ANTENNAS

HISTORY
built in 1888 Heinrich
Hertz.

Hertz placed dipole

antennas at the focal point
of parabolic reflectors for
both
transmitting
and
receiving.

INTRODUCTION
An antenna is an electrical device .
Converts electric currents into radio waves, and
vice versa.
It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio
receiver.
In transmission, a radio transmitter applies an
oscillating radio frequency electric current to the
antenna's terminals.
The antenna radiates the energy from the current
as electromagnetic waves (radio waves).

BASIC STRUCTURE

WHY ANTENNAS ?
Antennas are required by any radio receiver or
transmitter to couple its electrical connection to the
electromagnetic field.
Radio waves are electromagnetic waves which
carry signals through the air (or through space) at
the speed of light with almost no transmission loss.

Radio transmitters and receivers are used to convey

signals (information) in systems including broadcast
(audio) radio, television, mobile telephones , point-topoint communications links (telephone, data
networks), satellite links.
Radio waves are also used directly for measurements
in technologies including Radar, GPS, and radio
astronomy.
In each and every case, the transmitters and receivers
involved require antennas, although these are
sometimes hidden (such as the antenna inside an AM
radio or inside a laptop computer equipped with wi-fi).

WHERE USED?
Antennas are used in systems such as radio and
television broadcasting, point to point radio
communication, wireless LAN, radar and space
exploration
Antennas are most utilized in air or outer space
But can also be operated under water or even through
soil and rock at certain frequencies for short distances

RADIATION MECHANISM
Ideally all incident energy must be reflected back
when open circuit. But practically a small portion of
electromagnetic energy escapes from the system
that is it gets radiated.
This occurs because the line of force dont undergo
complete phase reversal and some of them escapes.

 The amount of escaped energy is very small due to

mismatch between transmission line and
surrounding space.
Also because two wires are too close to each other,
radiation from one tip will cancel radiation from
other tip.( as they are of opposite polarities and
distance between them is too small as compared to
wavelength )

 To increase amount of radiated power open circuit

must be enlarged , by spreading the two wires.
Due to this arrangement, coupling between
transmission line and free space is improved.
Also amount of cancellation has reduced.
The radiation efficiency will increase further if two
conductors of transmission line are bent so as to bring
them in same line.

TYPES OF ANTENNAS
Omnidirectional
Directional

 According to length of transmission lines

available, antennas generally fall in one of two
categories:
Resonant Antennas.
Non-resonant Antennas

Fundamental Parameters
of Antenna

13

Parameters of Antenna are:

Beam Area
Beam width
Half power beam
width
Full Null beam
width
Polarization
Radiation Intensity
Beam Efficiency
Antenna field zones
Transmission
formula
Directivity

Directive Gain
Radiation Resistance
Radiation efficiency
Resolution
Antenna aperture

physical and effective

Effective height
Transmission loss as a
function of frequency
Antenna temperature
and signal to noise ratio
14

Radiation Pattern
A mathematical or graphical representation of
the radiation properties of antenna such as
Amplitude
Phase
Polarization, etc
As a function of the angular space coordinates
is called as radiation pattern.

15

 FIELD PATTERN: The plot of field either

electric |E| or magnetic |H| on a linear scale is
called as field pattern.
POWER PATTERN : A plot of the power
( proportional to either |E|2 or magnetic |H|2 )
on linear or decibel (dB) scale .

16

17

18

Beam Area
The beam area or beam solid angle or A of an
antenna is given by the integral of the
normalized power pattern over sphere (4 sr).

The Beam Area of an antenna can often be

describe approximately in terms of the angles
subtended by the half-power points of the main
lobe in the two principal planes.
Are the HPBW in the tow principal planes, minor
lobes being neglected.
19

Radiation intensity
The power radiated from an antenna per unit
solid angle is called the radiation intensity U
(watts/steradian or /square degree).
The normalized power pattern can also be
expressed in terms of this parameter as the
ration of the radiation intensity
as a
function of angle, to its maximum value.

20

Beamwidth
The angular separation between two identical
points on opposite side of pattern maximum is
called as beamwidth.
Importance:
It is very important figure of merit
It is often used as a trade off between it and
side lobe level.
As beam width increases
side lobe
level decreases& vice versa.
It is also used to describe the resolution
capabilities of the antenna to distinguish
between two adjacent radiating sources or
radar targets.
21

Beamwidth
Half Power Beamwidth (HPBW):
In a plane containing the direction of the
maximum beam, the angle between the two
directions in which the radiation intensity is
value of beam is called as HPBW.
First Null Beamwidth (FNBW):
The angular separation between the first nulls
of the patterns is referred to as the FNBW.

22

Polarization
Polarization is the direction of the electric field and is the
same as the physical attitude of the antenna
A vertical antenna will transmit a vertically polarized wave
The receive and transmit antennas need to possess the same
polarization

23

Beam Efficiency
The (total) beam area A (or beam solid angle)
consists of the main beam area (or solid angle) M
plus the minor lobe area m.

The ratio of the main beam area to the (total)

beam area is called the (main) beam efficiency.

The ratio of the minor lobe area to the (total) beam

area is called the Stray Factor.

It follows that
24

Directivity
The directivity of an antenna is equal to the ratio of
the maximum power density to its average value over
a sphere as observed in the far field of an antenna.
Directivity from pattern :

The directivity is also the ratio of the area of a sphere

(4 sr) to the beam area A of the antenna.
Directivity from beam area:

The smaller the beam area, the larger the directivity

D.
25

 For an antenna that

radiates over only half a
sphere the beam area
A = 2 sr,

Radiation pattern of dipole =0.5

dBi = decibels over

isotropic.

Directivy of an
isotropic antenna?
26

GAIN
Gain of antenna without involving the antenna
efficiency is defined as:
Reference antenna may be an isotropic
antenna or lossless antenna.
Often gain of an antenna is expressed in
decibel ratio i.e.

27

Directive Gain
Directive gain is the ratio of the
radiation intensity in that direction to
the average radiated power.

28

Comparison between Directivity and

Gain
The ratio of the gain to the directivity is the
antenna efficiency factor.
G=kD.
k = efficiency factor (0 k 1).
Dimensionless.
If an antenna has not any losses like ohmic,
dielectric mismatch i.e. 100% efficient, then
directivity and gain are same.

29

Effective height

Effective height may be defined as the ratio of

the induced voltage to the incident field

Represents the effectiveness of an antenna as

radiator or collector of electromagnetic wave
energy.

30

Radiation Resistance
The radiation resistance (Rr) is fictitious resistance
., when substituted in series with the antenna will
consume the same power as is actually radiated.
The radiation resistance represents,
Total energy radiating from transmitting
antenna
Current flowing in the antenna
The value of radiation resistance depends on
Configuration of antenna
The point where radiation resistance is
considered
Location of antenna w.r.t. grounds and other
objects, and
Ratio of length of diameter of the conductor
used.
31

Problem
Determine the radiation resistance of
an antenna which is radiating
10kilowatts and is fed at 12 ampere.

 R=W/I2rms =69.44 ohm

SPECIAL ANTENNAS

Long wire Antenna

 An antenna will be resonant so long its length

is integral multiple of half wave length.
Long wire-an antenna is more Than a half
wave long
Higher /2 better directivity.
Two forms of long wire antenna
Resonant(unterminated)-standing wave exists
Non resonant(Terminated)-no standing wave

Long wire Resonant antenna

Non-resonant long wire

antenna

Directional patterns
Bi-directional due to
resonant antenna

Uni-directional due to
non- resonant antenna

Cont.
Physical length
L=492(n-0.05)/f feet
n-number of half wavelength in wire length
Field strength
For n-odd
E(r, , ) = 60 Irms/r [cosn/2 cos]/sin
For n-even
E(r, , ) = 60 Irms/r [Sin n/2 cos]/sin

Voltage and Current

Distribution

 Radiation resistance
Rr = 73 + 69log10n
Angle between maximum lobe and
wire axis
Cos max = n-1/n

 high frequency(shortwave)
andmedium frequencyradio bands.
amateur radio and military
applications

V antenna

V antenna
It is an extension of two long wire
antennas.

Cont
Two wires are fed 1800 out of phase
with each other.
It provides gain and directivity.
Higher legs ,greater directivity and
gain.

Directional Pattern of V
antenna
Oppositely directed lobes(2,7and
3,6)-Cancel
Similarly directed lobes(1,5 and4,8)add

Cont
The apex angle is varies according to
length of the leg.
The gain is twice compared with the
single long wire antenna.
Characteristic impedance
termination-convert bidirectional to
unidirectional

Rhombic Antenna

RHOMBIC ANTENNA
The highest development of the long-wire
antenna is the RHOMBIC ANTENNA.
It consists of four conductors joined to form
a rhombus, or diamond shape.
The antenna is placed end to end and
terminated by a non inductive resistor to
produce a uni-directional pattern.
A rhombic antenna can be made of two
obtuse-angle V antennas that are placed
side by side

Cont.

Cont.
The rhombic antenna is WIDELY used
for long-distance, high-frequency
transmission and reception
It is one of the most popular fixedstation antennas because it is very
useful in point-to-point
communications

Radiation pattern

Advantages

Disadvantages
Needs large space for installation
Due to minor lobe transmission
efficiency is low

Prob 1
Design a Maximum E-Type Rhombic
antenna for an elevation angle is
17.50.

 Theta= 72.5 deg

h=0.83
L=5.5

Yagi-uda Antenna

Cont.

yagi

 Input impedance of driven and

parasitic element is
Z1?
Z2?

Prob 2
Design a three element yagi-uda
antenna for 901 MHz frequency

Lamda=c/f =0.3
Spacing 0.1*0.3=0.03m
Lenth(ref)=500/f =0.55
Length(driven)=5% of ref=0.0275
0.55-0.0275=0.5225
Length(director)=5%of driven
0.5225-0.023125=0.4964

Helical Antenna
Directional
Circularly Polarized
Polarization
changes with time

http://www.wireless.org.au/~jhecker/helix/helical.html

Both high gain and

wide band

http://helix.remco.tk/

Geometry
D= diameter of helix
C= circumference of helix
Lo= length of one turn =

C2 S2

S
)
= pitch angle = tan (
D
1

S= spacing between turns

N= number of turns
Lw= length of helix
d= diameter of conductor

Normal Mode
Radiation pattern similar
to linear dipole
In this mode the
radiation is maximum in
broadway
The dimensions of the
helix are small compared
to the wavelength
Narrow in bandwidth
Radiation efficiency is
small
Rarely used

Axial Mode

Circular Polarization
<C/<4/3
C/=1:near optimum
S= /4

Half-Power Beam width:

52

115 2
C NS

BWFN:

C NS

2
C
Directivity:15 N S
3

Terminal Impedance R=140C/

Typical Gain: 10dB

Bandwidth: 52%
Frequency limit: 100MHZ to 3GHz

Helix Applications
Space Telemetry Applications of
satellites, space probes, and ballistic
missiles
Signals have undergone Faraday
rotation

Directional applications

Biconical Antenna

Prob 4
A 300 ohm twin lead transmission
line is attached to a biconical
antenna.Determine the cone angle
that will match the line to an infinite
length biconical antenna?

 Z0=120lncot[/4]
=0.320

Turnstile antenna

Cont.
The TURNSTILE ANTENNA is one of the many
types that has been developed primarily for
omnidirectional vhf communications.
The basic turnstile consists of two horizontal
half-wave antennas mounted at right angles
to each other in the same horizontal plane
When these two antennas are excited
with equal currents 90 degrees out of phase,
the typical figure-eight patterns of the two
antennas merge to produce the nearly
circular pattern

Applications
Transmission of FM.
Television broadcast signals.

Log Periodic Antenna

Radiation pattern

Microstrip or Patch Antenna

Microstrip or patch antennas are becoming
increasingly useful because they can be printed
directly onto a circuit board.
Microstrip antennas are becoming very
widespread within the mobile phone market.
Patch antennas are low cost, have a low profile
and are easily fabricated.

Cont
The patch antenna, microstrip transmission line and
ground plane are made of high conductivity metal
(typically copper).
The patch is of length L, width W, and sitting on top of
a substrate (some dielectric circuit board) of thickness
h with permittivity .
The thickness of the ground plane or of the microstrip
is not critically important. Typically the height h is
much smaller than the wavelength of operation, but
not much smaller than 0.05 of a wavelength.
The center frequency will be

f =C/2Lr

Cont
The width W of the microstrip antenna
controls the input impedance.
Larger widths also can increase the
bandwidth.
For a square patch antenna fed in the
manner above, the input impedance will
be on the order of 300 Ohms

Microstrip Antenna

Patch antenna

Radiation pattern

Cont.

Representation of Patch
Elements

Antenna Measurement
1 Antenna Ranges
An antenna range is a facility where antenna
radiation characteristics are measured. An antenna
range includes the following typical components:
1. A substantial space for hosting the test antenna and
the
source antenna
2. A source antenna
3. An antenna positioner
4. A transmitter and receiver system (e.g. a Network
Analyser)

Measurement of Radiation
pattern

Principle plan radiation

pattern

Gain measurement

Gain comparison method

Measurement of absolute
gain

ANECHOIC CHAMBER

UNAL 2008 Page 146

Overview

Anechoic chamber

Purpose

Simulate free-space without

electromagnetic contamination.
Ideal measurement: uniform plane wave.

Types

Rectangular anechoic chamber

Free-space ranges: null effects of

Tapered anechoic chamber

Reflections ranges: use reflections to

surroundings
produce plane wave.

Anechoic chamber

Types
Rectangular anechoic chamber
Tapered anechoic chamber

Rectangular anechoic
chamber
Free-space conditions
Reflect energy to test region
No part of Main lobe is incident upon
sidewalls, ceiling and floor.

Where:
R: Separation between source and test antennas
W: Width or height of chamber

Tapered anechoic chamber

Reflections from sidewalls contribute to field.
Source antenna position is determined
experimentally
High frequencies become more difficult to place
source antenna near to the apex.

Where:
ht: Perpendicular distance from source antenna to
chamber wall
R: Separation between source and test antennas
hr: Perpendicular distance from test antenna to
chamber wall
: Wavelength

Radio-Wave Propagation
Radio waves, infrared, visible light,
ultraviolet, X rays, and gamma rays
are all different forms of
electromagnetic radiation.
The waves propagate as transverse
electromagnetic waves (TEM) - i.e.
the electric field, the magnetic field,
and the direction of travel of the
waves are all mutually perpendicular.

Transverse Electromagnetic
Waves

Di

on
i
t
rec

Pro
f
o

n
ti o
a
g
pa

Magnetic Field

Electric Field

Speed & Wavelength of em

Waves
The speed of propagation and the
wavelength () of an electromagnetic
wave are given, respectively, by:

c
v
v
and
f
r
where c = 3x108 m/s, r = mediums relative permittivity
or dielectric constant, and f = frequency of wave in Hz.

Reflection
Radio waves behave like light waves:
They reflect from a surface where the
angle of incidence, i = the angle of
reflection, r . To minimize reflective
losses, the surface should be an ideal
conductor and smooth.
Incident
Ray

Normal
i

Reflected
Ray

r
Conductor

Refraction
Radio waves will bend or refract when they
go from one medium with refractive index,
n1 to another with refractive index, n2. The
angles involved are given by :

sin 1
n2

sin 2
n1

1
2
n1<n2

r 2
r1

where r = relative
permittivity of medium

Diffraction
Diffraction is the phenomenon which
results in radio waves that normally travel
in a straight line to bend around an
obstacle.
Direction of wave propagation

Obstacle

Ground-Wave Propagation
At frequencies up to about 2 MHz, the
most important method of propagation is
by ground waves which are vertically
polarized. They follow the curvature of the
earth to propagate far beyond the horizon.
Relatively high power is required.
Direction of wave travel
Increasing
Tilt
Earth

Ionospheric Propagation
HF radio waves are returned from the F-layer
of the ionosphere by a form of refraction.
The highest frequency that is returned to
earth in the vertical direction is called the
critical frequency, fc.
The highest frequency that returns to earth
over a given path is called the maximum
usable frequency (MUF).
Because of the general instability of the
ionosphere, the optimum working frequency
(OWF) = 0.85 MUF, is used instead.

Sky-Wave Propagation
From geometry
(assuming flat
earth):

F-Layer
i

d = 2hv tan i
hv

Earth

From theory
(secant law):

MUF = fc sec i
d

Sky-wave Propagation: Pros &

Cons
Sky-wave propagation allows communication
over great distances with simple equipment
and reasonable power levels : 100 W to a few
kW.
However, HF communication via the
ionosphere is noisy and uncertain. It is also
prone to phase shifting and frequencyselective fading. For instance, the phase shift
and signal attenuation may be different for
the upper and lower sidebands of the same
signal. Data transmission is restricted to very
low rates.

Tropospheric propagation
Over long-distances, more than a few tens of
km, and heights of up to 10 km above the
earths surface, clear air effects in the
troposphere become non-negligible
The dielectric constant of the air at the earths
surface of (approx.) 1.0003 falls to 1.0000 at
great heights where the density of the air tends
to zero
A consequence of Snells law of refraction is
that radiowaves follow curved, rather than
straight-line trajectories

Free-space propagation
Tx

Rx

R
Ptx
Transmitted power
EIPR (equivalent isotropically radiatedGpower)
tx Ptx
Power density at receiver

Received power

Gtx Ptx
S rx
4 R 2

Gtx Ptx rx
Prx
Ae ;
2
4 R

Aerx Grx
4

Friis power transmission formula

Prx

Gtx Grx
Ptx
4 R

Free-space propagation
(cont.)
Taking logarithms gives

4 R

10 log10 Prx 10 log10 Ptx 10 log10 Gtx 10 log10 Grx 20 log10

Prx dBW Ptx dBW Gtx dBi Grx dBi L0 dB
whereL0
decibels

is the free-space path loss, measured in

4 R
L0 20 log10
dB

L0 dB 32.4 20 log10 f MHz 20 log10 d km

Maths reminder

log a b c log a b,
c

log c b
log a b
, log a b c log a b log a c
log c a