Fudamentals of Antenna

Definition of Antenna
An antenna is a specialized transducer that converts

radio-frequency (RF) fields into alternating current (AC)

or vice-versa.
There are two basic types:
The receiving antenna, which intercepts RF energy and
delivers AC to electronic equipment and
The transmitting antenna, which is fed with AC from
electronic equipment and generates an RF field.

Antenna Types
Wire Antenna
Microstrip Antenna
Travelling Wave Antenna
Other Antenna
Reflector Antenna
Log-periodic Antenna
Aperture Antenna

Wire Antenna:

Short Dipole Antenna

Half Dipole Antenna

BroadBand Diploe Antenna

Monopole Antenna

Folded Dipole Antenna

Loop Antenna

Microstrip Antenna:

Rectangular microstrip(patch)Antenna

Planar Inverted-f Antenna(PIFA)

Travelling Wave Antenna:

Helical Antenna

Yagi-uda Antenna

Spiral Antenna
Reflector Antenna:

Corner Antenna

Parabolic Antenna(Dish Antenna)

Other Antenna:

NFC Antenna

Fractal Antenna

Wearable Antenna
Log-periodic Antenna:

Bow Tie Antenna

Log-periodic Antenna

Log-periodic dipole Array

Aperture Antenna:

Slot Antenna

Horn Antenna

Telescopes

Slotted Waveguide Antenna

Vivaldi Antenna

Inverted-f Antenna

Cavity-backed Slot Antenna

Components of antenna
systems
Antenna feeding
Antenna tuner
Antenna rotator
Block upconverter
Coaxial cable
Ground System
Feed line
Low-noise block downconverter
Passive radiator
Receiver
Stub
Transmitter

Antenna radiation sources and

regions
Antenna boresight
Focal cloud
Ground plane
Main lobe
Near and far field
Side lobe
Vertical plane

Antenna characteristics
Antenna efficiency
Antenna equivalent radius
Antenna factor
Antenna height considerations
Array gain
Directivity
Electrical length

Friis transmission equation

Gain
Radiation pattern
Radiation resistance
Radio propagation
Radio spectrum
Signal-to-noise ratio

Radiation Pattern:
An antenna radiation pattern or antenna
pattern is defined as a mathematical
function or a graphical representation of
the radiation properties of the antenna as
a function of space coordinates.

Radiation Pattern Lobes:

A radiation lobe is a portion of the radiation pattern

bounded by regions of relatively weak radiation

intensity.
Types of lobes:
Main lobe
Minor lobes
Side lobes
Back lobes

Beamwidth:
The beamwidth of an antenna is a very important

figure is used as a trade-off between it and the side lobe

level; as the beamwidth decreases, the side lobe
increases and vice versa.
The beamwidth of the antenna is also used to describe
the resolution capabilities of the antenna to distinguish
between two adjacent radiating sources or radar targets.

Types of beamwidth:

Half power beamwidth(HPBW)

First null beamwidth(FNBW)

Half-Power Beam Width (HPBW):
In a plane containing the direction of the
maximum of a beam, the angle between the two
directions in which the radiation intensity is one-half
value of the beam.
First-Null Beamwidth (FNBW) : Angular
separation between the first nulls of the pattern.

Radiation Intensity:
Radiation intensity in a given direction is defined as
the power radiated from an antenna per unit solid angle.
The radiation intensity is a far-field parameter.
It can be obtained by simply multiplying the radiation
density by the square of the distance.

The near field and far field are regions of

the electromagnetic field around an object, such as a

transmitting antenna, or the result of radiation
scattering off an object.
Non-radiative 'near-field' behaviors of electromagnetic
fields dominate close to the antenna or scattering object.
while electromagnetic radiation 'far-field' behaviors
dominate at greater distances.
Near-field strength decreases with distance, whereas
far-field strength decreases with the inverse square of
the distance.

Directivity:

The ratio of the radiation intensity in a

given direction from the antenna to the radiation
intensity averaged over all directions.
The average radiation intensity: total power radiated
by the antenna divided by 4.
Stated more simply, the directivity of a nonisotropic
source is equal to the ratio of its radiation intensity in a
given direction over that of an isotropic source.

Beam Solid angle:

The beam solid angle A is defined as the

solid angle through which all the power of the antenna
would flow if its radiation intensity is constant (and
equal to the maximum value of U) for all angles within
A.

Polarisation:
Polarization is the curve traced by the end point of the

arrow (vector) representing the instantaneous electric

field.
The field must be observed along the direction of
propagation.
Polarisation Types:

Linear

elliptical

Circular

Antenna Gain:

Antenna gain relates the intensity of an antenna in a

given direction to the intensity that would be produced
by a hypothetical ideal antenna that radiates equally in
all directions and has no losses.
Since the radiation intensity from a lossless isotropic
antenna equals the power into the antenna divided by a
solid angle of 4 steradians.

Antenna Factor:

In telecommunications the antenna

factor is defined as the ratio of
the electric field strength to
the voltage V (units: V or V)
induced across the terminals of
a antenna.

Antenna Efficiency:
The efficiency of an antenna relates the power

delivered to the antenna and the power radiated or

dissipated within the antenna.
A high efficiency antenna has most of the power
present at the antenna's input radiated away.
A low efficiency antenna has most of the power
absorbed as losses within the antenna, or reflected away
due to impedance mismatch.

Wearable antenna
Wearable Antennas are essentially any antenna that is

specifically designed to function while being worn.

Examples: include smartwatches (which typically have
integrated bluetooth antennas), glasses (such as Google
Glass which has WIFI and GPS antennas).
Wearable antennas are becoming increasingly common
in consumer electronics, and as such this page is
dedicated to describing the unique difficulties involved
in wearable antenna design.

Wearable Antenna Challenges

Proximity to the human body:

The human body is a lossy material for electromagnetic

waves. This means the body converts Electric Fields into
heat; put another way, the body absorbs energy from
electromagnetic waves.
Consequently, when an antenna is placed near the body,
the result is a large reduction of the antenna efficiency of
your wearable antenna.

For example, if you design an antenna and measure an

efficiency of -3 dB (50%), when placed on the body the
efficiency may easily drop to -13 dB (5%). This is a huge
hit to the performance of the wireless system.
Wearable antenna need to be shorter by 15% to 25%

from the antenna length in free space.

Very limited Volume:

Wearable devices must be as small as possible. No one

wants a watch with a big dipole antenna hanging out the

side.
Space is at an extreme premium on wearable devices,
particularly for anything near the face (such as google
glass). As such, industrial designers and product
designers often give very little space for the antenna,
which further makes the antenna design problem more
difficult.

Frequency(MHZ)

Permittivity

Elec.Cond(s/m)

300

37.1

0.36

450

33.9

0.43

835

30.3

0.59

900

30.0

0.62

1450

27.9

0.85

1575

27.5

0.9

1800

27.0

0.99

1900

26.7

1.04

1950

26.6

1.07

2000

26.5

1.09

2100

26.3

1.14

2450

25.7

1.32

3000

24.8

1.61

Wearable antenna for Medical

application
Helix antenna for human body:

In order to compare the variation of the new antenna

input impedance as function of distance from the body
to other antennas a helix antenna has been designed.
However, in the helix antenna area there is no ground
plane.
The antenna has been designed to operate on human
body.

Wearable tunable printed antenna:

It is used to control the antenna resonant

frequency at different locations on the human body.