RV College of Engineering

Dept of Electronics &Telecommunication

Engineering

COURSE CODE : 21ET62

TITLE: Antenna Theory and Design
Dr.Shanthi P,
Assoc. Prof.
Dept of ETE
ANTENNA MEASUREMENTS
 Anechoic Chamber
• Anechoic chamber is an indoor chamber. The chamber walls, celing and floor
are filled with absorbing material except at the location of transmitting
antenna and antenna under test (AUT).
• It simulates a reflection-less free and allows
space
weather antenna measurements in all- a
environment. controlled
• In anechoic chamber, the area where test antenna situated is isolated from all
types of interfering signals in better way.
• To improve isolation of test area, many times shielding is done which also
allows Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) measurements.
• Small antennas - far field measurements possible using anechoic
chamber with outdoor range; Large antennas - compact antenna test
ranges and rear field ranges are installed in anechoic chambers itself. 80
 Anechoic Chamber / Absorbing Materials
• The absorbing materials are not only the integral part of measurement
ranges but important components of antennas used to reduce the side lobe
and back lobe radiations.
• Typical broadband used is
absorber polyurethane foam. carbon-loaded absorber
An
impedance ideal
match for the incoming waves atcanall frequencies and angles of
incidence. provide an
• By shaping absorber or by gradually varying resistivity of material, a tapered
transition in impedance from free space to back of the absorber can be achieved.
• The most widely used geometrical shapers are pyramids and wedges as shown in
Figure 1 (a) and (b) respectively.

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Fig 1 / Absorbing Materials

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Anechoic Chamber / Absorbing Materials
2
• For normal incidence the pyramid type absorber is the best option as they
scatter as a random rough surface when large compared with wavelength.
• At higher frequencies, the reflection coefficient is larger and at lower
frequencies, the thickness of the absorber should be larger.
• While the wedge shaped absorbers, with wedge direction along the plane of
incidence, work perfectly at large angles of incidences but for normal
incidence they cannot work satisfactorily compared with pyramidal absorbers.

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 Rectangular Chambers
• Figure 2 shows a longitudinal sectional view of a rectangular chamber in which
the source antenna is located at the centre of one of the end walls.
• The location of the test antenna is at a point approximately equidistant from the
side and back walls along the centre line of the chamber at the other end of the
chamber with respect to the source antenna.
• The chamber is completely lined with microwave absorbing material. Still there
will be reflections from the walls, floor and ceiling and the specular
reflections reaching .the test antenna are the cause of concern.
• These arise from the regions midway between the source and test antennas on the
side walls, floor, ceiling and also from the centre region of the back wall.

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 Rectangular Chambers 2
• For good absorption by the lining materials, the chamber width and

𝜃𝑖 < 60°.
height is designed such that the angle of incidence

• However, this requirement puts the restriction that the length to

width ratio of the chamber be about 2 : 1 which is extended to 3 : 1
sometimes at the expense of higher levels of reflections.

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 Rectangular Chambers 3
• The space in which the test antenna is located is termed the
quiet zone.
• The volume of the quiet zone for a given chamber depends
on the specified or allowable deviation of the incident field
from a uniform plane wave.

frequencies below 1 𝐺𝐻𝑧.

• Rectangular chambers need bigger absorbing materials for

• It is difficult to obtain accurate measurements in these

chambers mainly because it is usually not possible to obtain
a source antenna with a sufficiently narrow beam width of
these frequencies, to avoid illumination of the walls, floor
and ceiling with the main beam.

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 Tapered Chambers
• The tapered anechoic chamber got introduced to overcome some of the
limitations of the rectangular chamber, mentioned above.
• It consists of a tapered section opening into a rectangular section. The
taper is shaped like a pyramidal horn that tapers from a small source end to
a large rectangular test region. This construction is shown in Figure 3.

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 Tapered Chambers 2
• The section is approximately which and the
rectangular
tapered section is usually twice as long as the rectangular section.
• This geometry inherently requires less absorbing material which helps in
substantially reducing the cost. In the tapered chamber, the specular reflections that
reach the test region occur close to the source antenna as shown in Figure 3.
• However the path lengths of the reflected signals are not very different,
electrically, from that of the direct signal which produces a slowly varying
amplitude pattern which is beneficial since a constructive interference results.
• Also this allows use of thinner absorbing materials over the walls. The concept is
illustrated in Figure 4.

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Fig 4 / Tapered Chambers

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 Topic 9

Antenna Measurements –
Radiation Pattern

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 Introduction
• The radiation patterns, polarization, and gain of an antenna, which are used to
characterize its radiation capabilities, are measured on the surface of a constant
radius sphere.
• All these quantities are measured on the surface of a sphere with constant
radius. Any point ′𝑃′ on such sphere can be described using spherical co-

• The radiation characteristics of the antenna as a function of 𝜽 and 𝝓 for

ordinate system as shown in Figure 1.

constant radius and frequency is called radiation pattern of an antenna.

pattern is 2 and they are selected as principle 𝑬-plane and 𝑯-plane

• The minimum number of patterns required to construct a three dimensional

patterns.
• The two dimensional pattern is generally called pattern cut.

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Fig 1 / Radiation Pattern Measurement

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 Introduction 2

• The pattern cuts can be obtained for one of the angles (𝜽 or 𝝓) constant and

plane i.e. 𝑥-𝑦 plane and vertical pattern in 𝑥-𝑧 plane.

varying the other. In most of the cases, the required patterns are horizontal

• The radiation pattern of an antenna can be measured either in transmitting

mode or receiving mode. For reciprocal antennas, even any mode is
sufficient, receiving mode is selected.

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 Basic Procedure for Measurement
• For the measurement of radiation pattern of antenna, two antennas are
required.
• One of the antennas in the system is the antenna under test, while the other
illuminates the antenna under test and it is located away from the antenna
under test.
• Thus one antenna is used in the transmitting mode, while other in the
receiving mode.
• But according to the reciprocity principle, the radiation pattern will be
same irrespective of the mode in which antenna is used.
• The antenna under test is usually referred as primary antenna, while the
other one as secondary antenna.

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 First Procedure
• The antenna test i.e. primary antenna is kept
under
stationary, while the secondary antenna is moved around the primary antenna
along a circular path with uniform radius.
• If the secondary antenna is directional one, it is always aimed at the primary
antenna.
• In this procedure, usually the primary antenna is transmitting.
• At different points, along the circular path, the readings of the field strength
and direction with respect to the primary antenna are recorded.
• A plot of the radiation pattern of a primary antenna is plotted either as rectangular
plot or polar plot.

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 Second Procedure
• Both the antennas are kept stationary with a suitable spacing between them. The
secondary antenna is aimed at the primary antenna.
• The primary antenna is rotated about a vertical axis.
• In this procedure, the secondary antenna is used in the transmitting mode, so
that the field strength reading and direction of the primary antenna with
respect to the secondary antenna is made.
• The continuous readings at different points during rotation can be made using
pattern recorder.
• Generally at low frequency, first procedure is used while at high frequency second
one is preferred.

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 Set Up for Measurement
• The arrangement for the radiation pattern
simple
measurement consists primary antenna is transmitting mode, secondary antenna as
antenna under test.
• The secondary antenna is coupled with the rotating shaft and it is rotated using
antenna rotator mechanism. To measure the relative amplitude of the received
field an indicator is used along with the receiver as shown in Figure 2.

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 Set Up for Measurement 2
• Usually the antenna under test is used in the receiving mode.
• It is properly illuminated by the stationary primary antenna.
• The secondary antenna is rotated about vertical axis.
• For E- plane pattern measurement, the antenna support shaft is
rotated with both the antennas horizontal.
• While for H-plane pattern measurement, the shaft is rotated with both the
antennas vertical.

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Antenna Measurements – Gain

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 Introduction
• The gain and the directivity are usually measured in the direction of the
pattern maximum. Their values in any other direction can be calculated from
the radiation pattern.
• There are two techniques used for measuring the gain of an antenna-absolute
gain measurement and gain transfer measurement.
• For the absolute gain measurement it is not necessary to have a prior
knowledge of the gains of the antennas used in the measurement.
• The gain transfer method, requires the use of a gain standard with which the
gain of the antenna under test is compared.

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 Absolute Gain Method
• Friis transmission formula forms the basis for absolute gain measurement. The
Friis transmission formula expressed in decibels is ;

• Consider two identical antennas placed in an elevated range or inside a

rectangular anechoic chamber which are properly oriented and aligned such
that (i) they are polarization matched and (ii) main beams of the two
antennas are aligned with each other.
• With this arrangement, the gain in the direction of the maximum can be
measured. The gain in any other direction can be computed from the radiation
pattern.

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 Absolute Gain Method 2
• Let 𝑅 be the separation between the two antennas chosen such that the

• Let 𝜆 be the wavelength corresponding to the operating frequency. A

antennas operate in the far-field region.

calibrated coupling network and a matched receiver unit, as shown in

Figure 1, are used to measure the
𝑃𝑡𝑑𝐵𝑚
transmit and the receive powers and
respectively. All the components are impedance matched using
tuners. 𝑃𝑟𝑑𝐵𝑚

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 Absolute Gain Method 3
• If the two antennas are identical, their gains are identical and above
equation can be written as –

• and hence the gain of the antennas can be calculated.

• Since this method uses two antennas, it is known as two- antenna method for
gain measurement.
• In the absence of two identical antennas, a third antenna is required to
measure the gain. This is known as a three- antenna method of gain
measurement

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 Gain Transfer Method
• The gain of the test antenna is measured by comparing with a standard gain
antenna, of which the gain is known accurately.
• The test antenna is illuminated by a plane wave with its

received power into a matched load, 𝑃r𝑇𝑑𝐵 is then

polarization matched to the transmitting antenna. The

measured. Let 𝐺𝑇 dB be the gain of the test

antenna.
• From Friis formula ;

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 Gain Transfer Method 2
• The gain of the test antenna can be calculated by subtracting the above two
equations –

• It is important that the polarization of the test antenna and the standard
gain antenna need to be identical to each other and this should be
matched with the polarization of the transmitter.
• Both antennas should be impedance matched to the receiver. This method
is used to measure the gain of a linearly polarized antenna.

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 Gain Transfer Method 3
• The gain a circularly polarized antenna can also be
of
measured using a linearly polarized standard gain antenna.
• Since a circularly polarized wave can be decomposed into two orthogonal
linear components, we can use a linearly polarized antenna to measure the
gains of each of these components and then the total gain is obtained by
combining the two.

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 Topic 11

Antenna Measurements –
Directivity

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 Procedure for Measurement
• Sometimes it is found that the directivity of the antenna cannot be
calculated using the analytical techniques alone.
• So the directivity can be obtained from the radiation pattern of the antenna.
The following procedure is considered ;
– Measure the two principal 𝐸- and 𝐻-plane patterns of the test antenna.

𝐸- and 𝐻-plane patterns.

– Determine the half-power beamwidths (in degrees) of the

– Compute the directivity using the formula

where 𝜃𝐻𝑃 and 𝜙𝐻𝑃 are the half-power beamwidths

(HPBW) in the two principal planes,. 108
Computation

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 Topic 12

Antenna Measurements –
Polarization

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 Polarization pattern method
and the tilt angle 𝜏 of the polarization ellipse but not the sense of polarization
• Polarization Pattern Method : This method can be used to measure the AR

as shown in Figure 1.
• The test antenna is connected as the source antenna while a linearly polarized
antenna such as a dipole antenna is used to receive the power at different
rotation angles.

indicate the AR and title 𝜏.

• The square root of the received power plotted against the rotation angle ψ

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Fig 2 / Polarization Pattern Method

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 Topic 13

Antenna Measurements – VSWR

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 VSWR
impedance 𝑍𝐴 can be measured by a network analyzer.
• The input characteristics of an antenna such as the input

• The advantage of a network analyzer is its ability to measure both the

magnitude and the phase of the power received.

𝜌(or 𝑆11) of an antenna can be obtained from its input impedance

• Reflection Coefficient Measurement: The reflection coefficient

measurement.

• VSWR Measurement: The VSWR of an antenna can be obtained

from its reflection coefficient measurement.

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