FEDERAL TVET INSTITUTE

Advanced Antennas Systems (ECT-534)

Chapter One
Characterization on of antenna systems

By: Dr. Habib Mohammed (Ass. Professor)

Review of Fundamental Parameters of Antenna

Outline:

· Introduction

· Antenna Types

· Radiation Pattern

· Radiation Power Density

· Radiation Intensity

· Beamwidth and Directivity

· Antenna Gain and Efficiency

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Introduction

· In any wireless communication system, after a radio

frequency (RF) signal has been generated in a transmitter,
some means must be used to radiate this signal through
space to a receiver. The device that does this job is the
antenna.
· The transmitter signal energy is sent into space by a
transmitting antenna, the RF signal is then picked up from
space by a receiving antenna.
· The RF energy is transmitted into space in the form of an
electromagnetic field.

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Introduction…...

· In short, an antenna is defined as a metallic device (as a

rod or wire) for radiating or receiving radio waves. It is a
means for radiating or receiving radio waves.

· In other words, the antenna is the transitional structure

between free-space and a guiding device.

· The guiding device or transmission line may take the form

of a coaxial line or a waveguide, and it is used to transport
electromagnetic energy from the transmitting source to the
antenna, or from the antenna to the receiver.

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Introduction…...

Fig. Antenna as a transition device

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Introduction…...

· In addition to receiving or transmitting energy, an antenna

in an advanced wireless system is usually required to
optimize or accentuate the radiation energy in some
directions and suppress it in others.

· Thus, the antenna must also serve as a directional device

in addition to a probing device.

· It must then take various forms to meet the particular need

at hand. It may be a piece of conducting wire, an aperture,
a patch, an assembly of elements (array), a reflector,........

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Types of Antennas

Wire antennas:

· dipole, monopole, loop antenna, helix

· Usually used in personal applications, automobiles,

buildings, ships, aircrafts and spacecrafts.

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Types of Antennas…...

Reflector antennas:

· parabolic reflectors, corner reflectors

· These are high gain antennas usually used in radio

astronomy, microwave communication and satellite
tracking.

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Types of Antennas…...

Lens antennas:

· convex-plane, convex-convex, convex-concave and

concave-plane lenses

· These antennas are usually used for very high frequency

applications.

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Types of Antennas…...

Microstrip antennas:

· Rectangular, circular, etc. shaped metallic patch above a

ground plane.

· Used in aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, missiles, cars,

mobile phones, etc...

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Types of Antennas…...

Array antennas:

· Yagi-Uda antenna, microstrip patch array, aperture array,

slotted waveguide array.

· Used for very high gain applications with added advantage

such as controllable radiation pattern.

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Radiation Mechanism

· To create electromagnetic radiation, there must be a time-

varying current or an acceleration or deceleration of charge.

1. If the charge is not moving, a current is not created and

there is no radiation.

2. If a charge is moving with an uniform velocity:

Ø there is no radiation if the wire is straight, and infinite in

length

Øthere is radiation if the wire is curved, bent,

discontinuous, terminated, or truncated
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Radiation Mechanism…...

3. If charge is oscillating in a time-motion, it radiates even if

the wire is straight.

Fig. Wire configurations for radiation

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Radiation Mechanism…...

· So, it is the current distribution on the antennas that

produce the radiation.

· Usually these current distributions are excited b y

transmission lines and waveguides.

Fig. Antenna radiation mechanism

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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.

· In most cases, the radiation pattern is determined in the

far-field region and is represented as a function of the
directional coordinates.

· Radiation properties include power flux density, radiation

intensity, field strength, directivity, phase or polarization.

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Radiation Pattern…....

· 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.

· Often the field and power patterns are normalized with

respect to their maximum value, yielding normalized field
and power patterns.

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Radiation Pattern…....

· Also, the power pattern is usually plotted on a logarithmic

scale or more commonly in decibels (dB).

· For an antenna, the

i. field pattern (in linear scale) typically represents a plot

of the magnitude of the electrifkklc or magnetic field
as a function of the angular space.

ii. 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 angh;lular space.
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Radiation Pattern…....

iii. power pattern (in dB) represents the magnitude of the

electric or magnetic field, in decibels, as a function of
the angular space.

· All three patterns yield the same angular separation

between the two half-power points, 38.64 0 , on their
respective patterns, referred to as HPBW and illustrated in
figure give below.

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Radiation Pattern…....

Fig. Two-dimensional normalized field and power patterns

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Radiation Pattern…....

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.

· A major lobe (also called main beam) is defined as the

radiation lobe containing the direction of maximum
radiation.

· In some antennas, such as split-beam antennas, there may

exist more than one major lobe.
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Radiation Pattern…....

· A minor lobe is any lobe except a major lobe.

· A side lobe is a radiation lobe in any direction other than the

intended lobe.

· A back lobe is a radiation lobe whose axis makes an angle

of approximately 180 0 with respect to the beam of an
antenna.

· Minor lobes usually represent radiation in undesired

directions, and they should be minimized.

· Side lobes are normally the largest of the minor lobes.

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Radiation Pattern…....

Fig. Radiation lobes of an antenna amplitude pattern in polar form.

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Radiation Pattern…....

Fig. Linear plot of power pattern, lobes and beamwidths

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Radiation Pattern…....

Field Regions:

· The space surrounding an antenna is usually subdivided

into three regions:

Ø reactive near-field

Ø radiating near-field (Fresnel) and

Ø far-field (Fraunhofer)

· These regions are so designated to identify the field

structure in each.

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Radiation Pattern…....

Fig. Field regions of an antenna

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Radiation Pattern…....

· Reactive near-field region is defined as that portion of the

near-field region immediately surrounding the antenna
wherein the reactive field predominates.

· For most antennas, the outer boundary of this region is

commonly taken to exist at a distance R  0.62 D 3 / 
from the antenna surface, where λ is the wavelength and D
is the largest dimension of the antenna.

· For a very short dipole, the outer boundary is commonly

taken to exist at a distance  / 2 from the antenna surface.

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Radiation Pattern…....

· Radiating near-field (Fresnel) region is defined as that

region of the field of an antenna between the reactive near-
field region and the far-field region.

· If the antenna has a maximum dimension that is not large

compared to the wavelength, this region may not exist.

· The inner boundary is taken to be the distance R  0.62 D 3 / 

and the outer boundary the distance R  2 D /  where D is
2

the largest dimension of the antenna.

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Radiation Pattern…....

· Far-field (Fraunhofer) region is defined as that region of

the field of an antenna where the angular field distribution
is essentially independent of the distance from the antenna.

· If the antenna has a maximum overall dimension D, the

far-field region is commonly taken to exist at distances
greater than R  2 D 2 /  from the antenna, λ being the
wavelength.

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Radiation Pattern…....

Radian and Steradian:

· The measure of a plane angle is a radian. One radian is

defined as the plane angle with its vertex at the center of a
circle of radius r that is subtended by an arc whose length
is r.

· Since the circumference of a circle of radius r is C = 2� r,

there are 2� rad (2� r ∕r) in a full circle.
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Radiation Pattern…....

· The measure of a solid angle is a steradian. One steradian

is defined as the solid angle with its vertex at the center of
a sphere of radius r that is subtended by a spherical
surface area equal to that of a square with each side of
length r.

· Since the area of a sphere of radius r is A = 4� r2, there are

4� sr (4� r2∕r2) in a closed sphere.
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Radiation Pattern…....

· In most cases, it is easy to use the spherical polar

co-ordinate system while dealing with antenna radiation
properties.

Fig. Spherical polar coordinate system

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Radiation Pattern…....

· The infinitesimal area dA on the surface of a sphere of

radius r is given by: dA  r 2 sin dd

Fig. Calculation of infinitesimally small surface area

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Radiation Pattern…....

· Therefore, the element of solid angle dΩ of a sphere can

be written as:

dA
d  2  sin dd ( sr )
r

Example-1:

For a sphere of radius r, find the solid angle ΩA steradians

of a spherical cap on the surface of the sphere over the
north-pole region defined by spherical angles of 0 ≤ � ≤ 30◦,
0 ≤ � ≤ 360◦.
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Radiation Pattern…....

Solution:
360 0 30 0 2  /6
A    d    sin dd
0 0 0 0

sin d  2  cos  

2  /6
  d   /6
0
0 0

 2  0.867  1  2 (0.133)  0.83566

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Radiation Power Density

· Electromagnetic waves are used to transport information

through a wireless medium or a guiding structure, from one
point to the other.

· It is then natural to assume that power and energy are

associated with electromagnetic fields.

· The quantity used to describe the power associated with an

electromagnetic wave is the instantaneous Poynting vector.

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 Radiation Power Density…....

· Mathematically the Instantaneous Poynting Vector is given by:

w  E ( x, y , z , t ) x H ( x, y , z , t )

  
 Re E ( x, y, z )e jωt x Re H ( x, y, z )e jωt  (W / m 2 )

· And the Average Poynting Vector as:

1 1
Wav 
2
 
Re E ( x, y, z ) x H ( x, y, z ) *  Re E x H *
2
  (W / m 2 )

· The magnitude of the Poynting vector gives the instantaneous

or average power density of the electromagnetic wave.

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Radiation Power Density…....

· The average power radiated by an antenna (radiated

power) is given by:
Prad  Pav   Wrad .ds   Wav .nˆ da
S S

1

*
 Re( E x H ).ds
2 S

· The power pattern of the antenna is just a measure, as a

function of direction, of the average power density radiated
by the antenna.

· The observations are usually made on a large sphere of

constant radius extending into the far field.
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Radiation Power Density…....

Example-2:

The radial component of the radiated power density of an

antenna is given by:
sin θ
Wrad  aˆ r A0 (W / m 2 )
r2

where A0 is the peak value of the power density

θ is the usual spherical coordinate and

aˆ r is the radial unit vector

Determine the total radiated power.

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Radiation Power Density…....

Solution:
For a closed surface, a sphere of radius r is chosen. To find the total

radiated power, the radial component of the power density is integrated

over its surface. Thus,

Prad   Wrad .nˆ da

sin θ 

2π

π 
 
 aˆ r A0 2 . aˆ r r sin θdθdφ  π A0
2 2
(W )
0 0
 r 

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Radiation Power Density…....

· An isotropic radiator is an ideal source that radiates equally

in all directions.

· Although it does not exist in practice, it provides a

convenient isotropic reference with which to compare other
antennas.

· Because of its symmetric radiation, its Poynting vector will

not be a function of the spherical coordinate angles � and
� . In addition, it will have only a radial component.

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Radiation Power Density…....

· Thus, the total power radiated by it is given by:

Prad   W0 .ds
S


0
2π π

0 r 0
aˆ W ( r ) .aˆ r r 2
sin θ d θ d φ   4 π r 2
W0 (W )

· The power density is uniformly distributed over the surface

of a sphere of radius r and is given by:

 P 
W0  aˆ rW0  aˆ r  rad2  (W / m 2 )
 4πr 

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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, and it can

be obtained by simply multiplying the radiation density by
the square of the distance.

· In mathematical form it is expressed as:

U  r 2W rad

where U is radiation intensity (W/unit sol id angle )

W rad is radiation density (W/m 2 )

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Radiation Intensity…...

· The total power is obtained by integrating the radiation

intensity over the entire solid angle of 4� .
· Thus,
2π π
Prad   Ud     U sin θdθdφ

0 0

where dΩ  element o f solid an gle  sin θdθdφ

Exercise:
For the problem given in Example 2 above, find the total
radiated power using the above formula.
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Radiation Intensity…...

· For an isotropic source U will be independent of the angles

� and � , as was the case for Wrad.

Prad   U

0 d  U 0  d  4πU 0


· The radiation intensity of an isotropic source is then:

Prad
U0 
4π

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Beamwidth

· The beamwidth of a pattern is defined as the angular

separation between two identical points on opposite side of
the pattern maximum.

· In an antenna pattern, there are a number of beamwidths.

· The Half-Power Beamwidth (HPBW) is defined as the

angle between the two directions in which the radiation
intensity is one-half value of the beam in a plane containing
the direction of the maximum of a beam.

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Beamwidth…...

· The First-Null Beamwidth (FNBW) is the angular

separation between the first nulls of the an antenna pattern.

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Directivity

· Directivity of an antenna is defined as 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 is equal to the total power

radiated by the antenna divided by 4� .
· In short, the directivity of a nonisotropic source is equal to
the ratio of its radiation intensity in a given direction over
that of the radiation intensity an isotropic source.

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Directivity…...

· Mathematically, directivity can be written as:

U 4U
D  (dimensionless)
U0 Prad

· If the direction is not specified, it implies the direction of

maximum radiation intensity (maximum directivity)
expressed as:
U max 4πU max
Dmax  D0   (dimensionless)
U0 Prad

· Note that for an isotropic source, the directivity is unity.

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Directivity…...

· The partial directivity of an antenna is defined as that part

of the radiation intensity corresponding to a given
polarization divided by the total radiation intensity averaged
over all directions

· The total directivity is the sum of the partial directivities for

any two orthogonal polarizations.

· For a spherical coordinate system, the total maximum

directivity D0 for the orthogonal � and � components of an
antenna can be written as: D0  D  D

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Directivity…...

· The partial directivities D� and D� are expressed as:

4U  4U 
D  and D 
( Prad )   ( Prad )  ( Prad )   ( Prad ) 

where :

U  : is radiation intensity in a given direction contained in  field component

U  : is radiation intensity in a given direction contained in  field component

( Prad )  : is radiated power in all directions contained in  field component

( Prad )  : is radiated power in all directions contained in  field component

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Directivity…...

Example-3:

Find the maximum directivity of the antenna whose

radiation intensity is the same as that of Example-2.

Solution:
The radiation intensity is given by :

U  r 2W rad  A0 sin θ

π
The maximum radiation is directed along θ   U max  A0
2

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Directivity…...

The total radiated power is :

Prad  π 2 A0

Then the maximum directivity is equal to :

4πU max 4
D0    1.27
Prad π

Since the radiation intensity is only a function of θ , the directivity

as a function of the directional angles is represented by :

D  D0 sin θ  1.27 sin θ

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Directivity…...

Example-4:

The radial component of the radiated power density of an

infinitesimal linear dipole of length l ≪ λ is given by:

sin 2 
W av  aˆ r W r  aˆ r A0 (W / m 2 )
r2

Determine the maximum directivity of the antenna and

express the directivity as a function of the directional
angles � and � .

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Directivity…...

Solution:

The radiation intensity is given by :

U  r 2W av  aˆ r W r  A0 sin 2 


The maximum radiation is directed along    U max  A0
2
The total radiated power is given by :

2   8 
 Ud   A   sin  sin  d  d   A0 
2
Prad  0 

0 0
 3 

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Directivity…...
The maximum directivit y is equal to :

4U max 4A 0 3

D0     1 .5
P rad 8 2
( A0 )
3
Thus, the directivit y is represente d by :

D  D0 sin 2   1.5 sin 2 

· The directivity of an isotropic source is unity since its power

is radiated equally well in all directions.
· For all other sources, the maximum directivity will always
be greater than unity.
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 The End!

Any
Question?

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