EEC 132A: Special Problem #1

Due on Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Prof. G.Rick Branner

Nguyen L.K. Nguyen

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Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1

Contents
Problem 1 3

Problem 2 5

Problem 3 6

Problem 4 8

Problem 5 9

References 10

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Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1

Problem 1
Problem 1Problem 1 A 2.4 GHz Home Wifi system emits a 1 Watt signal. Assuming that the Wifi transmit
antenna area is 1 m2 and the Van in the street has a receive antenna aperture radius equal to ra . Let the
distance between transmit and receive antennas equal r.
a. Using the Wifi frequency, compute and plot the Van-received signal power (in units of W ) for Van
distance between 2 and 20 meters.

According to the Friis transmission equation [1], which defines the relationship between the distance between
two antennas and the power transmitted. The equation can be described as

At Ar
Pr = Pt (1)
r 2 2
where
Pt = Power transmitted = 1 Watt
At = Transmit antenna effective aperture
Ar = Receive antenna effective aperture
r = distance between the two antennas
= wavelength

For simplicity, the effective aperture area of the receiving antenna is assumed to be identical to the physical
area of a circular disk and is given to be ra2 , where ra is the radius of the antenna. The actual design
formulations are rather complicated. Therefore, it is a reasonable assumption applied within the scope of
this work.
3108 m/s
The wavelength of the signal can be computed as = c/fwif i = 2.410 9 s 1 = 0.125m assuming that the

speed of light in air is identical to the light travelling speed in vacuum.

Transmitted power is also given as 1 Watt.
The aperture of the transmitting antenna is also given to be 1m2

Problem 1 continued on next page. . . Page 3 of 10

Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1 Problem 1 (continued)

Figure 1 illustrates the received signal power (in W ) with the distance between the receive and transmit
antenna varies for different receive antennas radii. This plot is associated with the discrete value of distance,
which assumes that the van is assumed to be stationary and the Doplers effect is therefore, neglected.
Besides, due to the directional gain and field structure of the antennas, it is assumed that the antenna is set
face-to-face at the main beam of the transmitting antenna.
It can be seen from the plot that at the received signal power is less than the transmitted signal in accordance
with the physics law of energy conservation. As the distance getting further, the received powered drops
dramatically by inverse proportion of square distance. The plot shows three values of the receive antennas
aperture radius of 2cm, 5cm and 10cm as marked on the plot. These numbers are set as the physical
boundary that the received power may not exceed the transmitted power. At close distance such as in this
particular example, the signal strength greatly varies with the change of distance.

Figure 1: Van-received signal power for difference distance

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Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1 Problem 1

Problem 2
b. For the satellite system mentioned in the reference material, make a comparison of the received signal
strenth in mirowatts with that of the Van for varying satellite receiving aperture sizes. (Justify aperture
sizes used)
Since it is inaccessible to the aperture size of the satellite SkySat-1, I assumed that the radius of the antenna
to be 0.6m, 1m, 1.5m. The satellite orbits at the height of 450km. Considering the same transmission
conditions as problem 1, according to equation 1, the received signal power is then

At Ar 1m2 (0.6m)2
Pr (ra = 0.6m) = P t = 1 106 W = 0.000357W
r 2 2 (450 103 m)2 (0.125m)2

Similarly, with the receiving aperture radius of 1m and 1.5m, they can be calculated as

Pr (ra = 1m) = 0.000992W

Pr (ra = 1.5m) = 0.002232W

If we assume the distance between the van and the Wifi antenna is fixed to be at 10m and the aperture of
the receiving antenna has the radius of 10cm, the received power according to the plot is then 20 103 W .

We then compare this value to the received power of the satellite Pr (ra = 0.6m), Pr (ra = 1m) and
Pr (ra = 1.5m) with the satellites aperture radius of 0.6m, 1m and 1.5m respectively with the received
power of the van mentioned above. The archived ratios reach 54 106 , 20 106 and 9 106 times, which are
77dB, 73dB and 69.5dB less than the received signal power of the van respectively. These values reveal the
fact that the signal strength attenuates dramatically over large distance.

Figure 2 illustrates the received power of the satellite with respect to the aperture radius.

Figure 2: Satellite received signal with respect to aperture radius

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Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1 Problem 2

Problem 3
c. Repeat part b. in units of dBm and then in dB referenced to a microwatt.
Since the comparison is considered as the ratio between the two values of received power, if we choose
to work on miliWatt or microWatt, the dB discrepancy remains the same. Therefore, only the absolute
power received by the satellite will be converted into dBm scale. The same approach is applied for the dB
referenced to a microWatt.

The received power of the satellite in dBm scale is generated by the function

Pr|mW
Pr|dBm = 10log( )
1mW
Figure 3 shows the received power in dBm with respect to the aperture dimension.

Figure 3: Satellite received signal with respect to aperture radius in dBm

Problem 3 continued on next page. . . Page 6 of 10

Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1 Problem 3 (continued)

The received power of the satellite in dB scale referenced to a microwatt is generated by the function

Pr|W
Pr|dBmicrowatt = 10log( )
1W

Figure 4 shows the received power in dB referenced to a microwatt with respect to the aperture dimension.

Figure 4: Satellite received signal with respect to aperture radius in dB referenced to microwatt

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Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1 Problem 3

Problem 4
d. Using a system architechture that was studied in chapter 1, design a receiver that will provide a signal
magnitude equal to the van magnitude signal assuming that the van is 1km from the source.

According to equation 1 with ra = 1m, distance is now 1km, the received power is therefore

At Ar 1m2 (1m)2
Pr (ra = 1m) = P t = 1W = 0.2W
r2 2 (1 103 m)2 (0.125m)2

Which is approximately 80dB greater than the received signal power of the satellite which has the aperture
radius 1.5m (Pr (ra = 1.5m) = 0.002232W ). Figure 5 is my design of the system. As the signal received at
the atenna, it must go through a band pass filter as a band limiter. Next procedure is a low noise amplifier
(LNA), the signal input to this stage is expected to be noisy and the signal power itself is too low that the
information is indistinguishable from noise. At this stage, the gain is moderate (from 10dB to 20dB). The
signal is then fed a mixer to get rid of the carrier frequency. After going through a downconverter, the signal
is boosted to the desired power by a power amplifier. The amplifier is placed after the mixer so that it does
not deal with high frequency of the input signal from the antenna. The gain of this amplifier is designed to
fulfill the desired amplification (60dB to 70dB depends on the previous stages amplification). Afterwards,
the signal is filtered and ready to be processed.

Figure 5: Block diagram of a receiver

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Nguyen L.K. Nguyen EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1 Problem 4

Problem 5
e. Could you find a way to increase the signal strength other than in part b.?

In my point of view, certain methods can be applied to increase the signal strength such as

Improve antenna efficiency: matching circuit, internal impedance

Improve the directivity of the receiving antenna

The relationship between the antenna efficiency and the directivity of antenna with the effective aperture
can be described as[1]
eo 2
Where is the reflection coefficient of the input terminals of the antenna, which is related to the internal
impedance and matching circuit terminology.
The gain of the antenna is proportional to the directivity of the antenna by

G = ecd D

Where ecd is the antenna radiation efficiency and D is the directivity of the antenna
Those aforementioned methods lead to the improvement of the effective aperture of the antenna, and hence,
improve the power received in accordance with equation 1. The relationship between the aperture and the
gain is described as
2
A=G
4

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Bibliography EEC 132A (Prof. G.Rick Branner ): Special Problem #1 Problem 5

References
[1] Costantine A. Balanis. Antenna theory: analysis and design. John Wiley & sons, 2005.

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