Basic RF Technic and Laboratory Manual

Dr. Haim Matzner&Shimshon Levy April 2002

CONTENTS I Experiment-8 Antenna Radiation Pattern

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and Nulls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5
7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 10 10 10 11 11 11 12 13 13

1 Introduction 1.1 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Prelab Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Background Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 RF and Microwave Antennas . . 1.3.2 Antenna Radiation Pattern . . . 1.3.3 Antenna Radiation Pattern Lobes 1.3.4 Antenna Beamwidth. . . . . . . . 1.3.5 Antenna Directivity . . . . . . . . 1.3.6 Antenna Gain . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.7 Antenna polarization . . . . . . . 1.3.8 Antenna Bandwidth . . . . . . .

2 Experiment Procedure 2.1 Required Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Measuring input impedance of an antenna using Network Analyzer . 2.3 Applying the Flam & Rusell software for measuring and analyzing antennas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Measuring E and H Fields of Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Final Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CONTENTS

Part I Experiment-8 Antenna Radiation Pattern

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Objectives

Upon completion of the study, the student will become familiar with the following topics: 1. Antenna Pattern.(amplitude and phase). 2. E-plane and H-plane diagrams. 3. Omni-directional pattern. 4. Beamwidth and beam eciency. 5. Main lobe, sidelobes and radiation nulls. 6. Far eld and near eld. 7. Antenna impedance (SWR and Reection Coecient) in various formats: linear, log and polar. 8. Bandwidth. 1.2 Prelab Exercise

1. Dene a radiation pattern. 2. Explain the following antenna parameters: - E-plane and H-plane diagrams - Beamwidth - Main and lateral antenna lobes - Beam eciency - Far-eld region, near-eld region and reactive near-eld region - Bandwidth - Omni-directional 3. What is the mimimal distance between the transmitting and receiving antennas to obtain far eld condiitons ? 4. Describe and explain how to measure E-plane and H-plane patterns of a dipole antenna. 5. Describe the experiments you intend to perform.

Introduction

1.3

Background Theory

1.3.1 RF and Microwave Antennas In modern communication, the transmission and reception electromagnetic power to or from space, is primary necessity. The process is eected by a transformer between the space and the source, known as Antenna. The function of an antenna is twofold. At the transmitter end, the antenna broadcasts the electromagnetic signal in the direction of the receiver. At the receiver end, the antenna picks up as much power as possible from the transmitter. Denition of primary specication discussed. 1.3.2 Antenna Radiation Pattern The basic source of radiation is a short dipole and theoretically it radiates equal energy in all direction and so it is called IsotropicAntenna. A practical antenna, however does not radiated isotropically. Radiation patterns generally dened as the far eld power or eld strengh produced by the antenna as a function of the direction (Azimuth and elevation) measured from the antenna position. The behavior of the elds is changed with the distance from the antenna, and generally three regions are dened: Reactive near-eld region - The region in the space immediately surrounding the antenna in which the reactive eld dominated the radiating eld (d < /(2)). Radiating near-eld region - Beyond the former region and for which d < 2 2D / where r is the distance from the antenna, D is the largest dimension of the antenna and is the wavelength. This region is called also Fresnel region. In this region the radiating eld begins to dominate. Far-eld region - Beyond this region, the reactive eld become negligible and also the radial part of the elds. This region is called also Fraunhofer region. Generally measurements are taken in the far eld region.(See Fig-1 ) In case of large planar antennas it is more convenient to make near eld measurements and to calculate the far eld. 1.3.3 Antenna Radiation Pattern Lobes and Nulls A radiation lobe can be dened as a portion of radiation pattern bounded by regions of relatively weak radiation intensity. The main lobe is a high radiating energy region. Other lobes are called sidelobes, and the lobe radiating in the counter direction to the desired radiation direction is called back lobe. Regions for which the radiation is very weak are called nulls. 1.3.4 Antenna Beamwidth. Antenna beamwidth is dened as the angle (see Fig-2) between half power points on the main beam. In case that we have a power pattern in [dB] units, it means that we measure the angle between two 3dB points. 1.3.5 Antenna Directivity Directivity is a parameter related to the far eld power pattern. Dening radiation intensity U as the power radiated per unit solid angle (in watts/m2 /unit solid angle),

Background Theory

Dipole antenna

E-plane

Antenna Pattern

H plane

Figure 1 Measuring E and H eld of antenna

Back Lobe

Null

Antenna Lobe

Null

0 Power (dB) -3dB points

E-plane
Figure 2 E eld cut of dipole antenn

10

Introduction

and suppose that U = Cf (, ), than D=Z

2

where D is the directivity. Directivity measures the amount of radiated energy to a specic direction. Generally D > 1, except in the case of an isotropic antenna for which D = 1. An antenna with directivity D >> 1 is called a directive antenna. 1.3.6 Antenna Gain The denition of antenna gain is close to that of antenna directivity. The dierence between these two parameters is that the gain takes into account the eciency of the antenna and its directivity together, that is, the gain of a lossless antenna equals to its directivity. Hence the gain is given by G = et D (1.1)

4fmax (, )

f (, ) sin dd

where et is the total eciency of the antenna and D is its directivity. 1.3.7 Antenna polarization Polarization describes the movement of the tip of the electric eld vector going out from the transmitting antenna. The antenna is said to be linearly polarized when the electric eld remains parallel to a constant direction. In this case the minor perpendicular eld is called the crosspolarized eld. If the tip of the electric eld traced a circle the wave is said to be circularly polarized. In the case of circular or elliptical polarizations, the sense of the rotation is dened as CW or CCW as seen by the observer. 1.3.8 Antenna Bandwidth The bandwidth of an antenna is dened as The range of frequencies within which the performance of the antenna, with respect to some characteristic, conforms to a specied standard. The reason for this qualitative denition is that all the antenna parameters are changed with frequency and the importance of the dierent parameters as gain, return loss, beamwidth, side-lobe level etc. much depends on the application. For example, the bandwidth of an antenna for gain (-1dB from the maximum) is dened as Bandwidth(%) = fU fL 100 fC

where fU is the upper frequency, fL is the lower frequency, and fC is the center frequency. Another example is the bandwidth related to the mismatch loss dened by the SWR.

Chapter 2 EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE

2.1 Required Equipment

The following equipment needed to the pattern experiment: Network analyzer Hp - 8714B Transmitting dipole antenna - Cushcraft S8060B Receiving dipole antenna - Cushcraft S8060B 2.2 Measuring input impedance of an antenna using Network Analyzer

In this part of the experiment you measure the impedance of the antenna in various format, the impedance is dened for open site area, therefore the measuremend will be aected by the enviroment. 1. Connect the corner reector to the reection port of the network analyzer, as indicated in Fig.-3. 2. Stabilize the antenna in free space far from moving person (as far as posible ). 3. Set the frequency of the network analyzer, accordind to the frequency range of the antenna. 4. Measure || absolute value of Reection coecient of the antenna , by pressing Format menu and lin Mag. Save the Data on magnetic media.

RF OUT

RF IN

Antenna impedance measurement

Figure 1 Setup for input impedance of antenna

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Experiment Procedure

The return loss of the antenna is displayed. Save the Data on magnetic media. 4. Measure Re|| real part of Reection Coecient of the antenna , by pressing Format menu and lin Mag.and More Format and Real Save the Data on magnetic media. 5. Measure Im|| imaginary part of Reection Coecient of the antenna , by pressing Format menu and lin Mag.and More Format and Imaginary Save the Data on magnetic media. 6. Press Polar to get amplitude and phase of the Reection Coecient in polar notation. Use the central knob to move across the frequnecy range in order to get relevant values. Save the Data on magnetic media. 6. Measure SWR of the antenna and, Save the Data on magnetic media. 9. Press Format and Smith Chart for getting a display of the real and imaginary values of the impedance as function of frequency. 2.3 Applying the Flam & Rusell software for measuring and analyzing antennas.

Dene a measurement 1. Switch on the PC and prepare the system for E-plane measurement. 2. Double click the FR959 icon. 3. Press Dene Test in the pull down menu and choose Primary Axis in order to control the azimuth range of the measurement. 4. Choose CW/CCW and set the start azimuth to -90 and stop azimuth to 90 . Press Replace and OK for a nal setting. Check that Incr=2 ,Data span =1 Motion=continuous, and enable primary axis=X. 5. Press Dene Test in the pull down menu and choose Frequencies in order to control the frequnecy of the measurement. Change the frequnecy with the continuous frequency control icon, press Add and OK. 6. Press test in the FR959 Acquire window and choose a lename for the data of the measurement. 7. Press Measuere Antenna and OK to start the measurement. The measuerement is started and a radiation cut is displayed. 8. Press File, Save and Exit for saving your measuerement results. 9. Press Data Pro for analyzing the measurement results. A phase graph of the radiation cut is displayed. In order to go back to the power cut use the key at the left - down corner of the screen. 10. Press Analysys in the pull down menu, and then use Beampeak, Beamwidth, Gain, Null-Depth and Sidelobes in order to nd the relevant values. Be sure that Enable icon is on.

Final Report
Receiving antenna Transmitting antenna

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Azimuth positioner AL360-1 Positioner controler AL4901-3A

123 123.45

HPIB

RF OUT

RF IN

HPIB Network analyzer

Figure 2 Measuring E and H eld of antenna 2.3.1 Measuring E and H Fields of Antenna Follow the instructions below: 1. Connect the system as indicated in the gure. 2. Switch on the network analyzer, computer, antenna controller antenna positioner and printer. 3. Prepare the antennas for E-Plane measurements. 4. Prepare FR959 software to azimuth between -90o and 90o and get power and phase patterns, including pattern analysis: beamwidth, sidelobe level, max. gain, angle for max. gain. 5. Repeat the measurements for 3 dierent frequencies fc, fc + f, fc f ( f /fc 6 10%). 6. Prepare the antennas for H-Plane measurements. 7. Repeat paragraphs 3 and 4. 8. Print all your results.

2.4

Final Report

Please preform the following requirements 1. Using your Data Draw the following graphes. a. Absolute value of Reection Coecient as a function of frequency.

14

Experiment Procedure

b. Real part of Reection Coecient as a function of frequency.

c. Imaginary part of Reection Coecient as a function of frequency.

d. SWR as a function of frequency.

e. Impedance as a function of frequency.

2. Using the measured Data of Reection Coecient, calculate and draw graphes of SWR and Impedance as a function of frequency, compare the calculated and measured graphes.

3. Describe and explain each graph of your measurement results. All your printed patterns have to be included in your nal report.

2. Plot the maximum of the main lobe as a function of frequency. Find the bandwidth for -1dB and -3dB gain, and the frequency bandwidth of the antenna. Explain your considerations.

3. Draw theoretical E-Plane and H-Plane patterns from the geometrical parameters of the antenna and calculate also the beamwidth for the E-Plane pattern and compare your theoretical calculations to the measurement results.

4. Prepare a 3D theoretical pattern of the antenna (using MATLAB or an equivalent software. See Appendix A). Add a diskett containing your source code to the Report.Antenna Radiation Pattern.