into space is efficiently
accomplished with the aid of conducting or dielectric
structures called antennas.
• Any structure can radiate EM waves but not all structures
can serve as efficient radiators.
• Antenna (aerial, EM radiator): a device which radiates or
receives electromagnetic waves.
• The antenna is the transition between a guiding
device (transmission line, waveguide) and free space
(or another usually unbounded medium).
• Its main purpose is to convert the energy of a guided
wave into the energy of a free space wave (or vice versa)
as efficiently as possible, while at the same time the
radiated power has a certain desired pattern of
distribution in space.

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Introduction Introduction
• An antenna definitions: • Antenna as a transition device
– “a usually metallic device (as a rod or
wire) for radiating or receiving radio
waves” - Webster’s Dictionary
– “antenna or aerial is a means for
radiating or receiving radio waves.” - The
IEEE Standard Definitions of Terms for
Antennas (IEEE Std 145–1983)

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Brief historical notes Brief historical notes

• Several people and events have contributed on • Several people and events have contributed on
advancement of technology from its early advancement of technology from its early
inception. inception.
• Some notable names: • Some notable names:
• Formulates the mathematical model of • Demonstrates in 1886 the first wireless EM
electromagnetism in his classical book ‘A wave system: a -dipole is excited with a
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism’,
spark; it radiates predominantly at 8 ;a
1873.
spark appears in the gap of a receiving loop
• He showed that light is an electromagnetic some 20 m away.
(EM) wave, and that all EM waves propagate
through space with the same speed.
• To get to know Maxwell and Faraday
better, read Faraday, Maxwell and
James Clerk Maxwell the EM field – How two men Heinrich Rudolph Hertz
revolutionized physics by Nancy
Forbes and Basil Mahon.
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Brief historical notes Brief historical notes

• Several people and events have contributed on
advancement of technology from its early
inception.
• Some notable names:
• In 1894 he built the first radio receiver, a
version of “The Coherer“.
• On 7 May 1895, A. S. Popov demonstrated the
possibility of transmitting and receiving short,
continuous signals over a distance up to 64
meters by means of electromagnetic waves.
• In 1945, 7 May was declared "Radio Day" in
Russia.
Alexander Stepanovich
Popov
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• Several people and events have contributed on
advancement of technology from its early
inception.
• Some notable names:
• With his first experiments (1895) in wireless
telegraphy marked the beginning of radio
communication.
• On December 12, 1901, a radio transmission
was broadcast from Cornwall, England. In
Newfoundland, using a wire antenna kept
aloft by a kite, he confirmed the reception of
these first transatlantic radio signals.
• Showed that radio signals could propagate far
Guglielmo Marconi beyond the horizon.
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Brief historical notes Brief historical notes

• Several people and events have contributed on • Several people and events have contributed on
advancement of technology from its early advancement of technology from its early
inception. inception.
• The beginning of 20th century (until • WW2 marks a new era in wireless
WW2) marks the boom in wire antenna communications and antenna
technology (dipoles and loops) and in Cavity
technology.
wireless technology as a whole, which Magnetron • The invention of new microwave
is largely due to the invention of the generators (magnetron and klystron)
DeForest triode tube, used as radio- leads to the development of the
frequency generator. microwave antennas such as
• Radio links made possible up to UHF waveguide apertures, horns, reflectors,
(about 500 MHz) and over thousands of Cavity etc.
kilometers. Klystron
De Forest grid Audion
from 1906
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Brief historical notes Antenna Equivalent Circuit

• Several people and events have contributed on • An antenna system can be represented by an
advancement of technology from its early equivalent circuit.
inception. Generator
Loss resistance
impedance
• Some notable names:
• In 1924 Professor Hidetsugu Yagi and his Radiation
assistant, Shintaro Uda, designed and resistance
constructed a sensitive and highly-
directional antenna using closely-coupled
parasitic elements. Generator
voltage
• The antenna, which is effective in the higher-
frequency ranges, has been important for Antenna
radar, television, and amateur radio Reactance

Hidetsugu Yagi
An example transmission-line Thevenin
equivalent circuit of a radiating antenna
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Antenna Equivalent Circuit Basic principle of radiation

• One of the most important issues in the design of high- • Radiation is produced by accelerated or decelerated charge
power transmission systems is the matching of the (time-varying current element).
antenna to the transmission line.
• Matching is specified most often in terms of voltage
standing wave ratio (VSWR).
• Standing waves are to be avoided because they may
cause arching or discharge.
• The resistive/dielectric losses are also undesirable.
They decrease the efficiency of the antenna. • Current element Δ : a filament of lengthΔ and current .
• The antenna is a critical component in a wireless • Time-varying current element is the elementary source of EM
communication system. Good design of the antenna radiation.
can relax system requirements and improve its overall • Same significance as the concept of a point charge in
performance. electrostatics.
• The field radiated by a complex antenna in a linear medium
can be analyzed by superposition of current elements.

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Basic principle of radiation Basic principle of radiation

• Consider a piece of a very thin wire where
electric current can be excited.
Δ
where is the linear charge density and is the charge velocity.
• The time derivative of the current becomes
where is the charge acceleration.
• Therefore, we have
– fundamental relation of electromagnetic radiation.
– states that to create radiation, there must be a
time-varying current or an acceleration of
charge.
AAiT – ECEG – 3404 , Ephrem Teshale Bekele, PhD 17
• Similar observations can be made starting from
Maxwell’s equations
→
• The above equation shows that time derivative of the
current densityis the source for the wave-like vector .
• To accelerate charges, one needs sources of
electromotive force and/or discontinuities of the
medium in which the charges move.
• Discontinuities can be bends or open ends of wires,
change in the electrical properties of the region, etc
AAiT – ECEG – 3404 , Ephrem Teshale Bekele, PhD 18

Basic principle of radiation Basic principle of radiation

• In summary: • Wire configurations for radiation.
– If a charge is not moving, current is not created
and there is no radiation.
– If charge is moving with a uniform velocity:
There is
• no radiation if the wire is straight, and infinite in extent.
• radiation if the wire is curved, bent, discontinuous,
terminated, or truncated.
– If charge is oscillating in a time-motion, it
radiates even if the wire is straight and infinite
in extent.

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Basic principle of radiation

• Source, transmission line, • Electric field lines in free-
antenna, and detachment space
of electric field lines.

End of slide

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