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5.

Popular Antennas
Dr. Hassan Tariq Chattha
Department of Electrical Engineering
The University Engineering & Technology
(Lahore) Faisalabad Campus

Objectives of this Chapter


To examine and analyse some of the most
popular antennas using relevant antenna
theories, to see why they have become
popular, what their major features and
properties (including advantages and
disadvantages) are, and how they should
be designed.

Classification of Antennas
Wire-Type Antennas
Dipoles
Monopoles
Biconical antennas
Loop antennas
Helical antennas
Linearly polarised antennas
Element antennas
Narrow-band
Transmitting

Aperture-Type Antennas
Horn and open waveguide
Reflector antennas
Slot antennas
Microstrip antennas
Circularly polarised antennas
Antenna array
Broad-band
Receiving

5.1

Wire Type Antennas

Dipole Antennas

Evolution of a dipole of total length 2l and diameter d

Current distribution of dipoles


Current distribution along an open transmission line is:

Thus the current distribution on the dipole is

Radiation pattern of dipoles

In the far field:

Input impedance of dipoles

Electrically short dipoles


When the dipole length is much shorter than a
wavelength (< l/10), it can be called an electrically short
dipole
The input impedance can be approximated as

Radiation pattern is

E() = sin

The directivity is

D = 1.5 (1.76dBi)

Half-wavelength dipole

The most popular dipole


Radiation pattern:
E() = cos[(/2)cos ]/sin
Radiation resistance: 73
Directivity:
1.64 (2.15 dBi)
The input impedance is not sensitive to the radius
and is about 73 which is well matched with a
standard transmission line of characteristic
impedance 75 or 50 (with a VSWR < 2).
Its size and radiation pattern are suitable for many
applications

Example 5.1
A dipole of the length 2l = 3 cm and diameter d = 2 mm is
made of copper wire (s = 5.7 107 S/m) for mobile
communications. If the operational frequency is 1 GHz,
a). obtain its radiation pattern and directivity;
b). calculate its input impedance, radiation resistance and
radiation efficiency;
c). if this antenna is also used as a field probe at 100 MHz
for EMC applications, find its radiation efficiency again,
and express it in dB.

Solution on pages 135 - 137

Some popular forms of dipole antennas

Monopole Antennas

Half of a dipole antenna mounted above


the earth or a ground plane
Normally one-quarter wavelength long
almost the same feature as a dipole,
except the 37 radiation resistance, higher gain, a
shorter length, and easier to feed!
Based on the Image Theory

Ground

Effects of the ground plane


Its size and material property of can change the radiation
pattern (hence the directivity) and input impedance.

An example

Some popular forms of monopole antennas

Duality Principle
Duality means the state of combing two different things
which are closely linked. In antennas, the duality theory
means that it is possible to write the fields of one
antenna from the field expressions of the other antenna
by interchanging parameters:

System 1
System 2

Loop Antennas

For a short dipole

Thus for a small loop

Directivity of a loop

Current distribution of a resonant loop

Radiation pattern of a one wavelength loop this is


very different from that of a short loop!

Radiation patterns of loops with various circumferences

Input impedance of loops

Helical Antennas

It may be viewed as a derivative of the dipole or monopole,


but it can also be considered a derivative of a loop.

A helix can radiate in many modes, the axial (end-fire) and the normal (broadside) mode
are the ones of most interest. It consists of a wire wound N turns around a cylinder in
diameter D with spacing S between the turns, and it is fed against a ground plane at one
end of the structure by a coaxial cable. The total length of the helix is L = NS while the
total length of the wire is Lw = NL0 = N S + C
2

is the length of the wire between each turn, and C =


D is the circumference of the helix. Another important parameter is
the pitch angle (i.e. the angle formed by a line tangent to the helix
wire and a plane perpendicular to the helix axis) is defined by.
where L0 =

S2 + C2

S
1 S
tan
tan

C
1

Normal mode Helix


It may be treated as the superposition of n elements,
each consisting of a small loop of diameter D and a
short dipole of length s, thus the far fields are

They are orthogonal and 90 degrees out of phase;


The combination of them gives a circularly or
elliptically polarised wave.
The axial ratio:

When the circumference is equal to


the axial ratio becomes unity and the radiation is
circularly polarised.

Axial Mode Helix


The axial (end-fire) mode occurs when the
circumference of the helix is comparable with the
wavelength (C = D l) and the total length is much
greater than the wavelength.
This has made the helix an extremely popular
circularly-polarised broadband antenna at the VHF
and UHF band frequencies
The recommended parameters for an optimum
design to achieve circular polarisation are:

The normalised radiation pattern:

Half power beamwidth:

1st null beamwidth:

The directivity:

The axial ratio

Radiation resistance

Example 5.2

Design a circularly polarised helix antenna of an endfire radiation pattern with a directivity of 13 dBi. Find
out its radiation resistance, HPBW, AR and
radiation pattern.

Solution on pages 150 - 152

Radiation patterns

Which is better?

Yagi-Uda Antennas

The driven element (feeder) is the very heart of the antenna. It


determines the polarisation and centre frequency. For a
dipole, the recommended length is about 0.47l to ensuring a
good input impedance to a 50 feed line.
The reflector is longer than the feeder to force the radiated
energy towards the front. The optimum spacing between the
reflector and the feeder is between 0.15 to 0.25 wavelengths.
The directors are usually 10 to 20% shorter than the feeder
and appear to direct the radiation towards the front. The
director to director spacing is typically 0.25 to 0.35
wavelengths,
The number of directors determines the maximum achievable
directivity and gain.

Log-periodic Antennas

The Log-periodic antenna, whose properties vary periodically with the


logarithm of frequency, consists of linear dipoles as basic constituent
elements,
The antenna is divided into the so called active region and inactive
regions.
The role of a specific dipole element is linked to the operating
frequency: if its length, L, is around half of the wavelength, it is an
active dipole and within the active region; Otherwise it is in an
inactive region and acts as a director or reflector as in Yagi-Uda
antenna
The driven element shifts with the frequency this is why this
antenna can offer a much wider bandwidth than the Yagi-Uda. A
travelling wave can also be formed in the antenna.
The highest frequency is basically determined by the shortest dipole
length while the lowest frequency is determined by the longest dipole
length (L1).

Antenna design
This seems to have too many variables. In fact, there
are only three independent variables for log-periodic
antenna design.
the scaling factor:
the spacing factor:

the apex angle:

In practice, the most likely scenario is that the frequency


range is given from fmin to fmax, the following equations
may be employed for design

Another parameter (such as the directivity or the length of


the antenna) is required to produce an optimised design.

Example 5.3
Design a log-periodic dipole antenna to cover all UHF TV
channels, which is from 470 MHz for channel 14 to 890
MHz for channel 83. Each channel has a bandwidth of 6
MHz. The desired directivity is 8 dBi.

Solution on page 160

Frequency-Independent Antennas

If the characteristics (such as the impedance and radiation


pattern) of an antenna are not a function of frequency, the
antenna is called a frequency-independent antenna. There are
basically three methods for constructing such an antenna.
(1) Scaling
If the antenna structure is built with a scaling factor , like the
log-periodic antenna, its properties will be the same at f and
f. By making the scaling factor close to 1, the properties of the
antenna at any frequency will be the same. In practice, even
with not very close to 1, good frequency-independent
characteristics are observed. The LPDA is a good example.

(2) Angle Conditions


If the antenna shape is specified only in terms of angle, the impedance
and pattern properties of the antenna will be frequency independent.
Typical examples include various (wire, conical and planar) spiral
antennas, as shown in Figure 5.21. Mathematically, the equation for a
logarithmic wire spiral can be expressed as
r = r0a
Where r = radial distance to a point on the spiral;
r0 = the radius for = 0, determining the upper frequency bound;
= angle with respect to the x-axis;
a = a constant controlling the flaring rate of the spiral. When a > 1, it is
right-handed, while when 0 < a < 1, it is left-handed.

(3) Self-complementary antennas

If an antenna structure is identical to its complementary structure, its input


impedance is frequency independent.

This type of antenna has a constant


impedance of

5.2
They are often
used for higher
frequency
applications
(> 1GHz) than
wire-type
antennas.

Aperture-Type Antennas

Fourier Transform and Radiated Field

How to link the aperture E field to the radiated field

Directivity:

Near field and far field

Example 5.4
An open waveguide aperture of dimensions a long x and b
along y located in the z = 0 plane is shown in Figure. The
field in the aperture is TE10 mode and given by

Find
i). the radiated far field and plot the radiation pattern in both
the E and H planes;
ii). the directivity.

Solution on pages 166 - 168

Horn Antennas

Horn antennas are the simplest and one of the most widely
used microwave antennas the antenna is nicely integrated
with the feed line (waveguide) and the performance can be
easily controlled.
They are mainly used for standard antenna gain and field
measurements, feed element for reflector antennas, and
microwave communications.

Pyramidal Horn Design

To make this horn, we must have

i.e.

The directivity:

We can therefore obtain the design equation

This equation in A can be solved using numerical methods.


For the optimum design, use a first guess approximation

Example 5.5
Design a standard gain horn with a directivity of 20 dBi
at 10 GHz. WR-90 waveguide will be used to feed the
horn.

Solution on pages 172 - 173

Reflector Antennas
Reflector antennas can offer much higher gains than
horn antennas and are easy to design and construct.
The most widely used antennas for high frequency and
high gain applications in radio astronomy, radar,
microwave and millimetre wave communications, and
satellite tracking and communications.
The most popular shape is the paraboloid because of
its excellent ability to produce a pencil beam (high gain)
with low sidelobes and good cross-polarisation
characteristics

Paraboloidal and Cassegrain reflector antennas

A satellite dish is a parabolic


reflector antenna

Types according to geometry

Plane reflectors

Corner reflectors

Curved reflectors
59

Types of parabolic surfaces

Parabolic Cylinder
Focus is a line

Hyperbola

Parabola

Focus is a point

60

Methods of feeding parabolic reflectors

Front fed reflectors

Offset reflectors

Cassegrain fed

Dual offset

61

Methods of feeding parabolic reflectors


The use of Offset reflectors
It reduces aperture blockage while
maintaining acceptable structure
rigidity

The use of Cassegrain fed


reflectors
This increases the focal length
and thus increases the directivity
.

62

Antenna design
The reflector design problem consists primarily of
matching the feed antenna pattern to the reflector. The
usual goal is to have the feed pattern about 10 dB down
in the direction of the rim, that is the edge taper = (the
field at the edge)/(the field at the centre) 10 dB.
Directivity:
Half-power beamwidth

Radiation patterns in E and H planes

Slots Antennas
They are very low-profile and can be conformed to basically
any configuration, thus they have found many
applications, for example, on aircraft and missiles.

Antenna

Equivalent circuit

Slot waveguide antenna array: widely used for radar

Equivalence Principle: for field analysis


The radiated field by the slot is the same as the field
radiated by its equivalent surface electric current and
magnetic current which were given by

where E and H are the electric and magnetic fields within the
slot, and n is the unit vector normal to the slot surface S
For a half-wavelength slot, its equivalent electric surface current JS
= n H = 0, the remaining source at the slot is its equivalent
magnetic current MS = n E (it would be 2MS if the conducting
ground plane were removed using the imaging theory).

Babinets Principle
In optics, the field at any point behind a plane having a screen, if
added to the field at the same point when the complementary
screen is substituted, is equal to the field at the point when no
screen is present.
Apply this to antennas; for the input impedance of

complementary antennas
This means that the product of the impedances of two complementary
antennas is the constant 2/4 and this is the interpretation of Babinets
principle in antennas.
Since the impedance for a half-wavelength dipole is about 73 ohms, the
corresponding slot has an impedance of

Microstrip/Patch Antennas
Ease of construction and integration, relatively low cost,
compact low profile configuration and good flexibility
Typical applications for 1 - 20 GHz

Operational principles

To be a resonant antenna, the length L should


be around half of the wavelength. In this case,
the antenna can be considered as a l/2
transmission line resonant cavity with two open
ends where the fringing fields from the patch to
the ground are exposed to the upper half space
(z > 0) and are responsible for the radiation.
As a resonant cavity, there are many possible
modes (as waveguides), thus a patch antenna
is multi-mode and may have many resonant
frequencies.

Radiation pattern

Main properties

Directivity

Input impedance

Bandwidth for VSWR < 2

Antenna design

Optimised width:
Resonant freq.:

Length:

Example 5.7
RT/Duroid 5880 substrate ( and d = 1.588 mm) is to be
used to make a resonant rectangular patch antenna of
linear polarisation;
a). Design such an antenna to work at 2.45 GHz for
Bluetooth applications;
b). Estimate its directivity;
c). If it is to be connected to a 50 ohms microstrip using the
same PCB board, design the feed to this antenna;
d). Find the fractional bandwidth for VSWR < 2.

Solution on pages 189 - 191

Components

A microstrip antenna consists of :

Feed

Patch ( radiating
Element )

Dielectric
Ground plane
copper

The patch ( radiating element ) may be circular , rectangular or any other shape .
76

Components : Design parameters

Design parameters : ( W , L , f ,

e)

lo = c / f

lg = l /

The microstrip antennas have a main radiating edge , the other edge is weaker .

e
W

77

Types of microstrip antennas


Open circuit microstrip

-The patch is totally isolated


From the ground plane
-Higher efficiency than short
Circuit microstrip antennas .

Short circuit microstrip

-The patch is connected to


The ground
-Have only one radiating
Edge .

78

Types of microstrip antennas

As it is difficult to manufacture a short circuit microstrip antenna , we use shorting


Posts instead .

Shorting posts have :


-Inductance in each one
-Capacitance between them
> As number of posts increase
Resonant frequency increase .

Shorting
Posts

79

Feeding techniques

Feeding by coupling
Microstrip line
Feed
Direct feeding by coaxial
Feed line ( probe )

Aperture
coupled
feed

Proximity
coupled
feed

80

Three feeding configurations: coupling feed, microstrip feed and


coaxial feed

Feeding techniques : Direct feed by


coaxial fees line

The inner ( central ) of the coax is attached to the patch while


The outer ground is welded to the ground of the microstrip
( like the monopole ) .

Patch

Coaxial

Equivalent circuit

82

Feeding techniques : Microstrip feed line

It is a conducting strip of much smaller width compared to the


Patch , it is easy to fabricate and simple to match ..

83

Feeding techniques : feeding by coupling

Aperture
coupled
feed

The most difficult to fabricate


And has a narrow band ,
Depends on two substrates and
A ground with a slot .

Proximity
coupled
feed

Has a band width of 13% ,


however it is difficult to fabricate.

84

A variety of patch antennas

Advantages

1 High accuracy in manufacturing , the design is executed by


Photo etching

2 Easy to integrate with other devices

3 An array of microstrip antennas can be used to form a


Pattern that is difficult to synthesize using a single element.

4 We can obtain high directivity using microstrip arrays

86

Advantages

5 Have a main radiating edge , this makes it useful for mobile


Phones to avoid radiation inside the device .

6 Small sized applicable for handheld portable communication

7 Smart antennas when combined with phase shifters .

87

Disadvantages
2 Low efficiency , especially for short circuited microstrip
antenna

3 Some feeding techniques like aperture and proximity


Coupling are difficult to fabricate

4 An array suffers presence of feed network decreasing


Efficiency.

88

Techniques for overcoming


disadvantages
Conventional techniques

1- Decreasing dielectric
Constant
2- Increasing thickness
3- Increasing width .

Non conventional techniques

1- Aligned parasitic elements


2- Using stacked parasitic
Elements.

89

Techniques for overcoming


disadvantages : Aligned parasitic elements

Feeding one patch by coax


Probe and the other two
Patches are fed by coupling ,
This makes the antenna has
Three resonating frequencies
And the ultimate resonance
Is of a wider band width.

Patch #1 :
Fed by coax
Feed line
Patch #2 , 3 :
Fed by
Coupling.

Single element

Parasitic elements

90

Techniques for overcoming


disadvantages : Stacked parasitic elements

Rather than aligning them ,


We can even combine the two
Methods and modulate the
Patchs shape to yield widest
Band width .

91

5.3

Antenna Arrays

Motivations: to achieve desired high gain or radiation


pattern, and the ability to provide an electrically
scanned beam.
It consists of more than one antenna element and
these radiating elements are strategically placed in
space to form an array with desired characteristics
which are achieved by varying the feed (amplitude
and phase) and relative position of each radiating
element;
The main drawbacks are the complexity of the
feeding network required and the bandwidth
limitation (mainly due to the feeding network)

A typical antenna array of N elements

Pattern Multiplication Principle


Since the total radiated field for an array is the summation of
the fields from each element

where An is the amplitude, n is the relative phase, Ee is the


radiated field of the antenna element, and AF is called array
factor.
Thus the radiation pattern of an array is the product of the
pattern of individual element antenna with the (isotropic
source) array pattern.

Example
element

AF

Total
array

element

AF

Total
array

For a uniform array of a constant d and identical amplitude (say 1)

Thus

The normalised antenna factor of a uniform array:

AF: N = 20, d = l and 0 = 0

AF: N = 10, d = l and 0 = 0

AF: N = 10, d = l/2 and 0 = 0

AF for N = 10 and d = l/2, and 0 = 450

Phased Array

The maximum of the radiation occurs at = 0

That is:

Normally the spacing d is fixed for an array, we can control


the maximum radiation (or scan the beam) by changing the
phase 0 and the wavelength (frequency) this is the
principle of phase/frequency scanned array

Broadside and End-fire Arrays


An array is called a broadside array if the maximum
radiation of the array is directed normal to its axis ( =
00); while it is called an end-fire array if the maximum
radiation is directed along the axis of the array ( = 900).

The radiation pattern, SLL, HPBW, and gain for four different
source distributions of eight in-phase isotropic sources spaced by
l/2; there are trade-offs!

Element mutual coupling


The interaction between elements due to their close
proximity is called the mutual coupling which affects
the current distribution hence the input impedance as
well as the radiation pattern
The voltage generated at each element can be
expressed as

Self-impedance:
Mutual impedance:

5.4

Some Practical Considerations

The differences between transmitting and receiving


antennas
From the reciprocity theorem, the field patterns are
the same for transmitting or receiving.

Antenna feeding and matching


Balun (a device to connect a balanced antenna to an
unbalanced transmission line) may be required.

Polarisation
Polarisation has to be matched from Tx to Rx.

Radomes, housings and supporting structures.


Affecting the antenna performance (impedance,
pattern, )

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