Antennas

By: Harshul Thakur

Antenna
 It has several definitions like:
 It is a metallic device (a rod or wire) for radiating or
receiving radio waves.
 It is a means for radiating and receiving radio waves.
 Thevenin equivalent of antenna system

 RL is loss resistance(represents conduction and dielectric losses).

 Rr is the radiation resistance(represents radiation by the
antenna).
 XA is the imaginary part of the impedance(associated with
radiation by the antenna).
 Types of antenna
1. Wire antennas

These antenna are used in automobiles, buildings, ships, aircrafts,

spacecrafts and so on..
Cont.. Types of antennas
2. Aperture Antennas
 Aperture means opening
hole or gap.
 Typically used in space
craft and aircraft
applications.
 Cont.. Types of antennas
3.Micro-strip Antennas
 These become very popular in 1970s.
 It consists of metallic patch on a
grounded substrate.
 The metallic patch can take many
diff. configurations.
 These antennas are very popular
because of small size, low cost, very
versatile in terms of resonant
frequency, polarization pattern and
impedance.
 Used in aircrafts, spacecrafts,
satellites, missiles, cars and even in
mobile phones etc.
 Cont.. Types of antennas
4. Array Antennas
 Sometimes the
radiation
characteristics of a
single element is not
matching with
demand.
 So more no of
elements are added to
give a radiation
maximum in
particular direction or
directions, minimum
in others or so.
 The assemble of
radiators mounted on
a continuous structure
is called array antenna.
 Cont.. Types of antennas
5. Reflector Antennas
 For need to communicate
over great distances,
reflector antenna are used
in order to transmit and
receive signals that had to
travel millions of miles.
 Used to achieve high gain
and directivity.
Radiation Mechanism
 How are electromagentic field generated by the antenna?
 How it detached from antenna to form a free space wave?

A) Single Wire:
 Let suppose the total charge Q with in the volume V is moving in
the z direction with a uniform velocity Vz.
 So the current density over the cross section of the wire is given
by:
Qv is volume charge density, C/m^3

 If the wire is made up of ideal conductor, the current density

resides on the surface of the wire and it is given by:
Qs is surface charge density, C/m^2
 Cont.. Radiation Mechanism
 If the wire is very thin (ideally zero radius), then the current in the
wire can be represented by:
Ql is charge per unit length, C/m

 If the current is time varying, then the derivative of the current

can be written as:

az is acceleration (m/sec^2)
 If the wire is of length l, then above can written as:

 This is the basic relationship between the current and charge.

Cont.. Radiation Mechanism
 This relation simply tells about, to create radiation, there
must be a time varying current or an acceleration (or
deceleration) of charges.
 To create charge acceleration (or deceleration) the wire must
be curved, bent, discontinuous or terminated as shown in fig.
 Cont.. Radiation Mechanism
 So therefore:
 Cont.. Radiation Mechanism
B) Two- Wires:
 Consider a voltage source connected to a two-conductor
transmission line which is connected to an antenna.
 Applying a voltage source create electric field between the
conductors.
 Magnetic field lines always form closed loops encircling current
carrying conductor. (transverse to the electric field)
 Detachment of Electric
Field Lines.
 How the electric field get
detach take an example:
Dropping a pebble in a calm
body of water and provide
continuous disturbances.
 In the same way because of
continuous electric
disturbances, EM waves
exist continuously and
travel behind the others.
 These waves are radiated,
they form closed loops and
there are no charges to
sustain their existence.
C) Dipole Antenna
 The same phenomena is also applicable to an antenna called
dipole antenna.
 The end result is that there are three lines of force pointed
upward in the first λ/4 distance and same no. of lines
directed downward in the second λ/4 (or at λ/2 ).
 Since there is no net charge on the antenna, then the lines of
force must have been forced to detach themselves from the
conductors and to unite together to form closed loops.
Radiation Pattern
 It is a graph which shows the variation in actual field strength
of electromagnetic field at all points which are at equal
distance from the antenna.

 A trace of the received electric (magnetic) field at a constant

radius is called the amplitude field pattern.

 On the other hand, a graph of the spatial variation of the

power density along a constant radius is called an amplitude
power pattern. (Power pattern is usually plotted on a
logarithmic scale or more commonly in decibels (dB).)
 The three patterns are:(taken 10-element linear array with
spacing of d=0.25λ)
 Field Pattern (in linear Scale): typically represents a plot of the
magnitude of the electric or magnetic field as a function of
the angular space.

field pattern at 0.707 value of its maximum

 Power Pattern (in linear Scale): typically represents a plot of the
square of the magnitude of the electric or magnetic field as a
function of the angular space.

power pattern (in a linear scale) at its 0.5 value of its

maximum
  Power Pattern (in db): represents the magnitude of the electric
or magnetic field, in decibels, as a function of the angular
space.

Power pattern (in dB) at −3 dB value of its maximum

 Radiation Pattern Lobes
 Various parts of a
radiation pattern are
referred to as lobes,
which may be sub
classified into major or
main, minor, side, and
back lobes.

Fig. Radiation lobes and beam widths of an antenna

pattern
Fig. Linear plot of power pattern and its associated lobes and
beam widths.