Antenna Radiation and Reception

BASICS
of
ANTENNAS
Antenna Radiation and Reception

Dipole radiation fields:

Electric field (blue)
Magnetic field (red)
(picture from wikipedia)
Antenna Radiation and Reception
Due to absence of transmission line conductors, the field lines
join together and an electromagnetic wave is generated
with spherical wavefront whose source is the signal
generator connected at the input end.
 Antenna Radiation and Reception
Points to note
▪ The power fed to an antenna from a signal source is radiated
into free space as electromagnetic waves.
▪ The reverse is also true, i.e. electromagnetic radiations falling on
an antenna gets converted to power and is available at the antenna
terminals which can be delivered to a load.
▪ Understanding the radiation properties of an antenna is
equivalent to knowing its receiving properties.

The above properties of antennas are derived from thereciprocity

principle of an antenna which may be stated as the properties of
an antenna are unchanged when used as a radiator or a receiver.
 Concept of Isotropic Radiator
The isotropic radiator or isotropic antenna is a fictitious radiator. It is
defined as an antenna radiating equally in all directions. It is also
known as isotropic source or simply unipole.

The isotropic antenna or radiator is a conceptual lossless radiating

antenna with which any practical radiating antenna is compared. Thus
the isotropic antenna is a theoretical reference antenna.

Exceptions
Though certain applications use a half wave dipole antenna as a
reference antenna, but use of the concept of isotropic radiator is
preferred in majority of the cases since it gives a better understanding of
distribution of radiation in three dimensional space.
Isotropic Radiator and Inverse Square Law
Power Wt radiated from
center passes through
the sphere’s surface
area 4 r 2.
Radiating Near and Far Fields
The field patterns generated by a radiating
antenna vary with distance and are associated
with (i)radiating energy and (ii) reactiveenergy.
The space surrounding an antenna can be
divided into three regions (i) reactive field
region,
(ii) radiating near-field region and (iii)
radiating far-field region. The boundaries of
these regions are not defined precisely but are
only approximations.

3 2D 2
D
 Radiation Patterns
Radiated power from a practical antenna is more in some particular
direction and less or null in some other directions. The energy radiated
in a particular direction is measured in terms of field strength or flux
density at a point which is fixed radial distance from the center of the
antenna. The measurement must be done in the Fraunhofer region.
Radiation patterns of a dipole antenna.
 Principle Radiation Patterns
Generally, antennas are oriented in such a way that at least one of
its principle plane patterns coincide with one geometrical plane.

A three dimensional A two dimensional The radiation pattern plotted as

view of a radiation view of the same a function of angle in one plane.
pattern. radiation pattern.
Lobes of a radiation pattern with main lobe oriented along an axis.
 Lobes and Beam-widths
Between two adjacent radiating regions, there exists a
very low radiating region called null. Region between
two nulls is called a lobe. The lobe associated with peak
radiation is called the main lobe. The others are called
side lobes and a back lobe.
The angle at which the peak
radiating power of the main
lobe falls by half on either
sides is called half power
beam width or HPBW.
The angle subtended by the major lobe
between two adjacent nulls is called beam
width between first nulls or BWFN.
The front to back ratio or FBR is given as:
radiated flux density from the center of the major lobe
FBR 
radiated flux density from the center of the back lobe
 Normalized Radiation Patterns
We place an antenna at the
center. The electric field
components are E   and
E(, ). The radiated power
will be in the direction of the
Poynting vector P = E x H.
Power pattern is S (, ). The
normalized power
pattern is Pn (, ).
Normalized electric field E ( ,)  E ( ,)

 n
E ( ,  ) max

Power pattern S ( ,)   E 2 ( ,  ) E 2 ( ,  )  / Z 0

Z0 is characteristic impedance
max
of free space.
 Pn (,) S ( , )
Normalized power pattern 
S (,)

max
 Antenna Beam Solid-Angle
Sometimes it is easy to compare beam-widths using a common standard
namely, beam solid angle.

Fictitious
beam Comparison
pattern for of the two
Practical patterns in a
calculating
radiation two
beam solid
patterns. dimensional
angle.
plane.

If power radiated from both these patterns are same, the solid angle  is
defined as beam(solid angle.
, ) d    where, d  sin d d
  P
A  n HP HP
4
 Antenna Beam Solid-Angle
Note: (i) side lobes are included for calculations, and (ii) the fictitious
pattern radiates at the peak intensity of the main lobe.
 Antenna Beam Solid-Angle
We now know that the beam solid
angle is given as
A 
 P ( , ) d  
4
n HP HP

Some power is radiated by the side

lobes. Thus the solid angle M of the
main lobe is less than the beam solid
angle A (varies from <100% to
75% of A). Thus we introduce a
factor kB in following equation:

M   P ( , ) d  k 
n B HP HP , d = sin d d , 0.8  kB  1.0
main
lobe
 Antenna Beam-Efficiency, Stray-Factor
The distribution of radiation over the sphere is not uniform for
any antenna. At certain points there seems to be no radiation at
all. The shape of the antenna beam can give a rough estimation
of what fraction of the power is radiated in required direction.
Beam efficiency: Ratio of solid angle of the main beam to the sum of
solid angles subtended by all lobes (including main lobe).
solid angle subtended by the main beam 
 M  sum of solid angles subtended by all the lobes  M

Stray factor: Ratio of sum of solid angles subtended only by minor

lobes to the sum of solid angles subtended by all lobes (including main
lobe). m
sum of solid angles subtended by the minor lobes
m  
sum of solid angles subtended by all the lobes A
Thus the sum of these two factors is unity
M  m  1
 Radiation Intensity
Radiation intensity (U): It is the power emitted over a unit solid angle
from an antenna. It is independent of the distance and is expressed in
watts/steradian.
An infinitesimal ds  r 2 sin d d

area on the sphere

Solid angle d  sin d d
subtended

Total solid angle of a sphere is given as:

2 

   d   4

0 0
 sin  d  d 

U  Wr
Radiation intensity of isotropic radiator i
4
Antenna Impedance, Radiation Resistance
The antenna shows an impedance at its input terminals consisting of a
resistive and a reactive part. The real part is responsible for radiation
and power loss. Z  R  jX
The antenna dissipates the power fed to it. If the radiated power and the
dissipated power are respectively represented by Wr and Wl, then the total
power Wt consumed by the antenna can be expressed as:
Wt Wr Wl
If I is the current flowing through the antenna at its terminals then we
may express the total power Wt consumed by the antenna is given as:
W  I2  R  R 
t r l

Here, Rr is a fictitious resistance that would consume the amount of

power lost as radiation. It is known as radiation resistance. Rl is a
resistance that would consume the amount of power lost as heat. It is
called the loss resistance. For an ideal antenna, Rl = 0. © Shubhendu Joardar
 Antenna Efficiency
The power efficiency of an antenna or antenna efficiency is the ratio
of power radiated to total power input to the antenna and is denoted
by a. Thus, if the radiation resistance Rr and the loss resistance Rl is
known, the antenna efficiency can expressed as

power radited by the antenna I 2R R

a   r
 r

power input to the antenna I 2  Rr  Rl  Rr  Rl

 Antenna Directivity
Here, I is the current flowing through the antenna terminals.
Multiplying ηa by 100, one may obtain the percentage antenna
efficiency.

All practical antennas concentrate more power in one specificdirection.

It is of interest to see how much power is concentrated in a particular
direction by the antenna. The antenna directivity may be visualized as
to the extent which a lossless practical antenna (a = 1)
concentrates the radiated power relative to an isotropic radiator.
The directivity D is the ratio of (i) maximum radiated power density to
its average value, or (ii) maximum radiation intensity to radiation
intensity of an isotropic radiator. It is dimensionless and expressed as:
P( ,)max U ( ,)max 4
D  
P( ,  ) U 
 Antenna Directivity
Here, M is the solid angle subtended by the main beam. P(θ,Ф)max max
and and P(θ,Ф)av are are respectively the maximum (unity) and average
(isotropic) normalized power pattern values. U(θ,Ф)max is the radiation
intensity along any direction and Ui is the mean of radiation intensities
over all directions.
 Directive Gain

Unlike directivity which is specific to the direction of maximum

radiation, the directive gain GD is used for any direction. It is
expressed as the ratio of the radiated power density in the required
direction to the average radiated power density over all directions.

Here, P(, ) is the radiated power density in the required direction,

P(, )av is the average radiated power density over all directions.
 Gain or Power Gain
Another concept similar to the directive gain is the gain or power
gain usually denoted either simply as G or GP. The directive gain
GD and the power gain GP of an antenna are related by the antenna
efficiency as expressed as:

GP   a G D

Here, a is the antenna efficiency (which is always less than unity

for all practical antennas).

Also note that, the power gain is always less than the directive gain
since all practical antennas produce some power loss.
 Effective Aperture Area of an Antenna
The concept of effective aperture area has been developed based on a
receiving antenna. Let us assume we have a device which converts the
electromagnetic energy into electrical power at its terminals. The
amount of electromagnetic energy collected is proportional to the
collecting area. This arises from the fact that electromagnetic energy
is measured as a flow of energy per unit time per unit area across a
frequency bandwidth. In other words, it is flux density. Thus more the
collecting area (more aperture area) the more is the received power.

The amount of power Pant received by an antenna is the product of a

fictitious area called the effective aperture area Ae with the flux density
of the electromagnetic waves falling perpendicular over this area. This
is shown below:

Pant  S Ae
 Aperture Efficiency of an Antenna
The effective aperture area is specific for different type of antennas.
For example, the effective aperture area of a dish antenna could be
equal to the physical cross sectional area of the dish if the antenna
is lossless, whereas for a dipole antenna, this area is generally more
than its physical area. The effective usageof the physical aperture
depends on the aperture efficiency of the antenna which is the ratio
of effective aperture area Ae to thephysical aperture area Ap of the
antenna and is expressed below:

Ae
Aperture efficiency  ap 
Ap
 Wavelength, Directivity and Aperture
The effective aperture area Ae is related to the wavelength λ and the
solid angle M subtended by the main beam as shown below:

2  A  e 

The directivity D may be obtained from the effective aperture area

Ae using the relationship shown below:

Ae
D  4
2
 Effective Height or Effective Length

The effective height or effective length h of an antenna is similar to

the effective aperture except that it is used for calculating the
potential developed across the terminals of a receiving antenna from
an electromagnetic wave instead of power. The output voltage V in
volts across the terminals of an antenna is a product of the electric
field E in volts/m with the effective height h of the antenna in meters
as expressed below:

V  hE
The above equation is useful when working with wire antennas
whose physical aperture area is almost negligible.
 Antenna Bandwidth
The bandwidth of an antenna is difficult to define, since the antenna properties like radiation
pattern, radiation resistance etc. changes with the frequency of operation. Therefore the
bandwidth is defined in such a way that certain properties of the antenna meet certain
specifications. Generally, the bandwidth is measured categorically:
Bandwidth over which the directivity of the antenna is higher than some acceptable value.
(i) Bandwidth over which at least a specified front to back ratio is met.
(ii) Bandwidth over which the VSWR on the transmission line can bemaintained over a
specified value.
fr
Antenna bandwidth f 
Q

Total energy stored by the antenna

Antenna Q-factor 
Energy dissipated or radiated per cycle