DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A MICROWAVE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING BICONICAL ANTENNA

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Antennas are indispensable component of any wireless communication device. Thus, they are the inevitable
component for creating the so called ―wireless human network‖. An antenna is a transducer between the transmitter
and the free space waves and vice versa. They efficiently transfer electromagnetic energy from a transmission line
into free space.

As the growing demand for wireless communications is constantly increasing, the need for better coverage,
improved capacity and higher transmission quality rises. Thus, a more efficient use of the radio spectrum is required.
Originally developed for Radar technology Ultra-Wide Band has evolved to prove essential in the WPAN and WLAN
market as a high-speed networking solution for burst data [1]. UWB antennas are gaining widespread popularity
because of their various superior qualities. According to the definition of the Federal Communications Commission, a
UWB device has a fractional bandwidth that is greater than 0.2, or occupies 500 MHz or more of the frequency
spectrum, regardless of the fractional bandwidth [2]. The release of an extremely wide spectrum for emerging
commercial microwave UWB applications has greatly spurred the research and development of microwave ultra-
wideband (UWB) technology for communications, imaging, radar, and localization applications. Henceforth, many
techniques to broaden the impedance bandwidth of small antennas and to optimize the characteristics of the
broadband antennas have been widely investigated.

OBJECTIVES
The project aims to design a Biconical Antenna for Microwave Communication System. Specifically, the project
was designed to:

 Have a reliability of 90%

 Be feasible for Microwave Communication System

 Be able to have a decent radiation pattern that would provide clear and more distant microwave
communication

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

These are the various specifications that needs to be foreseen by the proponents in order properly design a biconical
antenna for microwave communication system.

 Size and Shape: Biconical antennas are similar to dipole antennas except that they have conical shaped
elements. They also have an integrated balun (balanced to unbalance) structure that impedance matches the
elements to the transmission line. Some baluns are made for high power capability suitable for immunity testing.
In most cases these lightweight antennas have removable elements for easy storage. Our folding biconical
antenna has elements that can also be closed similar to an umbrella allowing the antenna to be contained in a
compact transit case.

 Bandwidth: The antenna bandwidth is the total frequency range that the antenna can operate. These types of
antennas exhibit a broad frequency range starting from 20 MHz covering up to 18 GHz. One of the advantages of
the biconical antenna is the broad frequency bandwidth coverage with its compact size.
 Antenna VSWR and Reflected Power: The antenna VSWR is a ratio of the reflected power due to the mismatch
between the antenna and the measurement system. One drawback to the biconical antenna design is the poor
VSWR especially below 80 MHz. This is typically due to the limited size requirements spelled out in MIL-STD 462
and can be overcome by the selection of a larger element set. Another way to overcome this short fall is to add a
3- or 6-dB attenuator. This will improve the VSWR in the order of 2:1 or even better.

 Radiation Pattern: The radiation pattern is a chart of the variation of the field intensity of an antenna as an
angular function with respect to the axis. The radiation pattern of the biconical antennas are similar to the half-
wave dipoles. They have an omni-directional response in the H-plane, and a figure eight shape in the E-plane.
The H-plane beamwidth pattern makes these antennas ideal for field survey and spectrum monitoring.

Design Specifications

A biconical antenna consists of an arrangement of two conical conductors, which is driven by potential, charge, or an
alternating magnetic field (and the associated alternating electric current) at the vertex. The conductors have a
common axis and vertex. The two cones face in opposite directions. Biconical antennas are broadband dipole
antennas, typically exhibiting a bandwidth of 3 octaves or more.

Fig1: A typical biconical antenna using radial elements.

The skeletal biconical antenna structure consists of wire cages mounted on either side of the support. Fig. 1 shows
this structure. Each cone of the antenna is formed from elbow-shaped wires arranged around a single straight wire
along the axis. The angle between each bent cone wire and the central wire is 30° and the angle at each bend is
90°. Therefore, the entire structure of each cone may be defined by a single cone length dimension, as shown in
following figure.
 Fig 2: Dimensions of the triangular shaped wire of the biconical antenna

The relation between the length of the antenna and the wavelength in our design is given by

𝐿 = 0.36𝜆 (𝑚𝑚)

Thus, the length of one cone

𝑙 = 0.18𝜆 (𝑚𝑚)

Therefore, If we started off with a design for tuning frequency of 𝑓 = 500 𝑀𝐻𝑧, i.e. 𝜆 = 600 𝑚𝑚. So, the length
of the antenna is

𝑙 = 0.18𝜆 (𝑚𝑚)

𝑙 = 0.18(600 𝑚𝑚)

𝑙 = 108 𝑚𝑚

𝒍 ≈ 𝟏𝟏𝟎 𝒎𝒎

Initial Testing using CADFEKO

Fig 3: Antenna Design

 RADIATION AND THETA PATTERN AT DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES

RADIATION PATERN POLAR GRAPH

SUMMARY OF RESULTS