Antenna & Wave Propagation

Module I
Antenna Parameters
 Module I
• Basic antenna parameters - gain, directivity,
beam solid angle,beam width and effective
aperture calculations. Effective height, wave
polarization, antenna temperature, radiation
resistance, radiation efficiency, antenna field
zones, principles of reciprocity, Duality of
antennas.
 Introduction
• What is antenna?
• Antenna are electronic eyes & ears
• It is a metallic conductor system capable of
radiating & capturing electromagnetic energy
• It is an electrical transducer which converts
electrical energy to electromagnetic waves &
vice versa
• How an antenna radiates?
 Types of Antenna
• Wire Antennas
– Dipole Antenna

– Loop Antenna
 Travelling Wave Antennas(Wide band)
• Helical Antenna

• Yagiuda Antenna

• Spiral Antenna
 Aperture Antennas
• Parabolic Dish Antenna

• Horn Antenna
 Patch Antennas
• Microstrip Patch Antenna

• Dielectric Resonator Antenna

 Radiation Pattern
• 3 D plot of power radiated by antenna

• It is a mathematical & graphical function of

radiative properties of an antenna
with respect to the spatial
coordinates

• Field Pattern, Power Pattern

 Radiation Pattern Parameters
• Null- Direction where there
is no field

• Lobes- Portion of radiation

pattern between nulls

• Major Lobe-Lobe
containing maximum
radiation

• Minor lobe-any lobe other

than major lobe
• Side lobes-Lobes which are adjacent to the major
lobes & occupies hemisphere in the direction of
major lobe
• Back lobe- It is the lobe that occupies hemisphere in
a direction opposite to the major lobe
 Isotropic Antenna

• Antenna operates equally in all direction

• Theoretical Antenna

• Directivity 0dBi

Radiation Pattern
 Omnidirectional Antenna
• Radiates power uniformly in all direction in a
plane.
• Eg: monopole and dipole antenna
Radiation
Pattern of
a Dipole
Antenna
 Directional Antenna
• Radiates power in a desired direction
 HPBW & FNBW
• HPBW or half power beam width: Refers to
the angular width between the points at
which the radiated power per unit area is one
half of the maximum.
• FNBW (First null beam width) refers to the
angular width between the first two nulls
 Radian
• Measure of plane angle –radian
• One radian is defined as the plane angle with its
vertex at the center of a circle of radius r that is
subtended by an arc whose length is r.
• Since the circumference of a circle of radius r is C
= 2πr, there are 2π rad (2πr/r) in a full circle.
 Steradian
• The measure of a solid angle is a steradian. One
steradian is defined as the solid angle with its vertex
at the center of a sphere of radius r that is
subtended by a spherical surface area equal to that
of a square with each side of length r. Since the area
of a sphere of radius r is A = 4πr2, there are 4π sr
(4πr2/r2) in a closed sphere.
 Antenna Field Zones
• The fields around an antenna may be divided into
three principal regions, one near the antenna called
the Reactive near field region, second radiating near
field or Fresnel zone and third at a large distance
called the far field or Fraunhofer zone.
 Reactive Near Field Region
• Region surrounding the antenna, wherein the
reactive field predominates
 Radiating Near Field Region
• Region between reactive near-field and
farfield regions (Fresnel zone)
 Far Field Region
• Region where angular field distribution is
essentially independent of the distance from
antenna (Fraunhofer zone)
 Beam Area or Beam Solid Angle()
• In polar two-dimensional coordinates an
incremental area dA on the surface of sphere is the
product of the length r dθ in the θ direction and r
sin θ dΦ in the Φ direction as shown in figure.
• Thus
dA = (rdθ) (r sinθ dΦ) = r2 dΩ =dS
• Where, dΩ = solid angle expressed in steradians. =
sin θ dθ dᴓ steradian
• The area of the strip of width r dθ extending around
the sphere at a constant angle θ is given by (2πr sin
θ) (r dθ). Integrating this for θ values from 0 to π
yields the area of the sphere.
• Thus, Area of sphere = 2πr2
Where, 4π = Solid angle subtended by a sphere
• The beam area or beam solid angle or ΩA of
an antenna is given by the integral of the
normalized power pattern over a sphere
• Beam Area, ΩA=
=
 Problem
• An antenna has the field pattern given by
E(θ)=cos2θ for 0 ≤ 𝜃 ≤ 900 Find the half power
beamwidth
• Power =1/2
• E=1/= cos2θ=0.707
 Radiation Intensity(U)
• Power radiated from an antenna per unit soild angle
• Unit is Watts per steradian or watts per square
degree

• Poynting vector S depends on the distance from the

antenna (varying inversely as the square of the
distance)
• Radiation intensity U is independent of the distance
• Radiation intensity is a far field paramater of an
antenna.
• It can be obtained by simply multiplying the
radiation density by the square of the distance.
• i.e.
• Then the total power radiated can be expressed in
terms of the radiation intensity as
•

• =
• Average value of the radiation intensity is given by
 Directive gain & directivity
• Isotropic antenna is considered
• Average power ,
• Directive gain is defined as the ratio of the power
density Pd(θ,φ) to the average power radiated
• =
• Rearranging the terms
• Directive gain is defined as a measure of
concentration of the radiated power in a particular
direction
• Directivity is defined as the ratio of maximum
power density to the average power radiated
 Beam Efficiency
• The (total) beam area ΩA (or beam solid angle)
consists of the main beam area (or solid angle) ΩM
plus the minor-lobe area (or solid angle) Ωm
ΩA= ΩM+ Ωm
• The ratio of the main beam area to the (total) beam
area is called the (main) beam efficiency εM.
• Beam Efficiency,
• The ratio of the minor-lobe area (Ωm) to the (total)
beam area is called the stray factor.
 Antenna Beamwidth(HPBW or 3dB
bandwidth)
• It is the measure of directivity of an antenna
• Angular width in degrees
• Measured on radiation pattern on main lobe
• Defined as the angular width in degree
between the two points on a major lobe of a
radiation pattern where the radiated power
decreases to half of its maximum value
 Relation between Beam solid angle( &
Directivity(D)

• Rearranging terms

where
• B= Beam area –E plane HPBW in horizontal plane H
plane HPBW in vertical plane

• Beamwidth is affected by the shape of the radiation

pattern, wavelength & dimensions
 Antenna Efficiency(Radiation Efficiency)
• Antenna is made up of a conductor having finite
conductivity.
• So ohmic power loss should be considered.
• Ohmic losses represented by Ploss, then the power
radiated Prad is less than the input power Pin.

where is called the radiation efficiency of an antenna

• Total input power to the antenna

• Then
• Power radiated & ohmic power loss can be
expressed in terms of rms current

Thus radiation efficiency ,

 Power gain(
• Ratio of power radiated in a particular
direction(θ,φ) to the actual power input to the
antenna

• Maximum power gain can be defined as the ratio of

maximum radiation intensity to the radiation
intensity due to isotropic lossless antenna
• Maximum radiation intensity is given by

• Substituting the value of in

• For many practical antennas, the radiation

efficiency is 100%.
• Then
• ie gain =directivity
• Both power gain & directional gain are expressed in
decibell(dB)
 Problem
• The radiation resistance of an antenna is 72Ω
and loss resistance is of 8Ω. What is the
directivity if the power gain is 30.
 Front to back ratio(FBR)
• Ratio of power radiated in the desired direction
to the power radiated in the opposite direction
• FBR is very high
• Depends on frequency of operation
• Depends on spacing between the antenna
elements, i e spacing between antenna elements
increases the FBR decreases
• Depends on the electrical length of the parasitic
elements of the antenna
 Effective Aperture Calculations(Ae)
• Related to receiving antenna
• Ability of the antenna to extract energy from the
electromagnetic wave
• Also called as effective area
• Ratio of power received in the load to the average
power density produced at that point

• An area which extracts energy from the

electromagnetic wave, out of the total area from
the antenna
• Maximum effective aperture is obtained when
power received is maximum, Aem
• Let us calculate effective aperture for the hertzian
dipole
• When the hertzian dipole is used as the receiving
antenna, it extracts the power from the incident
waves & delivers it to the load, producing voltage in
it.
 Equivalent Circuit of the receiving antenna
• Voltage induced in an
antenna is given by

dL= length of the hertzian dipole

• Then the current flowing

through the load is given by
• For maximum transfer condition, load is selected as
the complex conjugate of the antenna
impedance(ZL=Z*). Substituting the values of
impedances Z & ZL, the current flowing can be
written as

• Then the power delivered to the load is given by

• Substituting the value of Voc from equation (1), we

get,
• Maximum effective aperture is given by

• Substituting the values of Rrad & , we get

• Directivity of the hertzian dipole is given by 1.5

• So Aem = (GD max )
 Different types of Antenna Apertures
• Scattering loss aperture- Correspond to considerable
losses in radiation resistance(Rr) and loss resistance(Rl).
They are also called as scattering & loss aperture
• Collecting Aperture(Ac)- Out of power collected by
antenna, there are losses as heat in load
resistance(Rl),radiation resistance(Rr), & antenna loss
resistance(RL)
• Physical Aperture(Ap)-related to the physical size of the
antenna. Defined as the physical cross section
perpendicular to the direction of propagation of
incident electromagnetic wave with antenna set for
maximum response.
Effective length or effective height(Leff)
 Principle of Reciprocity
• If a current I1 at the terminals of antenna no 1
induces an emf E21 at the open terminals of the
antenna no 2 & a current I2 at the terminals of
antenna no 2 induces an emf E12 at the open
terminals of antenna no 1
• Then E21=E12 provided I1=I2
• Assumptions
– EMFs are of same frequency
– Medium between two antennas are linear ,isotropic &
passive
– Both generator & ammeter impedance are equal
 Antenna System

Input Port
Antenna Output Port
System
Equivalent Circuit
 Effective length or Effective height

• It’s a vector quantity

• It is a far field quantity
• Effectiveness of an antenna as radiator or collector
of electromagnetic wave energy
• It is a quantity used to determine the voltage
induced on the open circuit terminals of an antenna
when a wave impinges on it
• Defined as the ratio of induced voltage at the
terminal of the receiving antenna under open
circuited condition to the incident electric field
intensity E
• Effective Length=
•
 Antenna temperature(TA)
• Any object with physical temperature above
absolute zero radiates energy
• Antenna temperature is not the inherent
property of the antenna, it is related to the
temperature of the surrounding coupled to
the antenna through radiation resistance.
• Consider the receiving antenna as remote
temperature sensing & measuring device