INTRODUCTION TO ANTENNAS

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 Radiation
• Pertains to the study of detachment of EM energy
from its sources to free space by means of special
conductors known as ANTENNAS.
• ANTENNAS may be isotropic (Omnidirectional) or
Anisotropic(Directional)
• Antenna is chosen based on mechanical, electrical and
structural aspects.
• Antennas may vary from few millimeters to 1000s of
feet.
Some Antenna types
• Wire Antennas- dipoles, loops and Helical
• Aperture Antennas-Horns and reflectors
• Array Antennas-Yagi, Log periodic
• Patch Antennas- Microstrips, PIFAs
Basic continuity relation between current and
charge

• The radiated power is proportional to the square of .

I L or Q V
Where
• I = Time changing current in Amps/sec
• L = Length of the current element in meters
• Q= Charge in Coulombs
 Mechanism of Radiation
Wave possesses a moment of inertia like property it takes
some time to change its direction .Some energy is likely to leak
into space .This process of leakage can be termed as Radiation
Reciprocity
• Antenna exhibits identical impedance during Transmission and
Reception.
• Same directional patterns during Transmission and reception
• Same Effective height during Transmission and Reception
Antenna Parameters
Radiation Resistance
It may be thought of an as Virtual resistance that does not exist physically but
is coupled to distant objects via a virtual Transmission line.
Radiation pattern
Radiation patterns are 3 dimensional graphs varying 3 quantities along 3
directions
• Variation of Electric field
•Variation of Power field
•Variation of Radiation intensity
along the spherical co-ordinates
Radiation Pattern in Spherical Co-ordinates
Radiation pattern in Polar Co-ordinates
Radiation Patterns in dB scale
Radiation Patterns
Classified into two types
• Absolute field patterns
• Normalized field patterns
Normalized Pattern
HPBW(Half Power Beam Width)
Half Power levels occur at angles Φ and θ for which
power reduces to half.
• FNBW(Beam Width First Nulls)
It is angular beamwidth between first nulls.
Beam Area
Solid Angle
Beam Area
Beam Area or Beam solid angle is given by the integral of
normalized power pattern over a sphere of 4π Sr
Radiation Intensity
Radiation Intensity
Definition: The power radiated from an Antenna per unit solid
angle is
called the Radiation Intensity. U Units: Watts/Steradians
Poynting vector or power density is dependant on distance
from the antenna
while Radiation intensity is independent of the distance
Beam Efficiency
The total beam area consists of main beam area and minor lobe
area

Beam Efficiency is given by ratio of main beam area to total beam area

The ratio of minor beam area to total beam are is called Stray factor
Directivity
It is defined as ratio of maximum radiation intensity from the
antenna to radiation intensity averaged over all other directions.

Directivity is a dimensionless quantity. All other antennas have directivity

greater than 1.
The average power density over a sphere is given by
P(θ,Φ)av= Area under the power pattern/Total solid angle on the sphere
Directivity and Gain
Directivity(dBi)
Directivity can also be approximated as
Gain of the Antenna
Gain of the antenna is an actual realizable quantity which is less than the
Directivity of the antenna due to Ohmic losses in the Antenna.

The ratio of Gain to Directivity is called Antenna Efficiency factor.

K=Radiation resistance/Radiation resistance+R Ohmic

Resolution
Resolution of the Antenna is defined as equal to Half the Beam width
between First Nulls.

Resolution = FNBW/2

If FNBW=2 then Resolution=1

Number of Antennas required for given Resolution is
N=4π/ΩA.
Where ΩA=(FNBW/2)θ(FNBW/2)ø
Effective Aperture
Efficiency is defined as ratio of Effective Aperture to Physical aperture.

The field response of the horn is not uniform across aperture Ap. The
reason is E outside the walls is Zero
Effective Aperture is always less than the Physical Aperture.
E field is concentrated on an area of the physical area called
Effective Aperture denoted as
Expression for Ae &D
Expression for Ae &D
Consider a field intensity in the aperture is constant and is equal to
Ea(V/m)
Power radiated is given by --------------(1)

Considering the field Er at a large distance broad side to the aperture

Power radiated is also given by ---------------(2)

It can be shown that --------------------------(3)

Expression for Ae &D
Substituting (3) in (2) and equating (1) and (2) yields

In general aperture is always the maximum effective aperture given by

Substituting this
in equation for D
Relationship between Effective Aperture(Ae)
and Power density (S)
Relationship between Effective Aperture(Ae)
and Power density (S)
• The relationship between Antenna impedance and Terminating
impedances are complex

where
Power delivered to Terminating impedance is
Relationship between Maximum effective
Aperture(Aem) and Power density (S)
Relationship between (Aem) and Power
density (S)
Aem for a short dipole of length l
Aem for a short dipole of length l

Aem=0.119λ2 Directivity=1.5
Aem for a short dipole of length l

Aem=0.13λ2 Directivity=1.63
Effective height
• Effective height of the antenna provides an indication as to how
much of antenna is involved in radiating.
• If the effective height of the antenna is ‘h’.If ‘E’ is the incident field
voltage induced is given by

• Effective height of the antenna depends on current distribution

Effective height
• If the current distribution were uniform then the effective height of
the antenna would be just l.
• If the current distribution were sinusoidal for a l=λ/2 Current
distribution would be sinusoidal as shown
Effective height= 0.64l
Effective height incase the current
distribution is triangular (h=0.5 Vpk ,h=0.5l)
Effective height

he= I average/Io * hp

Applicable to Tower type Antennas

Relationship between Effective Aperture and
Effective Height
• Consider an antenna whose radiation resistance is matched to the
load
• The effective power delivered to the load is
Pe=V2 /4Rr

Pe= h2 E 2 /4 Rr
E