What Is An Antenna

An antenna can be any conductive structure that can carry an electrical current.
If it carries a time varying electrical current, it will radiate an electromagnetic
wave, maybe not efficiently or in a desirable manner but it will radiate. Usually
one designs a structure to radiate efficiently with certain desired characteristics.
If one is not careful, other things may radiate also including the transmission
line, the power supply line, nearby structures or even a person touching the
equipment to which the antenna is connected. For now lets concentrate on the
antenna itself and look at its characteristics.
An antenna should transfer power efficiently. That means that its impedance
should match that of its connecting transmission line. The transmission line
should transfer all of its power to the antenna and not radiate energy itself. This
means that the mode of the transmission line should be matched to mode of the
antenna. Often one wants the antenna to radiate in a specified direction or
directions. This is accomplished by designing it to have the proper radiation
pattern. Closely related to this is the antenna polarization. Many times antennas
are arranged in arrays in order to achieve the desired pattern. These arrays may
then be electronically steered. A passive antenna, that is one with no amplifiers
attached, will have the same characteristics whether it is transmitting or
receiving.
Antenna Impedance
The simplest antenna is a thin, center fed, very short dipole, often called a
Hertzian dipole or a dipole moment (Unless specified, all dimensions will be in
the units of wavelengths). The equivalent circuit is a simple series RLC circuit
as shown in figure 1a where the inductance represents the inductance of the
conductors, the capacitor is the capacitance between the conductors and the
resistance represents the energy lost to radiation. When the dipole is very short,
the circuit is dominated by the capacitive reactance and the radiation resistance
with the radiation resistance being very small and the capacitive reactance quite
large. As the antenna is made longer, the radiation resistance increases as well
as the inductive reactance while the capacitive reactance becomes smaller.
When the antenna is approximately one half wavelength long the capacitive
and inductive reactances are equal, they cancel, and the antenna is in resonance.
As the antenna becomes longer still, the equivalent circuit transforms into a
parallel resonate circuit like that shown in figure 1b, often called a tank circuit.
This resonance point is reached when the antenna is about one wavelength long
and the radiation resistance becomes very high. When the antenna approaches
one and one half wavelengths it again looks like a series RLC circuit and at two

wavelengths it is back to the parallel circuit; this impedance pattern repeats in

increments of one wavelength in length.
This thin antenna will have an impedance of about 72 ohms at its first series
resonance and tens of thousands of ohms at its parallel resonances. It is a high
Q antenna with a very narrow bandwidth. As the antenna increases in diameter,
the values of the reactances decrease, and the radiation resistance rises for the
series resonance and decreases for the parallel resonance. As the Q becomes
lower and the bandwidth becomes wider. A typical dipole antenna will now
have a resonate impedance of closer to 100 ohms. In most cases, one wants as
low of a Q and as broad a bandwidth as possible. That means that it is best to
make the dipole as fat as is possible. Another advantage to the fat dipole is that
it resonates at a somewhat lower frequency and can be cut shorter. So far, only
the center fed dipole has been considered. It is possible to change the
impedance by adjusting the location of the feed point and this is sometimes
done to achieve a good match to the transmission line.
Transmission Lines
Transmission lines are used to connect the antenna to a radio or some other
device. For this purpose, the transmission lines are of two geometries, a
balanced twin conductor made up of two parallel conductors as shown if figure
2a and a coaxial unbalanced line made of two coaxial conductors as shown in
figure 2b. The most important parameters to be considered are impedance,
propagation velocity, loss and mode. All transmission lines have a characteristic
impedance which is determined mainly by the geometry of the conductors and
the dielectric constant of the material supporting them. It is usually very
important that the impedance of the antenna and the radio match that of the
transmission line otherwise there will be reflections at the discontinuity and the
power transfer will less than perfect. Coaxial transmission lines usually have a
lower impedance than the open wire twin lead or ladder wire. The coaxial
transmission lines usually have a plastic dielectric which reduces the velocity
of the signal to about .66 of that in free space. That means that the line will
appear to be electrically 50 percent longer than it is physically but more about
this later. Transmission lines also have loss mainly in the form of conductive
loss, dielectric loss and radiation. Both types of lines have conductive loss, but
dielectric loss generally more pronounced in the coaxial lines. Open wires have
a tendency to radiate and this is dependent mostly upon the spacing of the
conductors. A properly fed coaxial line will not radiate if one is careful to
match the modes as will be discussed next.

Transmission lines have currents that flows in two directions the vector sum of
which should be zero. If the sum is not zero, there exists what is known as a
common mode and this common mode will radiate and distort the pattern of the
antenna connected to it. This common mode is usually introduced in two ways,
one by coupling to the energy radiating from the antenna and secondly from a
mismatch of modes which occurs when a balanced antenna is connected to a
unbalanced transmission line or visa versa. A dipole antenna is usually a
balanced antenna where as a whip is an unbalanced antenna. Twin lead
transmission line is balanced while coaxial cable is unbalanced. If you connect
a coaxial transmission line to a balanced dipole, the following will happen. The
current on the center conductor of the coax will flow out to one arm of the
dipole. The current on the outer conductor will flow out to the other arm of the
dipole, and it will also flow down the outside of the shield exciting a common
mode on the cable which will also radiate. This problem can often be relieved
by the use of an interface called a balun (BAlance-UNbalance).
So far, consideration has been given only to transmission lines that are matched
at both ends. While this is desirable in most cases, there are some situations
where transmission lines that are not matched are useful. As one moves away
from a mismatched termination the impedance varies as one moves along the
transmission line, however in no case will it ever be equal to the characteristic
impedance of the transmission line. The impedance will vary in value from that
of the termination to that given by
ZT=Z0*Z0/ZL
where
Z0 = the characteristic impedance of the transmission line,
ZL = the value of the termination and
ZT = the extreme impedance transformation.
The value of this impedance will repeat at electrical distances of 1/2
wavelength down the transmission line and will include complex values
resulting in capacitive and inductive values. At an electrical distance of 1/4
wavelength from the termination, there will be a maximum transformation. A
practical use of this concept is as an impedance transformer, where a 1/4
wavelength of transmission line of an intermediate impedance may be used to
match an antenna to a transmission line of a standard impedance. For instance a
1/4 wavelength of 75 ohm transmission line may be used to match a 100 ohm
antenna to a 50 ohm transmission line. A short piece of transmission line that is
terminated in a short circuit at one end may be used as an inductor with the
inductive reactance reaching a maximum when it is 1/4 of a wavelength long.
Similarly, if the same piece of transmission line were terminated in an open

circuit, it would behave as a capacitor with the capacitive reactance decreasing

with length.
Radiation Pattern
If an antenna were electrically small it would appear to be a point source and
would radiate with a pattern that looks like the cross section of a donut. It
would have a uniform or omnidirectional pattern in one plane and a figure eight
pattern in the other two planes as shown in figure 3. The nulls in one direction
are characteristic of a hertzian dipole. The uniform pattern in the other direction
is due to the fact that the energy arriving from all parts of the antenna reach a
distant point at the same time or in phase for all directions from the antenna. As
the antenna becomes larger, the radiated energy transmission is distributed in
time and does not always arrive at a distant point at the same time. When the
energy arrives at different time intervals it doesnt always add in phase and the
result may be a lower received signal and this addition and subtraction varies
with the direction from the antenna and creates what is known as an antenna
radiation pattern. The characteristics of this radiation pattern depends the
electrical size of the antenna and how the current is distributed on it. If the
antenna is electrically large, the pattern will have more structure, that is more
peaks and nulls and the more directive will be the main lobe as shown in figure
4 for a dipole antenna that is 10.25 wavelengths long.
Let us now look at these concepts in detail. As mentioned above, the larger the
antenna the more structured the pattern and the following is usually a good rule
of thumb. For each wavelength in dimension that the antenna spans there will
be 4 lobes in one 360 degree pattern cut. As an example, the 10 wavelength
antenna has about 40 lobes in its pattern. Many times two additional nulls are
added to the pattern due the nulls off the end of a dipole. At the antiresonance
frequencies, however, some of these lobes may lay on top of each other and
there may appear to be only half the number of expected lobes. These lobes will
be closest together in a direction broadside to the longest dimension of the
antenna where the separation between lobes, in degrees, will be about 60/D,
where D is the dimension of the antenna in wavelengths. At an angle of about
45 degrees from the broadside the lobes are about 90/D degrees apart. Do not
try to use these algorithms near the endfire of an array. The beamwidth of an
antenna is a measure of the directivity of an antenna and is usually defined by
the angles where the pattern drops to one half of its peak value or known as the
3db points. If the antenna is uniformly excited, so that there is a uniform
distribution of current over it, this beam width is about 50/D degrees. The next
lobe in the pattern, usually called the first sidelobe, will be about 1/20 of the
value of the main lobe and any others will be of even lesser value. Antennas

that are designed to suppress the sidelobes will have a beam width about twice
as wide as that of the uniformly excited array. When an antenna is designed to
focus its energy in a given direction, the energy radiated in that direction is
more intense than if it were an omnidirectional antenna. The ration between
these values is called the antenna gain. This can be approximated by the
following formula
G =27,000 / (BWh x BWv)
where G is the power gain of the antenna, BWh is the horizontal beamwidth of
the antenna and BWv is the vertical beamwidth of the antenna. As an example,
consider an antenna that had a vertical beam width of 27 degrees and a
horizontal beam width of 10 degrees; it will have a power gain of 100 or 20 db.
This would also have a vertical dimension of about 2 wavelengths and a
horizontal dimension of about 5 wavelengths if the antenna is uniformly
excited.
Polarization
All electromagnetic, EM, waves, traveling in free space, have an electric field
component, E, and a magnetic field component, H, which are usually
perpendicular to each other and both components are perpendicular to the
direction of propagation as shown in figure 5. The orientation of the E vector is
used to define the polarization of the wave; if the E field is orientated vertically
the wave is said to be vertically polarized. Sometimes the E field rotates with
time and it is said to be circularly polarized. Polarization of the wave radiating
from an antenna is an important concept when one is concerned with the
coupling between two antennas or the propagation of a radio wave.
A closely related parameter is the impedance of a wave; this is the ratio of E/H
and for free space is close to 377 ohms. This is not to be confused with the
radiation resistance of an antenna; its just that they have the same units. If a
propagating radio wave encounters a medium of a different impedance, part of
the wave is reflected, much like the reflections at a discontinuity in a
transmission line. The remaining energy of the wave that passes through the
discontinuity is refracted in a different direction of propagation, just like the
distortion one sees as a light beam passes through water. The reflection and
refraction properties often depend upon the polarization of the EM wave.
Antenna Arrays

Up to this point we have talked about the properties of single antennas. There
are many types of antennas each of which have rather unique features such as
impedance, beam width, bandwidth, polarization, sidelobe level and pattern
shape. The physical features of an antenna, such as size and shape, are also
important. Many times one would like to vary these properties without building
another antenna. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve the electrical properties
one desires with any one antenna in a given physical environment. As was said
before, an antenna is a structure carrying an electrical current and the electrical
properties of the antenna depends upon the distribution of that current in
magnitude and phase. If one can change the current distribution of the antenna,
they can change its characteristics. Given this, it is possible to build an antenna
in some physically required constraint and make it look like an antenna of a
different shape. Usually it is difficult to change the current distribution on an
antenna that has just one feed point. If a single antenna is built with multiple
feed points, it is difficult to adjust their feeds independently in order to change
the current distribution. This is because a change in excitation of one feed point
will, most likely, affect the impedance seen at the other feed points. If we use
an array of similar antennas with a low gain, it is possible to obtain an antenna
that has a higher gain and a radiation pattern that can be electronically steered.
Antennas can also be arrayed to obtain a wide bandwidth and low sidelobes if
one is willing to trade off gain.
Lets look at how the pattern of an array of antennas can be steered
electronically and at the same time we can see how we can change the shape of
the array to remain within given physical constraints and still have a pattern
reasonably close to what we want. Figure 6 shows two small dipole antennas
that are one wavelength apart. We will call the boresite direction as being
broadside to a line that connects the two antennas. If each antenna is excited
with an identical signal, the waves from each will be in phase along the
boresite. The two waves add and the energy is summed in the direction of the
boresite. See figure 7. If we look thirty degrees to either side of the boresite, the
wave coming from one antenna is delayed behind the wave coming from the
other antenna because it has to travel one half wavelength further. This means
that the two waves will subtract in this direction giving us a null in the pattern.
If we continue around until we are looking down the endfire direction of the
array, we see that one wave has to travel a full wavelength further than the
other and they will again be in phase. Here the waves will add again and give
us another peak in the pattern. The pattern resulting from such an array of
omnidirectional elements is referred to as the array factor. It is also important to
note that the null is closer to the broadside than to the endfire. This results in
narrower lobes which will be closer together in the broadside direction than in

the endfire direction. This is because as one rotates the array, the radial
distances to the elements changes faster when you are observing from the
broadside than from the endfire. Now, lets excite these two elements 180
degrees out of phase or rotating the array by 30 degrees. This will be the same
as having one element displaced by one half wavelength. Now the waves will
be out of phase along the boresite and the endfire directions producing nulls in
the patterns in those directions and they will be in phase at 30 degrees off of the
boresite producing peaks in those directions. See figure 8. You can steer the
beams by changing the relative phase of the signals exciting the array elements.
The above example demonstrates that the pattern of an array of antennas is the
product of the pattern of a single element, called the element factor, times the
pattern generated by having an array of elements called the array factor. This
example also introduces another concept called grading lobes. If the array
elements are spaced more than 1/2 wavelength apart other lobes, identical to
the main lobe will start to appear in the array factor. In the above example they
would be the lobes off the ends of the array.
Lets look at some arrays that we may encounter. The most straight forward
arrays are a linear array, made up by a straight row of elements. Let's look at
some examples of this. figure 9 shows a half wavelength dipole vertically
orientated. The colors represent the magnitude of current distribution red for
the maximum current levels graded to blue for lesser values. The radiation
pattern is shown in Figure 10 with the colors representing the magnitude of the
radiated field as shown by the color bar, Figure 11 shows an array of two half
wavelength dipoles stacked vertically on one wavelength centers and the
resulting pattern is shown in Figure 12. The pattern has a narrower beamwidth
in the vertical direction. In Figure 13 this array is extended to 4 elements with
the pattern shown in Figure 14 and the pattern is narrower still. Now, lets
suppose that our array is on a mountain top and we want to scan the beam
down. Figure 14a illustrates an extreme example where the elements are
progressively phased 90 degrees down the array which scans the main lobe
down 15 degrees. Now we see another problem creeping in, grading lobes,
because the elements are spaced further than a half wavelength apart.
Previously they presented no problem because they were in the null of the
element pattern of the individual dipoles. Now they too have scanned and you
can see one starting to scan into view about 45 degrees from the zenith, but the
element factor is still suppressing it to a level less than the main beam. If we
continue to scan the main beam down by phasing each element progressively
by 180 degrees, the main beam is now down to 30 degrees below the horizontal
as shown in Figure 14b, but look what happened to that grading lobe. It is now
down well into the element factor and has an amplitude comparable to the main

beam. Another rule of thumb is also demonstrated here. For elements spaced
one wavelength apart, the beam is scanned roughly one degree for every 6
degrees of phase shift in adjacent elements. This number is also roughly
proportional to the spacing of the elements.
The Yagi antenna is an example of a fairly high gain array where most of the
elements are fed parasitically from one or more driven elements. This is a
relatively inexpensive antenna as the feed network is fairly simple but
dimensional adjustments may be critical. The phase in the parasitic elements,
which is what controls the array factor, is controlled by adjusting the element
length and spacing. It is this combination of adjustment parameters is rather
critical and the bandwidth of a Yagi antenna is usually only a few percent but it
does have a fairly high gain considering its electrical size. Figure 15 show a
three element Yagi antenna and its relative current distribution. It has a driven
element which is half a wavelength long, a parasitic reflecting element which is
a little longer and a parasitic director which is shorter than the driven element.
The radiation pattern is shown in figure 16.
Now lets's develop an array with thin wires that are endfed. Figure 17 shows
the current distribution along a wire that is two wavelengths long and end fed
and Figure 18 shows its radiation pattern with large lobe about 30 degrees of
the end of the wires and the larger one in a direction away from the fed end of
the wire. Now, lets build an array using four wire connected to form a rhombic
with a vertex of 60 degrees so that the lobes of the individual wires add up
along the long axis of the rhombic. This is shown in Figure 19; note that the
current distribution shows moding due to reflections off the end of the array
just as with an electrically long dipole. The pattern is shown in Figure 20; note
the large lobes to the back end of the array. If we terminate the end of the
antenna with a matching impedance, just like on a transmission line, the current
reflections and modes will be eliminated as well as the large lobes to the rear. A
resistive load of 300 ohms was use in this case. Figure 21 shows the current
distribution without reflections and Figure 22 shows the radiation pattern with
the backlobes removed. A rhombic antenna is usually supported on poles above
the ground and the resulting reflections can cause a serious multipath problem.
If the ground is considered a perfect conductor, the reflections can be accounted
for by creating an identical image at a distance below the ground equal to the
distance the antenna is above the ground as shown in Figure 23. The radiation
pattern is shown in Figure 24 which is ideal for launching a sky wave at HF
frequencies. The lobe depicted going into the ground really does not exist
because array theory is only valid for the half space above the reflecting
surface.

An example of a broadband array is the log periodic antenna. This is an array of

closely spaced elements, each 180 degrees out of phase with the next and the
length of each and the spacing changing proportional to its distance from an
apex This forms a pattern by subtraction rather than by addition. Figure 25 is a
typical log periodic antenna. Only a few of the elements, which are near
resonance, will radiate at a given frequency, and this can be seen in the
computed model of this antenna in figure 26. The alternate phasing of the
elements is necessary to force the array to radiate through the electrically
shorter elements which will perturb the pattern less than the longer ones would.
The feed is usually a parallel transmission line which also serves as the antenna
boom. The combination of element size, element spacing and transmission line
geometry is rather complex. A log periodic array has a typical gain of 7-9 db
and patterns that are about 60 degrees by 120 degrees wide. The computed 3D
pattern is shown in figure 27.
Suppose now that we design an antenna array that is on a flat surface, but we
must be physically constrained to follow a curved surface such as on an
aircraft. Figure 28 shows 5 elements as if they were mounted on flat surface
and also as if they were on a cylindrical surface with a radius of 3 meters. In
order to correct the radiation pattern for the effects of the curved surface, we
advance the phase of the excitation in direct proportion to the elements distance
from the strait line. Figure 29 shows the pattern of the array with the elements
mounted on a flat surface and the same voltage applied to each element at a
frequency of 300 MHz. Figure 30 shows the resultant distortion caused by
mounting them on the cylindrical surface with the same excitation. If the phase
is delayed to account for the displacement by the cylindrical surface we get the
pattern in Figure 31 which is reasonably close to the original pattern, in the
foward direction.
Extending this further, a planer array that is a two dimensional array of
elements lying in a plane. This is a way of achieving a relatively high gain
using fairly simple elements. These arrays have the advantage that you can
steer the beam along its axis and also have control of the shape of the beam and
its side lobes. The two dimensional array can scan and shape the beam in two
directions. Actually we can extend this concept to three dimensions by making
each element of a planer array an array but care must be taken that the element
pattern is wide enough to cover the range of azimuth and elevation that the
beam is to be steered over. These arrays usually have a rather complex and
costly feed network.
The examples of array theory have been greatly simplified here, but the
purpose was to develop the concept of array factor and the fact that you can

steer and shape an antenna radiation pattern by varying the excitation on the
array elements. We can also broadband an array, change its shape somewhat
and even feed elements parasitically.
Be sure to bookmark this page as its development will probably continue for
some time. As time becomes available, I will expand on these concepts and
create missing and additional figures. If you see any errors, have any comments
or if there are additional topics that you would like to see covered, be sure to
drop me a line. If there is anything on this page that is not explained clearly
enough, please drop me a line with the specifics. If you would be interested in
helping me author this page, I would also like to hear from you. Please be
patient with me, but give me a kick once in a while to make sure I get this task
completed.
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Topics that I presently plan to add are "Noise at Radio Frequencies" and "Radio
Wave Propagation". warrend@borg.com
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