ANTENNA AND WAVE PROPAGATION

G V Subrahmanyam
Assistant Professor
Dept. of ECE
 Loop Antenna
Introduction
In general, the radio waves propagated from the transmitter follow
the circular route to reach the receiver.
The method of finding the direction of unknown transmitter with
respect to the receiver uses this fact. To find the direction of
unknown transmitter is nothing but to find the direction of the
radiation of the radio wave from it. This method is known as
Direction Finding (DF).
This method is useful in navigating the ships and aeroplanes. This
process is useful in determination of unknown transmitter by
taking bearing on the radio waves as two receiving points.
The direction finders use loop antennas as they are basic
directional antennas.
 Loop Antenna
Basics of Loop Antenna
a loop antenna is nothing but a radiating coil of any shape with one
or more turns carrying a r.f. current. The loop antenna may
assume any one of the shapes as shown.

Generally a loop may consists one turn or more turns on a ferrite

or air core. If a loop consists more than one turn then it is
commonly called as frame..
 Loop Antenna
Basics of Loop Antenna
Generally the loop antennas are of two types classified on the basis
of the dimensions of the loop.
In the first type, the dimensions of the loop are very small as
compared with one wavelength.
In other type, the dimensions of the loop are comparable with one
wavelength. For such loop antennas the convenient assumption
made is that the current in the loop has same magnitude and
phase throughout.
Consider a rectangular loop with the
turn with sides 23 and 14 as vertical
arms and sides 12 and 34 as
horizontal arms as shown in the Fig.
 Loop Antenna
Basics of Loop Antenna
The horizontal arms and the vertical arms of the loop antenna acts
as horizontal antenna and vertical antenna respectively.
Consider that the loop is placed such that its plane is at right
angles to the direction of wave travel. If the incoming waves are
vertically polarized, then the voltages will be induced in two
vertical arms of the loop.
These voltages are same in magnitude but as the current in two
vertical arm set due to two voltages is in opposite direction in two
arms, the two voltages get cancelled out.
This is because the current in two arms is same in magnitude and
phase. Also the distance of the two vertical arms from the
transmitter is same.
 Loop Antenna
Basics of Loop Antenna

Thus the e.m.f.s induced in the vertical arms get cancelled out as
both the sides are equidistant from the transmitter.
But the e.m.f. induced in the horizontal arms due to vertically
polarized wave always equal to zero.
Now consider that the loop is rotated by 90° such that the plane of
the loop aligns with the
direction of incoming waves
as shown in the Fig.
 Loop Antenna
Basics of Loop Antenna
Now the distance between the transmitter and the vertical antenna
is no more same, the two e.m.f.s induced respectively in the
vertical arms will also be of same amplitude but of different phase.
Hence the resultant e.m.f. induced along the vertical axis will be
E1–E2.
Thus we can conclude that the induced e.m.f. is maximum only
when the plane of the loop is in the direction of the incoming
waves.
if the loop dimensions are small as compared with wavelength.
Under such a condition, the radiation pattern of the loop is similar
to that of the elementary dipole i.e. Hertzian dipole.
 Loop Antenna
Basics of Loop Antenna
In general radiation pattern of loop antenna is not dependent of
shape of that loop if the loop dimensions are small as compared
with wavelength. Under such condition, radiation pattern of the
loop similar to that of elementary dipole.
Only there is one difference that electric field vector and the
magnetic field vectors are interchanged. That means the loop is
surrounded by a magnetic field with is at right angles to the loop
everywhere. Hence generally small loop is also called magnetic
dipole.
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
For the transmission purposes, the radiation efficiency of a closed
loop antenna is very low if the dimensions of the loop are very
small as compared with the wavelength, so the magnitude and
phase of the current throughout the loop remains same.
So whenever a loop antenna is used for the transmission purposes,
its dimensions are made comparable with the wavelength.
The field pattern is analyzed by considering, loop composed of four
linear dipoles.
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
Consider a circular loop of radius r, very less compared with
wavelength (r <<λ) such that the current is in phase throughout
the loop.
Now consider that the circular loop is represented by a square loop
of dimensions d x d such that the area of both loops is same. The
square loop is illustrated in the Fig.
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
Consider that the square loop is located at the centre of the co-
ordinate system as shown.
Then the far field of the square loop will have only EФ component.
To obtain the far field pattern, instead of considering all four short
dipoles, it is sufficient to consider only two short dipoles such as
sides 14 and 23.
Then the radiation
pattern of these two
short dipoles in the
horizontal plane (i.e.
X-Y plane) and X the
vertical plane (i.e. Y-Z
plane) are as shown.
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
The radiation pattern in the Y-Z plane for both the short dipoles is
circular. In other words, we can say that the dipoles 1, 4 and 2, 3
are behaving like isotropic point sources in Y-Z plane as both are
radiating uniformly in all the directions as shown.
Now the far field radiation due to two point sources with reference
to centre O can be represented as

From the Fig it is clear that the waves

radiated from dipole 1, 4 will
take more time to reach for point P
as compared to the waves radiated
from the dipole 2, 3.
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
Because the waves radiated from the dipole 1, 4 will have to travel
an extra distance from L to M as compared to that travelled by the
waves radiated from the dipole 2, 3. This distance is called path
difference.
Hence the path difference in above case is the distance from point
L to M. Path difference=dcos(90°-θ)
The path difference interm of the wavelength can be expressed as,

Let the phase angle be denoted by Ψ. Then the phase angle and
the path difference are related to each other through the
expression given by,
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna
 Loop Antenna
Field Pattern of Small Loop Antenna