Yagi-Uda Antenna Design
Muhammad Luqman Azmer, Abdul Mukhlishiina Lahuddin, Raja Ammar Akif Raja Ismail, Ahmad
Zaim Ali Mokhtar, Muhd Aizat, Muhammad Nawawi Mat Yusof
Abstract-This paper is related with the Yagi-
Uda Antenna (also known as a Yagi) is
another popular type of end-fire antenna
widely used in VHF and UHF bands (30
MHz to 3 GHz). We were given a task to
design an antenna that operate in range of
600-800MHz and it can reach at least 7dB
gain. We chose to design a Yagi-Uda
Antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
The Yagi-Uda Antenna (also known as a Yagi)
is another popular type of end-fire antenna
widely used in VHF and UHF bands (30 MHz
to 3 GHz) because of its simplicity, low cost
and relatively high gain. The most noticeable
application is for home TV reception and these
can be found on the rooftop of the house. A
typical one is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Yagi and Uda were two Japanese professors
who invented and studied this antenna in the
1920’s. S. Uda made the first Yagi-Uda antenna
and published the result in Japanese in 1926 and
1927, and the designed was further developed
and published in English by his colleague
Professor Yagi a year later. Since then a
significant of mount of work has been done
theoretically and experimentally.
Figure 2
The main feature of this type of antenna is that
it consists of three different element: the driven
element, reflector and director, as shown in
Figure 2. Some people consider the Yagi-Uda
antenna an array, since it has more than one
element. However, it has just one active
element and feed port; all the other elements
(the reflector and director) are parasitic. Thus,
some people consider it an elemental antenna
array. The main characteristics and design
recommendations of these element into three
important parts which is the driven element
(feeder), the reflector and the directors.
The driven element (feeder) is the heart of
antenna. It determines the polarization and
central frequency of the antenna. For a dipole,
the recommended length is about 0.50 λ to
ensure good input impedance to a 50 Ω feed
line.
The reflector normally slightly longer than the
driven resonant element to force the radiated
energy towards the front. It exhibits an
inductive reactance. It has been found that there
is not much improvement by adding more
reflectors to the antenna, thus there is only one
reflector. The optimum spacing between the
reflector and the driven element is between 0.15
and 0.25 wavelength. The length of the reflector
has a large effect on the front to back ratio and
antenna input impedance.
The directors usually 10 to 20% shorter than the
resonant driven element and appear to direct the
radiation towards the front. They are of
capacitive reactance. The director to director
spacing is typically 0.25 to 0.35 wavelengths,
with larger spacing for longer arrays and
smaller spacing for shorter arrays. The number
of directors determines the maximum
achievable directivity and gain.

The special configuration (long reflector and

short directors) has made the Yagi-Uda
Figure 3
Antenna radiate as an end-fire antenna. The
simplest three element Yagi-Uda antenna (just
one director) already shows an acceptable end
fire antenna pattern. The radiation towards the
back seems to be blocked/reflected by the
longer element, but not just by the reflector; the
reflector and the director produce push and pull
effects on the radiation. Induced current are
generated on the parasitic element and form
traveling wave structure at the desired
frequency. The performance is determined by
the current distribution in each element and the Figure 4
phase velocity of the traveling wave.

Table 1 (in mm)

III. RESULT AND ANALYSIS

Return loss (S11)

Figure 2.1, Reflector, Driven Element and
Directors repestively.
II. DESIGN
The models (refer to Figure 3 and Figure 4) of
the Yagi-Uda antenna was designed by using
CST simulation which implemented with the
parameters value as shows in Table 1. All the
parameters have been tweak to get the best
result.
S11 is a measure of how much power is
reflected back at the antenna port due to
mismatch from the transmission line. When
connected to a network analyzer, S11 measures
the amount of energy returning to the analyzer
– not what’s delivered to the antenna. The
amount of energy that returns to the analyzer is
directly affected by how well the antenna is
matched to the transmission line. A small S11
indicates a significant amount of energy has
been delivered to the antenna. S11 values are
measured in dB and are negative. S11 is also
sometimes referred to as return loss, which is
simply S11 but made positive instead (Return
Loss = - S11). So if the antenna Return Loss is
8 dB, S11 is -8 dB. The third and final method
to measure an antenna’s ability to accept power
is VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio).
VSWR evaluates the ratio of the peak
Figure 4
amplitude of the voltage of the wave on the
transmission line versus the minimum Based on S11 graph, the resonance frequency is
amplitude of the voltage of the wave. A VSWR 0.66 GHz as it have the highest gain which is
of 1 is ideal; this indicates that there is no 48dB. The operating bandwidth is between 0.6-
reflected power at the antenna port. When the 0.72 GHz as it have at least 10dB gain.
antenna and transmission line are not perfectly
matched, reflections at the antenna port travel Radiation Pattern
back towards the source and cause a standing
The radiation pattern of an antenna is a plot of
wave to form. The worse the mismatch, the
the far-field radiation properties of an antenna
larger the amplitude of these reflections. Based
as a function of the spatial co-ordinates which
on Figure 5 below, shows the result of the
are specified by the elevation angle (θ) and the
simulation with the applied parameters value.
azimuth angle (φ). More specifically it is a plot
of the power radiated from an antenna per unit
solid angle which is nothing but the radiation
intensity. It can be plotted as a 3D graph or as a
2D polar or Cartesian slice of this 3D graph. It
is an extremely parameter as it shows the
antenna’s directivity as well as gain at various
points in space. It serves as the signature of an
Figure 5 antenna and one look at it is often enough to
realize the antenna that produced it.
Bandwidth (sometimes just referred to as Because this parameter was so important to our
impedance bandwidth) refers to the range of software simulations we needed to understand
frequencies a given Return Loss can be it completely.
maintained. Since Return Loss is a
measurement of how much power the antenna 3-dB Beamwidth
accepts from the transmission line, the
The 3-dB beamwidth (or half-power
impedance of the antenna must match the
beamwidth) of an antenna is typically defined
impedance of the transmission line for
for each of the principal planes. The 3-dB
maximum power transfer. However the
beamwidth in each plane is defined as the angle
impedance of the antenna changes with
between the points in the main lobe that are
frequency, resulting in a limited range that the
down from the maximum gain by 3 dB. This is
antenna can be matched to the transmission
illustrated in Figure above. The 3-dB
line. The Bandwidth is a measure of this range.
beamwidth in the plot in this figure is shown as
Based on the Figure 4, shows the measurement
the angle between the two blue lines in the polar
of the bandwidth range, BW on the return loss
plot. In this example, the 3-dB beamwidth in
curve.
this plane is about 75.6 degrees. Antennas with
wide beamwidth typically have low gain and
antennas with narrow beamwidth tend to have
higher gain. Remember that gain is a measure
of how much of the power is radiated in a given
direction. So an antenna that directs most of its
energy into a narrow beam (at least in one
plane) will have a higher gain.
Figure 5, 3D radiation pattern from CST result
which shows a directional pattern.
Antenna plots are the road map for the antenna
user. Plots tell you where power is being
radiated or received (since they are reciprocal).
They also tell you how much degradation you
can expect if the antenna is not aimed properly.
Sometimes it is desirable to communicate with
more than one station. Antenna plots will assist
in the proper aiming of the antenna for optimum
performance on all the desired signals. The
narrower the beamwidth, the greater the
difficulty in properly aiming the antenna.
Remember that weather phenomenon such as
wind may also affect antenna performance or
dictate the type of antenna mounting.
Figure 6, polar radiation pattern from CST
result.
IV. FUTHER ANALYSIS AND
DISCUSSION
Further Analysis is done for Yagi-Uda antenna
to determine the behaviour of the antenna when
certain parameter is being changed.
First parameter being manipulated is the radius
of the element. The radius for our actual
designed antenna is 5mm. But when we change
the radius into 4mm the result is as shown in
Figure 7.
Figure 7
Figure 7 shows that the return loss of the
antenna is at -40 dB and the resonance
frequency is at 0.66 GHz with the bandwidth
from 0.6 GHz to 0.72 GHz.
Compare to the actual result the return loss for
the when uses the 5mm radius is at -48 dB
which the different is 8 dB whereas the
resonance frequency and the bandwidth remain
the same.
Second parameter that has being manipulated is
the distance between each element. The
parameter is changed into 0.2 time the
wavelength from the actual parameter and the
result is shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8
This Figure 2 shows that the return loss of the
antenna is at -24 dB which gives significant loss
in dB compare when changing the radius of the
elements. The resonance frequency and the
bandwidth still remain the same.
The third parameter that has being manipulated
is length of driven element and all other
elements. The length is change to 30% smaller
from final design and the result is shown in
Figure 9.
Figure 9
Figure 9 shows that the change in resonance and
the bandwidth which is 0.93 GHz and 0.85 to 1
GHz respectively whereas the return loss is the
same as the actual result which is -48 dB.
In this further analysis, we can conclude that the
change in radius has less changed in return loss
compare to when changing the space between
the elements. But changing the length of driven
element has no effect to the return loss instead
it changes the resonance frequency and the
bandwidth of the radiation.
V. CONCLUSION
From the result, it can be conclude that the task
given which is to design an antenna that operate
between 600-800 MHz have been achieved. We
have designed a Yagi-Uda antenna that operate
between 600-720 MHz (bandwidth) and have
48dB gain at its resonance frequency (0.66
GHz). By using CST Studio the parameters
have been tweak for antenna to achieve widest
bandwidth and highest gain. The optimum
radius for all elements is 0.5 mm. The optimum
driven element length is 0.468 x wavelength
(428.58 mm) which is 200.58 mm. The
optimum distance between elements is 0.26 x
wavelength.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank you everybody whose
involve in this project especially Dr. Mohd
Haizal Jamaluddin for guiding us throughout
this project.
REFERENCES
Book
1. "Antenna and Wave Propagation”, U. A.
Bakshi, 1st Edition (2011).
2. "Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design”,
C. A. Balanis, 3rd Edition (2005).
3. “Antenna Theory and Design”, W. L.
Stutzman, G. A. Thiele, 3rd Edition (2012).
Website
1. "Yagi-Uda Antenna", http://www.antenna-
theory.com/antennas/travelling/yagi.php
2. "Yagi-Uda antenna." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.29 May
2015.
3. "Antenna (radio)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, n.d. 17 May 2015.