Antennas in Practice

Antennas in Practice
EM fundamentals and antenna selection
Alan Robert Clark

Andre P C Fourie
Version 1.4, December 23, 2002

ii
Titles in this series:

Antennas in Practice: EM fundamentals and antenna selection
(ISBN 0-620-27619-3)
Wireless Technology Overview: Modulation, access methods,
standards and systems (ISBN 0-620-27620-7)
Wireless Installation Engineering: Link planning, EMC, site
planning, lightning and grounding (ISBN 0-620-27621-5)
Copyright c 2001 by Alan Robert Clark and

Poynting Innovations (Pty) Ltd.
33 Thora Crescent
Wynberg
Johannesburg
South Africa.
www.poynting.co.za
Typesetting, graphics and design by Alan Robert Clark.
Published by Poynting Innovations (Pty) Ltd.
This book is set in 10pt Computer Modern Roman with a 12 pt leading by LATEX 2 .
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of Poynting Innovations (Pty) Ltd. Printed in South Africa.
ISBN 0-620-27619-3
Contents
1 Electromagnetics 1
1.1 Transmission line theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Impedance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Characteristic impedance & Velocity of propagation . . . 3
Two-wire line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
One conductor over ground plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Twisted Pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Coaxial line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Microstrip Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Slotline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.3 Impedance transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.4 Standing Waves, Impedance Matching and Power Transfer 8
1.2 The Smith Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3 Field Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.1 Frequency and wavelength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.2 Characteristic impedance & Velocity of propagation . . . 11
1.3.3 EM waves in free space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.4 Reflection from the Earths Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.5 EM waves in a conductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 Antenna Fundamentals 17
2.1 Directivity, Gain and Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.1 Solid angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.2 Directivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Isotropic source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Decibels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1.3 Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1.4 Radiation pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Directivity estimation from beamwidth . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2 Reciprocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3 Polarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 Effective aperture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.5 Free-space link equation and system calulations . . . . . . . . . . 25
3 Matching Techniques 29
3.1 Balun action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1.1 Unbalance and its effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
iii
iv CONTENTS
3.1.2 Balanced and unbalanced linesa definition . . . . . . . . 30

3.2 Impedance Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2.1 Angle Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.3 Common baluns/balun transfomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.1 Sleeve Balun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.2 Half-wave balun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3.3 Transformers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.4 LC Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.5 Resistive Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.6 Quarter wavelength transformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3.7 Stub matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3.8 Shifting the Feedpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.3.9 Ferrite loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.4 Impedance versus Gain Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4 Simple Linear Antennas 41

4.1 The Ideal Dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.1 Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.2 Radiation resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1.3 Directivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1.4 Concept of current moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2 The Short Dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.1 Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.2 Radiation resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.3 Reactance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.4 Directivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 The Short Monopole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3.1 Input impedance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.4 The Half Wave Dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4.1 Radiation pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4.2 Directivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.4.3 Input impedance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.5 The Folded Dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.6 Dipoles Above a Ground Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.7 Mutual Impedance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5 Arrays and Reflector Antennas 57

5.1 Array Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.1.1 Isotropic arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.1.2 Pattern multiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.1.3 Binomial arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.1.4 Uniform arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Beamwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Interferometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.2 Dipole Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.2.1 The Franklin array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.2.2 Series fed collinear array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.2.3 Collinear folded dipoles on masts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.3 Yagi-Uda array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.3.1 Pattern formation and gain considerations . . . . . . . . . 68
CONTENTS v
5.3.2 Impedance and matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.3.3 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Element correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Stacking and Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.4 Log Periodic Dipole Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.4.1 Design procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.4.2 Feeding LPDAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.5 Loop Antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.5.1 The small loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Radiation pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Input impedance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.6 Helical Antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.6.1 Normal-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.6.2 Axial mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Original Kraus design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
King and Wong design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.7 Patch antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.8 Phased arrays and Multi-beam Smart Antennas . . . . . . . . 87
5.9 Flat reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.10 Corner Reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.11 Parabolic Reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
A Smith Chart 95
vi CONTENTS
List of Figures
1.1 A transmission line connects a generator to a load. . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 2-wire; Coax; strip; waveguide; fibre; RF; 50Hz! . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 A Lumpy model of the TxLn, discretizing the distributed pa-
rameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Twisted-Pair geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Impedance values plotted on the Smith Chart . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 Electromagnetic Wave in free-space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.7 Radio Horizon due to earth curvature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.8 Geometry of Interference between Direct Path and Reflected Waves 14
1.9 Interference pattern field strength contours for h/ = 1.44 . . . . 15
2.1 Standard coordinate system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.2 concept of a solid angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Three-dimensional pattern of a 10 director Yagi-Uda array . . . . 21
2.4 xy plane cut of the 10 director Yagi-Uda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 Rectanglar radiation patterns of the 10-director Yagi-Uda in the
two principle planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.6 Reciprocity concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.7 Polarization possibilitieswave out of page . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.8 Aperture efficiency of a parabolic dish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.9 Effective aperture of dipole physical aperture . . . . . . . . . 25
2.10 Apertures must not overlap! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.11 Point-to-point link parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.1 The reason for unbalanced currents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.2 Balanced and Unbalanced Transmission lines . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3 Power loss in dB versus VSWR on the line. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.4 Increase in Line Loss because of High VSWR . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.5 VSWR at Input to Transmission Line versus VSWR at Antenna 32
3.6 The Bazooka or Sleeve balun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.7 A HalfWave 4:1 transformer balun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.8 Transmission-line transformer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.9 L-Match network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.10 Quarter wavelength transformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.11 Single Matching Stub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.12 Smith Chart of Single Stub Tuner Arrangement . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.13 T and Gamma Matching Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.14 Gain bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
vii
viii LIST OF FIGURES
3.15 Impedance bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1 The Ideal Dipole in Relation to the Coordinate System . . . . . . 42

4.2 Pattern of an Ideal Dipole Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.3 Current Distribution on a Short Dipole Antenna . . . . . . . . . 45
4.4 The equivalent circuit of a short dipole antenna . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.5 Tuning out dipole capacitive reactance with series inductance . . 46
4.6 Short monopole antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.7 A Half wave dipole and its assumed current distribution . . . . . 48
4.8 Half wave dipole, short dipole and isotrope patterns . . . . . . . 49
4.9 Shortening factors for different thickness half wave dipoles . . . . 50
4.10 Half Wave Folded Dipole Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.11 VSWR bandwidth of a dipole and folded dipole. . . . . . . . . . 51
4.12 Impedance transformation using different thickness elements . . . 52
4.13 Triply Folded Dipoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.14 A horizontal dipole above a ground plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.15 Two dipoles in eschelon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.16 Mutual impedance between two parallel half wave dipoles placed
side by sideas a function of their separation, d . . . . . . . . . 55
4.17 Change in resistance of a half wave dipole due to coupling to its
image at different heights above a ground plane . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.18 Mutual impedance between two collinear dipoles . . . . . . . . . 56
5.1 Two Isotropic point sources, separated by d . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5.2 Two Isotropic Sources separated by /2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.3 Pattern multiplication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.4 Binomial array pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.5 Uniform linear array of isotropic sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.6 Uniform Isotropic Broadside array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.7 Eight In-Phase Isotropic sources, dB vs Linear scales. . . . . . . 61
5.8 Uniform Isotropic Endfire Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.9 Array pattern of 2 isometric sources 10 apart, and the element
pattern. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.10 Two in-phase dipoles 10 apart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.11 SuperNEC run of the 10 Interferometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.12 The Franklin array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.13 A Series Fed Four Element Collinear Array . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.14 Distortion to folded dipole azimuth pattern in presence of a mast 67
5.15 Yagi-Uda array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.16 Multiplication factor for different diameter to wavelength ratios
of director and reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.17 Graph showing the length to be added to parasitic elements to
compensate for the effect of the supporting boom . . . . . . . . . 71
5.18 The log-periodic dipole array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.19 Constant directivity contours (dBi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.20 Characteristics for feeder impedances of 100, 250 and 400 and
dipoles with L/D ratios of 177, 500 and 1000 . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.21 Coaxial Connection to LPDAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.22 The small circular loop and the equivalent square loop . . . . . . 76
5.23 The Radiation Pattern of a Short Dipole and a Small Loop . . . 78
LIST OF FIGURES ix
5.24 The normal-mode helix antenna and its radiation pattern . . . . 79

5.25 Axial Mode Helix Antenna and its Typical Pattern. . . . . . . . 80
5.26 A /2 patch (of copper) on a dielectric slab, over a ground
plane. The patch is fed by coax through the dielectric, halfway
along the longest edge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.27 Geometry of square patch, as simulated in SuperNEC . . . . . . 84
5.28 3D pattern of the square patch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.29 2D cut through the maximum gain of the square patch . . . . . . 85
5.30 Geometry and 3D pattern of a 4-square patch array. . . . . . . . 86
5.31 2D cut through the maximum gain of the 4-patch array. . . . . . 86
5.32 Power Splitter followed by phase modification. . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.33 Binary phase shifter, based on transmission line segments. . . . . 88
5.34 Electrically achieved DownTilt by progressive phasing. . . . . . . 88
5.35 A Corporate feed networkequal amplitude and phase. . . . . . 89
5.36 Gain vs separation for a 0.75 plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.37 Impedance vs separation for a 0.75 plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.38 The SuperNEC rendition of a corner reflector. . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.39 SuperNEC predicted xy-plane radiation pattern of a corner re-
flector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.40 (a)Ordinary parabolic dish with feed blockage; (b) an offset feed;
(c) Cassegrain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Preface
This book Antennas in Practice has been in existence in a multitude of forms

since about 1989. It has been run as a Continuing Engineering Education (CEE)
course only sporadically in those years.
It has been re-vamped on several occasions, mainly reflecting changing type-
setting and graphics capabilities, but this (more formal) incarnation represents
a total re-evaluation, re-design and re-implementation. Much (older) material
has been excised, and a lot of new material has been researched and included.
Wireless technology has really moved out of the esoteric and into the common-
place arena. Technologies like HiperLAN, Bluetooth, WAP, etc are well known
by the layman, and are promising easy, wireless connectivity at ever increasing
rates. Reality is a little different, and is dependant on a practical understanding
of the antenna issues involved in these emerging technologies.
Although a fair amount of background theory is covered, its goal is to provide
a framework for understanding practical antennas that are useful. Many design
issues are covered, but in many cases the cookbook designs offered in this book
are good-enough starting points, but still nonoptimal designs, only achievable
by simulation, and testing.
As a result, the book places a fair amount of emphasis on antenna simulation
software, such as SuperNEC. Ordinarily, if this book is run as a CEE course, it
is accompanied by a SuperNEC Simulation Workshop, a hands-on introduction
to SuperNEC. It is only through playing with simulation software that a gut-
feel is attained for many of the issues at stake in antenna design.
xi
xii Preface
Chapter 1
Electromagnetics
1.1 Transmission line theory
T RANSMISSION lines connect generators to loads as shown in fig 1.1. In

the RF world, in the transmitting case, this is viewed as connecting the
transmitter to the antenna, and in the receiving case as connecting the antenna
to the receiver.
RGen
VGen ZLoad
Generator Transmission Line Load
TxLn
Figure 1.1: A transmission line connects a generator to a load.
From a standard circuits analysis perspective, the transmission line simply con-
sists of connecting two parts of the circuit, and does not change anything. By
Kirchhoffs Voltage law, there is no change in voltage or current along the length
of the connection.
As a rule of thumb, as soon as the connection length between the parts of the
circuit exceeds a fiftieth of a wavelength (/50) then ordinary circuit theory
breaks down, and the connection becomes a transmission line. The length
of the line in terms of the wavelength of the operating frequency adds a finite
time-lag between the start and end of the line, and this causes the voltage along
the line to change in terms of magnitude and phase as a function of the distance
down the line. Naturally, the current also changes as a function of the distance,
hence the ratio of the voltage and current (impedance) also changes.
Recall that the free-space wavelength, , is simply given by the usefull approx-
1
2 Electromagnetics
imation:
300
(m) =
f(MHz)
Thus, the use of Transmission line theory as opposed to circuit theory approxi-
mations becomes important for transmission lines longer than: 120km for 50Hz
power; 2km for ordinary telephone connections; 600mm for 10Mb/s Ethernet;
120mm for a PC Board bus track at 50MHz; 6mm for an on-chip interconnect
in a 1GHz PIII.

r
D eff
0
d=2a
r = eff
d D
w
r
eff
h 0
r = eff
a
2
765kV !
txlnexa
Figure 1.2: 2-wire; Coax; strip; waveguide; fibre; RF; 50Hz!
Transmission line theory is thus a superset of classical circuit theory. In this

1.1 Transmission line theory 3
text we assume a Uniform transmission line, ie one whose properties do not

change along the length of the line.
A transmission line is anything that transfers power from one point to another,
whether picowatts or gigawatts, as shown in fig 1.2.
1.1.1 Impedance
A resistance resists current flow. An impedance impedes current flow. ie They

are the same concept, though generally, a resistance is purely real, whereas an
impedance has a reactive (energy storage) component. Thus, an impedance Z:
Z = R + jX
where X = jL or X = 1/(jC); being the radian frequency: = 2f (f in It is important to note

Hertz), L and C being the inductance and capacitance. that the reactive part of
the impedance is a func-
tion of frequency.
1.1.2 Characteristic impedance & Velocity of propagation
A transmission line can be viewed simply as a waveguide. It simply provides the

boundary conditions that shape the electric and magnetic fields in the medium
between the conductors. Of course, there is a direct relationship to the voltage
and current on the line too.
In circuit terms, the distributed capacitance and inductance etc of the line can
be collected in lumped models. The model of the transmission line is then an
infinite set of these circuit sections. Many versions of the model exist, but I
shall use the standard (Kraus & Fleisch 1999) model, as shown in fig 1.3.
R L
Input G C Output
d`
Lumped
Figure 1.3: A Lumpy model of the TxLn, discretizing the distributed param-
eters.
For a given length of transmission line, we can hence lump the series resistance
R [/m] and inductance, L [H/m] together; and the shunt conductance G [0/m]
and capacitance C [F/m]. These terms are per-unit length, and do not change
from one section of the transmission line to another (uniform transmission line).
Hence we define a characteristic impedance, Z0 , as the ratio of the series to
the shunt components; in the lossless (or high frequency) case, R and G are
negligeable: s r !
R + jL L
Z0 = = Lossless
G + jC C
4 Electromagnetics
The concept of characteristic impedance has nothing to do with loss, but it

characterises a transmission line. Further, since the inductance and capacitance
between the two conductors largely depends on the geometry and the medium
properties, the characteristic impedance is largely dependant on these factors.
The Characteristic Impedance of a line is also referred to as the Surge Impedance.
If a voltage is applied at one end of a long transmission line, a current will flow
regardless of the load at the other end (the surge hasnt got to the load yet!). The
ratio of the voltage and the current of the surge is the surge, or characteristic,
impedance of the transmission line.
The velocity with which the wave moves down the (lossless) transmission line
is also dependant on the material properties of the medium:
1
v= m/s
LC
Since these factors depend on both the geometry and the material properties,
there is a need in many cases to define an effective permittivity, r(eff) , since the
fields pass partially through air and through solid dielectric. If the entire volume
around the conductors is solid dielectric then r(eff) = r . In the case of a low-
loss foam dielectric, or similar dielectric-and-air combinations, an approximation
must be used.
Two-wire line
Conceptually, the simplest type of transmission line. Popular examples are the
300 FM Tape and the standard unshielded twisted pair (UTP) of networking
fame. The relationship of both conductors to ground is the same, making it a
balanced line. Referring to fig 1.2 for the geometrical definitions, the rigorous
case is given by Wadell (1991, pg66):
r
0 r 1 D
Z0 = cosh
2 0 r(eff) d
Kraus (1992, pg158,499)
derives a similar result Usually, the spacing D is much greater than the radius a = d/2 and a simplified
using: equation is used:
! r
cosh1 x = 0 r D
p Z0 = ln Da
ln(x + x2 1) 2 0 r(eff) a
Since magnetic materials are never used, the simplified equation is usually sim-
plified further to the useful:
r
0
120 120 D
0 Z0 = ln
r(eff) a
Typical values of Z0 range from 200 to 800.

One conductor over ground plane
One conductor at a height, h, above a (theoretically) infinite groundplane looks

rather similar to a two-wire line by image theory, but is halved.

60 2h
Z0 = ln
r(eff) a
Twisted Pair
D
twisted
Figure 1.4: Twisted-Pair geometry
Twisted Pair is a very common form of transmission line, as all external noise
generated is common to both wires. A differential receiver stage then gets rid
of most of the induced noise. Common in telephony, Ethernet networks etc.
Again, the field lines cross through air and dielectric, making a closed-form
solution difficult. Wadell (1991, pg 68) presents Lefferson (1971)s empirical
closed-form solution:
120 D
Z0 = cosh1
r(eff) d
where: is normally between 20

and 45 . Less than 20 ,
r(eff) = 1 + q(r 1) the twists are too loose
q = 0.25 + 0.00042 for uniformity, greater
= tan1 (T D) than 50 breaks the
wires!
T = Twists per length (same units as D).
Coaxial line
Coaxial line has the advantage of shielding the inner conductor, and hence has
less radiation (and reception). Since the relationship of the two conductors to
ground is different, coax is an unbalanced line. Also all field lines pass through
the dielectric, hence r(eff) = r . It is also common to refer to the ratio of the
radii a = d/2; b = D/2:

60 D 60 b
Z0 = ln or: Z0 = ln
r d r a
6 Electromagnetics
Wadell (1991, pg5365) presents formulae for various offset coaxial, and strip-
in-coax situations.
Microstrip Line
Very popular since this is simply printed on a circuit board. Generally used at
the higher frequencies. One of the problems here is that the fringing flux plays
a very important role in establishing the exact Z0 value. Unfortunately the
fringing flux flows through a combination of air and dielectric, hence again the
need for an effective . Gardiol (1984) has developed expressions for the cases
where w/h 1 (large percentage of fringing flux) and for cases where w/h > 1
(less percentage of fringing flux).
For w/h 1:
" 1/2 #
1 1 h w 2
r(eff) (r + 1) + (r 1) 1 + 12 + 0.04 1
2 2 w h

60 h w
Z0 ln 8 +
r(eff) w 4h
For w/h > 1:

1/2
1 1 h
r(eff) (r + 1) + (r 1) 1 + 12
2 2 w
120 h w w i
Z0 + 1.393 + 0.667 ln + 1.444
r(eff) h h
Kraus & Fleisch (1999, pg 132) also has an approximate formula (which in
earlier editions he qualified as being applicable for w 2h, but this is often not
the case in microstrip lines of interest:
120
Z0
r [(w/h) + 2]
Slotline
A slotline has no groundplane, but uses adjacent tracks as the transmission

line. The fields are distributed in an elliptical waveguide within and without
the dielectric. Closed-form expressions for Z0 span several pages of Gupta, Garg
& Bahl (1979, 213216).
1.1.3 Impedance transformation
Since the voltage and current change down the transmission line, react with
the load and reflect back to the source, it appears as though the impedance
(ratio of the total voltage to the total current) changes continually down the
line. Under sinusoidal, steady state conditions a transmission line transforms

the load impedance ZL connected to its output to a different impedance at the
line input Zin as follows (lossless case):

ZL + jZ0 tan `
Zin = Z0
Z0 + jZL tan `
2
where = and ` is the length of the line (electrical length).

This equation is generally known as the Transmission line equation since it fully
specifies what happens on the line. It is an unwieldy equation, however, and
not generally useful. A graphical technique like the Smith Chart (section 1.2
on page 9) effectively embodies this equation in an easy-to-use manner, without
the need for the equation as such.
Since the velocity with which waves travel on a transmission line is lower than Note that the velocity on
that of light, the physical length of the cable is always shorter than the electrical a line can never be higher
length: than the speed of light!
Physical line length = VF (electrical length)
where the velocity factor, VF = 1 and is quoted by the manufacturers.

r
Some important simplifications of the Transmission line equation are:

1. ZL = Z0 This condition results in: Zin = ZL = Z0 , regardless of line
length, or frequency. This is the matched case.

2. ` = . Zin = ZL regardless of characteristic impedance. This is the
2
halfwave case.
Z2
3. ` = Quarter wave transformer case. Zin = 0
4 ZL
This configuration is useful since it can transform one load impedance to
a different one if a line with the correct impedance can be found.
4. Open or short circuited lines.
Zin (oc) = jZ0 cot ` for an open circuited line
Zin (sc) = jZ0 tan ` for a short circuited line
In both these cases the impedance is purely reactive and if the lines in
question are less than a quarter wave it is clear that such lines could be
used to manufacture capacitive (open circuit case) or inductive (short
circuit case) reactances. It should be remembered however that the capac-
itance or inductance of such a line would itself be frequency dependent.
The open and short circuit cases provide a convenient way to measure the
characteristic impedance of a line, since combing them yields:
p
Z0 = Zin (oc)Zin (sc)
8 Electromagnetics
The velocity factor of a line can be measured by using the quarter-wave trans-
former principleif the load end is open circuited, ZL = , hence Zin =0! The
method is then to take an open-circuited line and mesure the input impedance,
increasing the frequency until the input impedance drops to a minimum. The
line is then at an electrical quarter-wavelength, so
`phys
VF =
/4
1.1.4 Standing Waves, Impedance Matching and Power

Transfer
The Maximum Power Transfer theorem determines when maximum power will
be transferred to a load or extracted from a source:
An impedance connected to two terminals of a network will ab-
sorb maximum power from the network when the real part of the
impedance is equal to the real part of the impedance as seen looking
back into the network from the terminals and when the reactance
(if any) is of opposite sign.
Stating this in a simplified form appropriate for transmission lines (which nor-
mally have a real impedance)
The impedance of devices connected to the two ends of a transmis-
sion line should have the same input and output resistances as that
of the characteristic impedance of the line.
When this condition is not satisfied standing waves are set up on the line and not
Note that the sub- all of the available power is transferred through the system. A more practical
maximum power transfer problem which occurs is that such mismatch conditions often damage the output
is not due to losses in electronics of a transmitter if excessive standing waves occur (or in well designed
the system, but rather to transmitters the protection circuitry automatically reduces power output).
power being reflected.
The extent to which power is reflected from the load is dependant on how bad
the load mismatch is to the line characteristic impedance and is expressed in
the voltage reflection coefficient, :
ZL Z0
=
ZL + Z0
The mismatch in impedance is also often stated in terms of the voltage standing
wave ratio (VSWR) on the transmission line.

1 + || Vmax
VSWR = =
1 || Vmin
Many texts and measur- On a Smith Chart the VSWR value can be read off directly without performing
ing instruments refer to a any of these tedious manipulations.
reflection coefficient as a
capitalized gamma: .
1.2 The Smith Chart 9
1.2 The Smith Chart
For antenna analysis the most convenient way to represent and manipulate
impedances and transmission lines is on the Smith Chart (Smith 1939). In
addition to solving the transmission line equation presented in section 1.1.3 on
page 6, the chart is a visualization tool, enabling design decisions that are not
possible by simply studying the theory behind the equations. Appendix A on
page 95 contains a fully fledged Smith Chart, and this can also be downloaded
from Clark (2001).
On the Smith chart, the impedance is first normalized to some convenient value
(often 50) by dividing both real and imaginary components by the normaliza-
tion factor.
The value 30 j70 is plotted on the Smith Chart by normalizing resulting in
a value of 0.6 j1.4 and then plotted on the chart shown in fig 1.5 in the lower
hemisphere.
This transmission line chart has a lot of useful features when manipulating The Smith chart is, in
impedances. If the impedance above is that of an antenna and it is connected fact, simply a polar plot
to a transmission line of 50 (say of quarter wavelength) then the input value of the (complex) reflec-
to this line can be simply read off the chart by rotating the plotted value around tion coefficient, , over-
the centre of the chart by a quarter wavelength (180 on the chart), yielding laid with lines of constant
0.26 + j0.6, or 13 + j30, denormalized. The distance (in electrical length) resistance and reactance.
travelled down the line is indicated on the outside of the chart. When travelling
from the load to the generator, a clockwise direction is followed.
On the other hand, if the transmission line is 0.16 wavelengths long, the antenna
impedance would be transformed to a purely real value of 0.19 (or about 10).
0.5 2
0.26+j0.6
0.2
0.19+j0 0.6 5.3
0 0.2 0.5 1 2 5
0.2
0.6j1.4
0.5 2 Smith .
1.4
1
0.16
Figure 1.5: Impedance values plotted on the Smith Chart

10 Electromagnetics
The Voltage Standing Wave Ratio, VSWR, can be read directly off the Chart
as it is simply the intercept on the real axis as indicated by the circle centered
in the centre of the chart drawn for VSWR of 5.3:1. The constant VSWR circle
in fact describes all the possible values of the input impedance of the line as a
function of distance down the line.
As we move down the line, we travel down a constant VSWR circle, assuming
that the line is lossless, and hence get no nearer to a better match. In the case of
a lossy line, the magnitude of the reflection coefficient decreases, and instead of
a circle, a spiral is described, spiralling in to the centre of the chart, improving
the match. ie A lossy line improves the aparrent VSWR at the input to the
line, but of course this is at the expense of loss in the cable.
The addition of an inductive component to the plotted value on the other hand,
would clearly move the point on the constant resistance line (0.6 normalized in
our example) and it is immediately clear that more reactance in this example
would improve the impedance match since it would force the point closer to the
centre of the chart, without the loss of power.
1.3 Field Theory
1.3.1 Frequency and wavelength
As seen previously, the wavelength in free-space is given as
300
(m) =
f(MHz)
In the part of the Electromagnetic spectrum of interest to us, there are tradi-
tional (but otherwise meaningless!) designations of radio bands
Frequency Wavelength Designation
330 Hz 10010 Mm ELF (Extra Low Frequency)
30300 Hz 101 Mm SLF (Super Low Frequency)
3003000 Hz 1 Mm100 km ULF (Ultra Low Frequency)
330 kHz 10010 km VLF (Very Low Frequency)
30300 kHz 101 km LF (Low Frequency)
3003000 kHz 1000100 m MF (Medium Frequency)
330 MHz 10010 m HF (High Frequency)
30300 MHz 101 m VHF (Very High Frequency)
3003000 MHz 1000100 mm UHF (Ultra High Frequency)
330 GHz 10010 mm SHF (Super High Frequerncy)
30300 GHz 101 mm EHF (Extra High Frequency)
3003000 GHz 1000100m Submillimeter/InfraRed
Observations:
Small things (electrically speaking) do not radiate well. Hence from
30MHz to 30GHz is the most commercially used band.
330MHz bounces off ionosphere (so-called Shortwave) and is used for
old-fashioned over-the-horizon comms.
1.3 Field Theory 11
Achievable frequencies are limited by electronics (for oscillators)

Above 3000 GHz, we get into optics.
Ionizing radiation can cause a molecule to change (x-rays and higher).
Anything lower in frequency can only cause heating. Humans can take
about 100W of heat!
The microwave (> 1GHz) region is broken into Radar bands. The most common
designations are the IEEE ones, although there are newer designations, which
I have never seen used.
Frequency Wavelength IEEE Designation
12 GHz 300150 mm L
24 GHz 15075 mm S
48 GHz 7537.5 mm C (5m (big) dish)
812 GHz 37.525 mm X
1218 GHz 2516.7 mm Ku (1m (small) dish)
1826 GHz 16.711.5 mm K
2640 GHz 11.57.5 mm Ka
40300 GHz 7.51 mm mm
Spectrum Usage:
FM Radio 88108 MHz
Classicf M 102.7 MHz
TV 123 200 MHz
MNET 615 MHz
GSM MTN & Vodacom 900 MHz
Cell C 1800 MHz
DECT 18801900 MHz
GPS 1.23 & 1.58 GHz
WLan 1.8 GHz
Industrial ISM 906928MHz
Scientific ISM 2.42.5 GHz
Medical ISM 5.85.9 GHz
wave oven (K5513) 2.45 GHz
DSTV Ku band (11.7 & 12.3GHz)
1.3.2 Characteristic impedance & Velocity of propagation
In the case of a bounded medium like a transmission line, the geometry and
the medium played a part in determining the characteristic impedance. For a
propagating Transverse Electromagnetic (TEM) wave in an unbounded medium,
the characteristic impedance it sees is:
s
j0 r
Z0 =
+ j0 r
Since free space is non-conducting, and the relative quantities are unity: Some texts use eta: ,
r and others zeta: to
0 specifically refer to the
Z0(free space) = = = 377 or: 120
0 Z0 of free-space.
12 Electromagnetics
Just as the characteristic impedance depends on the geometry and the properties
of the medium, so the velocity of EM radiation also depends strongly on the
medium properties. For example, sound travels at 330m/s in air, but 1500m/s
in water.
In a non-conducting medium, the velocity of propagation is:
1
v=
0 r 0 r
where 0 and 0 refer to the electric permittivty and magnetic permeability of

free space; the r subscripts refer to the quantities of the material relative to
Note that the value of 0 that of free space. Since
is by definition, and 0
is actually derived from 0 4 107 [H/m]
the measured speed of 12
0 = 8.85 10 [F/m]
light. (Kraus 1988, Back
Cover) Thus, the speed of light in a vacuum or air, c, is given by:
1
c= = 3 108 m/s = 300km/s
0 0
Most often, we are not interested in the absolute value of the speed of prop-
agation, but in the ratio of the speed to that of light in free-space, known as
the Velocity Factor, VF= v/c. This leads to the useful formula for EM wave
velocity in non-magnetic media as:
c 1
v= or: VF =
r r
Since most plastics have a relative permittivity of about 2.3, the reduction in
speed is about 0.66, hence the shortening factor for coaxial cable calculations.
1.3.3 EM waves in free space
An EM wave travels in free-space and in most transmission lines as a Transverse

EM wave (TEM). This implies that the direction of propagation is at 90 to
both the Electric and Magnetic wave, which, in turn are at 90 , as shown in
fig 1.6
Since the E field is analogous to voltage and the H field to current in the circuits
sense, it is easily seen that the equivalent relationships to Ohms law etc exist in
TEM waves in free-space:
E
(V = I R)... E = H or: H =
120
In a similar fashion, the power relationships hold (power density in EM):
E2
S = EH = = H2 120 W/m2
120
where E and H are RMS values.
1.3 Field Theory 13
x
Hy z
Ex
E()
EMWave
y
Figure 1.6: Electromagnetic Wave in free-space
In general, EM waves of a frequency above 30MHz do not bend around the earth,
and propagation occurs only within Line-of-Sight (LOS). The earths curvature
thus limits the radio horizon achievable for a certain height of transmitter, as
shown in fig 1.7
dh
Antenna
Horizon Line
h
Earth Shadow Region
radhor
Figure 1.7: Radio Horizon due to earth curvature.
An empirical formula to calculate the radio horizon is: Since the mean Earth Ra-
p dius is 6370km, and the
dh (km) = 4 h(m) tangential point is on it,
by Pythagorous, we get
Thus a 30m mast will only provide a 22km Line-of-Sight range. 19.5km!
Beyond the horizon waves propagate for longer distances than that illustrated
above using either ground wave propagation or reflection from some atmospheric
feature such as the ionosphere, meteors, the troposphere or even an artificial
satellite (although in that case the signal is usually retransmitted).
Ground wave propagation occurs when vertically polarized waves are launched
and these are guided by the earth surface and thus follow the curvature of the
earth. They are only practical at lower frequencies where the attenuation these
waves undergo as result of earth losses are reasonably low. At the very low
frequency end (round 30 kHz) the wavelength is so large that the waves flow in
the waveguide formed by the earth surface on the one hand and the ionosphere
on the other. This could also be considered as a type of ground wave.
14 Electromagnetics
The classic means of long distance communication is by means of reflecting

waves from the ionosphere. This layer1 of gas that is ionized by the sun lies
at a distance of approximately 80 to 400 km above the earth surface. Only
waves below a certain critical frequency are reflected (by a process of successive
refraction) by this layer. This so called critical frequency is typically in the HF
band (330 MHz) and varies strongly with time of day and other variables. At
frequencies much below this frequency the radio-waves undergo attenuation (or
absorption) and communication using this principle is also impractical.
Other methods of obtaining beyond the horizon communication are the rather
exotic techniques such as meteor scatter propagation: where waves are reflected
off the ionized trails left by meteors entering the atmosphere; or tropospheric
scatter: which uses discontinuities in the atmosphere to cause bending of waves
and thus long distance propagation.
Most over-the-horizon communication, of course, occurs at microwave frequen-
cies over a satellite relay link at high data volumes. (Discounting under-the-sea
fibre optics for this course!)
1.3.4 Reflection from the Earths Surface
In addition to its role as a obstacle, the earths surface also acts as a reflector
of radio waves. This situation is illustrated in figure 1.8.
Direct-wave path

S1
Reflected-wave path
2h
Reflecting Surface
P1
S2 Path Difference = 2h sin ReflRay
Figure 1.8: Geometry of Interference between Direct Path and Reflected Waves
It is clear that if S1 is an isotropic source and would normally radiate equally

well in all directions, the pattern would be modified by the reflected wave. By
the method of images the situation above is similar to that which exists if a
mirror image source S2 was positioned at distance h below the reflecting plane.
1 Actually, several identifiable layers at differing heights
1.3 Field Theory 15
Clearly there will now be a difference in the path lengths to some distant point
P . At certain elevation angles the path difference would be such that the
two waves are in phase and thus interfere constructively and for others the
interference would be destructive and result in a null in the radiation pattern.
If the field due to a single source is termed E0 then the total field would then
be given by:

2h sin
E = |E0 | sin

Application of this formula to the particular value of h/ = 1.44 results in the

field pattern shown in figure 1.9.
This condition is not always advantageous since an antenna that may have had
a maximum towards = 0 would now have a null in the same direction. The
only way to improve the situation would be to either make the antenna higher
and thus force the angle of the first maximum lower or increase the frequency
and thus ensure an increased h/ ratio.
In cases where radiation at some angle is required this reflection results in an

unexpected bonus, however. The maximum value of the E-field in the direction
of the maxima is twice the value of the original antenna without reflection. This
implies that in that particular direction the power density would be increased
by a factor of four (power density is proportional to the square of the E field).
Earth reflection can thus be used to gain a 6 dB bonus in antenna gain if used
properly!
90
1
60
0.8
0.6
30
0.4
0.2
.
Interfere
Figure 1.9: Interference pattern field strength contours for h/ = 1.44

16 Electromagnetics
1.3.5 EM waves in a conductor
If we solve Maxwells equations for EM wave propagation in a conductor, we

get a different result to the free-space case considered above. The Electric field
magnitude actually decays exponentially inside the conductor. We define the
Skin depth, , as the point where the field inside the (good) conductor, Ey , has
become 1/e of its original value, E0 :
r
2 1
= =
f
Note that has units of distance. If we look at what happens at one skin depth,
, into the conductor, the field is given as: Ey = E0 ex/ , then
|E0 |
|Ey | = 37%|E0 |
e
or the field inside the conductor at one skin depth is 37% of the original field
magnitude. Comparing the skin depth (or depth of penetration) for silver,
copper & cast iron at 50 Hz and 1GHz:
Relevant parameters: Ag = 6.1 107 0/m Cu = 5.7 107 0/m (Both have
r = 1) Fe = 106 0/m and rFe = 5000
50Hz 1GHz
Ag 9.1mm 2m
Cu 9.4mm 2.1m
Fe 1mm 0.23m
The decay is obviously logarithmic: at one further skin depth, the field has
deacyed a further 37%. ie 9.4mm of Copper to get to 37% of the original signal
strength. Another 9.4mm of copper will take that signal strength to 37% of
that value, ie 13.7% of the original value. A useful table is then the percentage
overall decrease as a function of the number of skin depths:
0 s % of Orig.
1 37
2 13.7
3 5.1
4 1.9
5 0.7
After 5 skin depths, the field level is below 1%.
A number of consequences follow:
Busbars in substations are hollow. It is silly to supply a solid copper bar
if there is no field and current flow in its middle!
At DC, the current den- At cellphone frequencies, the skin depth of copper is about 2m. Certainly
sity is uniform through- after 10m, there is no appreciable field.
out the cross-section, but
This means that the outside of a coaxial braid is a completely separate
at RF, the current den-
conductor from the inside of the coaxial braid from an RF perspective!!
sity concentrates in the
two outer skins.
Chapter 2
Antenna Fundamentals
2.1 Directivity, Gain and Pattern
T HE USUAL COORDINATE SYSTEM in 3-dimensional space, the carte-

sian co-ordinate system of points being described in terms of (x, y, z) co-
ordinates does not lend itself to the electromagnetic world. Generally, we like
to describe the points in the spherical co-ordinate system as (r, , ), as shown
in fig 2.1.
z
P (x, y, z)&P (r, , )

r
y
Coord
x
Figure 2.1: Standard coordinate system.
The spherical co-ordinate system is mainly described in terms of angles, where

r is the distance from the origin, the angle from the zenith (not the elevation
angle) and is the projected angle from the x-axis, in the xy plane.
2.1.1 Solid angles
Clearly, when dealing with 3-dimensional radiation patterns, some idea of a

3-dimensional angle needs to be employed.
17
18 Antenna Fundamentals
A radian is defined by saying that there are 2 radians in a circle. As a result,

the arclength r of a circle of radius r is said to subtend the angle .
A steradian (or square radian) is a solid angle defined by saying that there are
4 steradians in a sphere. As a result, an area a on the surface of the sphere of
radius r is said to subtend the solid angle . Note that the shape of the area is
not specified. shown in fig 2.2
z
Area=A
x = r
y
r
x
x A
= r radians = r steradians
steradian
Figure 2.2: concept of a solid angle
2.1.2 Directivity
Isotropic source
An isotropic antenna, is as its name implies, one which radiates the same power
in all possible (3-dimensional) angles. By definition, an isotropic antenna has a
directivity, d, of 1, and is infinitely small. Note that an isotropic antenna is an
impossibility and is used only as a reference!
Generally, however, an antenna has greater directivity in some directions than
other directions. This is at the expense of directivity in other areas.
In free-space the EM wave is not guided, as it would be in a transmission line,
and can hypothetically radiate in all directions. If an isotropic source transmits
Prad watts, and we enclose the source with a sphere of radius, r, and hence
surface area, A = 4r2 , then the power density, S at the surface of the sphere
is given as:
Prad
S=
A
Prad
= [W/m2 ]
4r2
hence the power reduces inversely proportional to the square of the distance.
Directivity, D, is then defined as:
S(, )max
D=
Sisotropic
2.1 Directivity, Gain and Pattern 19
where the power transmitted by both antennas is the same.
Decibels
Directivity is usually expressed in decibels (DdB = 10 log10 D), and since it is Directivity is almost al-
referred to an isotropic source (the Sisotropic in the above), the unit is denoted ways quoted in dBs, but
dBi for dBs above isotropic. Decibels are very useful in power ratios because that most equations re-
of the large range of values experienced because of the inverse square law. For quire it in linear form.
example, if power P1 is 1000 times greater than P2 , the ratio expressed in dBs
is:

P1
dB = 10 log10
P2
which yields P1 as being 30dB greater than P2 . If P1 were a million times the
power of P2 , it would be 60dB greater. It can be seen that dBs are simply more
convenient for expressing power ratios than linear quantities.
One can also use dBs in field -related quantities that yield power when squared
from Ohms law in free space, we see that S = E2 /120. Since the log of
a squared quantity is simply twice the log of the non-squared quantity, for a
power component like voltage, E-field etc:

E2
dB = 20 log10
E1
It is sometimes convenient to represent a signal with respect to a standard

referenceeg the absolute power level to a milliwatt of power is denoted dBm:
power
dBm = 10 log10
1mW
similarly for a voltage relative to a microvolt:

voltage
dBV = 20 log10
1V
2.1.3 Efficiency
Directivity, D, is often loosely referred to as Gain, G. However, the term gain Note that Gain is not
refers to the input power as opposed to the radiated power the difference being used in the same sense as
the power lost in the ohmic losses in the antenna. The antenna efficiency is then: amplifier gain. An an-
tenna is passive. It sim-
Prad ply denotes an increased
=
Pin power density in one di-
rection, at the expense of
and hence:
other directions.
G = D
For antennas with negligible losses these two values are approximately equal,
but many antennas which are small in terms of wavelength or broadband are
not efficient and the two values can be quite different.
In general the gain is of importance for calculating power levels at various sites.
Both Gain and Directiv- The directivity is more a indication of the pattern of an ideal radiator and is of
ity are functions of and more theoretical than practical value.
but are often used to
In practice the gain of an antenna is important since it increases the power
describe these values in
density in the direction of the main beam of the antenna. A 100 W transmitter
the maximum directions.
with a 13dB gain antenna produces the same power density at a distant point
as a 1 kW transmitter with a 3 dB gain antenna. Clearly the former case would
have a larger area of lower power density in other directions and the extent
to which antenna gain would improve communications would depend on the
intended coverage.
In a broadcast scenario for instance, omnidirectional radiation may be required
in the plane of the earth. The only improvement in gain of broadcast antennas
is by minimizing the radiation upwards (at angles of smaller than 90 ). For
point-to-point links on the other hand the power can be concentrated as far as
possible in the desired direction.
Hence, the power density S at a distance r away from an antenna with a gain
G is:
GPin DPrad
S= = W/m2
4r2 4r2
2.1.4 Radiation pattern
An antennas radiation pattern is a measure of how it radiates in 3-dimensional

space. Generally, a radiation pattern refers to one that is measured in the far-
field (see later). As a result, it is a plot of transmitted power versus angle.
It has nothing to do with distance. Note that the signal from an antenna
weakens predictably with distance by 1/r2 , but not predictably by anglethis
is described by the radiation pattern.
The pattern can show power density(W/m2 ) versus angle, radiation intensity
(W/sr) versus angle, E-field (V/m) or H-field (A/m) versus angle. The plot
can be rectangular or polar. Generally, however, it is a plot of power density,
expressed in dBi.
A representation of a SuperNEC (Nitch 2001) three dimensional radiation
pattern of a 10-director Yagi-Uda array is shown in fig 2.3. An antenna often
has a main beam, with some sidelobes and backlobes, which may not be desired.
Although a 3d pattern The main lobe can be clearly seen, as can the first sidelobe (all the way around
may look impressive, it the main lobe, like a collar). It can also be seen that the next sidelobe fires up
can rarely show detail ac- and down, but that there is a null along the y-axis. It is far more common to
curately. take a 2D cut through the principle planes of the antenna, as shown in the xy
plane cut in fig 2.4.
Fig 2.4 is shown in a polar representation, which is most useful for visualization
It is easier to get a feel purposes. To read off values, however, a rectangular form is preferred as shown
for the front-to-back ra-
tio, (14.3 dB), and the
first sidelobe levels (14.3
dB in azimuth; 8.77dB in
elevation) from the rect-
angular plots.
2.1 Directivity, Gain and Pattern 21
Figure 2.3: Three-dimensional pattern of a 10 director Yagi-Uda array
Radiation Pattern (Azimuth)

10 dBi
120 60
0
10
20
30
180 0
Structure: =90
240 300
Figure 2.4: xy plane cut of the 10 director Yagi-Uda
in fig 2.5.
The rectangular plots also show the half power beamwidth (HPBW) (-3dB point
of the main beam) and the beamwidth between first nulls (BWFN) quite clearly,
and these quantities are often useful to determine the absolute gain of the an-
tenna, which is difficult to measure accurately, whereas a 3dB drop from peak
power is a relative measurement, and hence an eassier one.
Radiation Pattern (Azimuth) Radiation Pattern (Elevation)

15 15
10 10
0 0
Gain (dBi)
Gain (dBi)
10 10
20 20
180 120 60 0 60 120 180 90 30 30 90 150 210 270

(a) xy plane (b) yz plane
Figure 2.5: Rectanglar radiation patterns of the 10-director Yagi-Uda in the

two principle planes
Directivity estimation from beamwidth
Note again that if the beam equally covered a whole sphere of 4 square
4 square radians = radians, or steradians, ie an isotropic source, the directivity is 1 by definition.
4(360/2)2 square de- This gives rise to an approximation which is often used (Kraus & Fleisch 1999,
grees = 41 253, usually pg 255):
rounded off to 41 000. 4 4 41 000
D=
A HP HP HP HP
The above approximation produces about 1dB too much gain. the reasoning
is that the area represented is square, whereas in reality, the beam is generally
round. hence a common adjustment (Kraus 1988, pg100) is:
36 000
D
HP HP
even in this case, however, if fairly significant side- and back-lobes exist, the
prediction is optimistic. In the above example of the 10-director Yagi-Uda array,
we get HPBWs of 42 and 38 degrees, which according to the above formula gives
13.5dBi gain, whereas SuperNEC gives 12.7dBi.
2.2 Reciprocity
The reciprocity theorem stated by Lord Rayleigh, and generalised by Carson
(1929), states that if a voltage is applied to antenna A which causes a current
to flow at the terminals of antenna B, then an equal current (in magnitude and
phase) will occur at the terminals of antenna A if the same voltage is applied
to the terminals of antenna B.
In short, all characteristics of an antenna apply equally well in transmit and
receive mode (radiation pattern (reception pattern), input/output impedance
etc). shown in fig 2.6.
2.3 Polarization 23
Ib Vb
Va Energy Ia Energy
Flow Flow
reciprocity
Va causes Ib ; Vb causes Ia
If Vb is made = Va , then Ia will be = Ib
Figure 2.6: Reciprocity concepts
However this does (obviously) not hold for the near fieldsit is a far-field phe-
nomenon. ie far-field patterns are identical, but near-field patterns are different.
2.3 Polarization
Polarization generally refers to the direction of the E-field vector in the far-
field. note that the H-field is at 90 to the E-field and is present in all EM
waves. In the case of a dipole or a Yagi-Uda array, the E-field is linearly
polarized in the direction of the dipole. Most often, a linear polarization will be
specified as horizontally polarized (most TV antennas) or vertically polarized
(most broadcast radio signals) (reference is the earth).
The amount of power received varies as the cosine of the angle between the Note that if the sig-
polarization of the incident wave and the antenna. eg A cellphone base station nal is horizontally polar-
antenna is vertically polarized, and although the mobile has a linearly polarized ized, and the receiving
antenna, it is seldom held perfectly upright, incurring a loss in received power. antenna vertically polar-
ized, there is (ideally) no
Linear Elliptical Circular received signal.
y y y
E2 E2 E2
E E
x x x
E1 E1
Polarization
Figure 2.7: Polarization possibilitieswave out of page

in the vertically polarized case, only ey is present and can be expressed as:
ey = e2 sin(t z)
ie a time varying and distance varying (out of the page) component, but only
in the y direction (vertical). the maximum value e2 is in the y direction. is
the wave number, given as:
2
=

the e-field can be made to progressively change direction in a circular fashion
(eg with a helical antenna, popular on satellites). the helix can be wound in a
left-hand or a right-handed fashion, giving rise to lhcp and rhcp. a rhcp antenna
will not (ideally) receive a lhcp wave. the e-field is continuously rotating, and
the peak x-component is equal to the peak y-component of the field.
In the general case of el- Generalizing to elliptical polarization, the x and y components are not equal.
liptical polarization, the The field components are thus:
major axis magnitude to
the minor axis magni- Ex = E1 sin(t z)
tude defines the axial ra-
tio. An infinite axial ra- Ey = E2 sin(t z + )
tio implies linear polar- where is the time phase angle by which Ey leads Ex .
ization, whereas an AR of
1 implies circular polar-
ization. 2.4 Effective aperture
If an antenna is immersed in a field with a power density of S [W/m2 ], it will
receive a power Pr [W] and deliver it to a load connected to its terminals. This
gives rise to the concept of an effective aperture, Ae [m2 ].
Pr
Ae =
S
In general (Kraus & Fleisch 1999, pg 258), the aperture of an antenna can be
related to the antenna gain:
G2
Ae =
4
ie when the gain is large the aperture is large.
Note that the effective aperture of a dish antenna may not be as big as the actual
area of the dish (see fig 2.8), leading to the concept of an aperture efficiency,
ap :
Ae
ap =
Ap
where Ap is the physical size of the antenna aperture. (Mainly caused by im-
perfect parabolicnesswitness the hubble telescope)
As an example as shown in figure 2.9, a half-wave dipole for classicf m (102.7mhz)
made of 1mm diameter rod, has a physical aperture of 1.46m0.001=0.0015m2 .
since a half-wave dipole has a gain of 2.16dBi=1.64 linear, the effective aperture
2.5 Free-space link equation and system calulations 25
Ap = r2
r
Ae ApertureEff
Figure 2.8: Aperture efficiency of a parabolic dish
Ae
/2
ApertureDipole
Figure 2.9: Effective aperture of dipole physical aperture
is 1.11m2 ! (740 larger).

Note that the aperture has meaningif two antennas are used to capture more
energy from the wave, the apertures cannot be allowed to overlap as shown in
fig 2.10
ApertureSteal
Figure 2.10: Apertures must not overlap!
In the case of linear antennas, this is a fair problem, as the apertures easily
overlap, and the overall capture area will be reduced. With dish antennas, since
Ae < Ap , it is not possible to have an overlapping aperture!
2.5 Free-space link equation and system calula-

tions
The gain of an antenna is defined as the maximum power density in a certain
direction as compared to a hypothetical isotrope. Since the antenna gain con-
Gt Gr
Pt Pr
Tx Rx
r
LinkEqn
Figure 2.11: Point-to-point link parameters
centrates the transmitted power into a particular direction, we can define the
ERP is the power that effective radiated power (ERP) of an antenna in a particular direction as:
an isotrope would have
to produce in all di- ERP = Gt Pt
rections to achieve the at a distance, r, away from the transmitting antenna, the power density, S is
same effect in this par- given as:
ticular direction. (also Gt Pt
pedantically called EIRP, S(r) =
4r2
I for Isotropic, but rarely the power received, Pr , by the receiving antenna is then Pr = SAer where Aer
used). is the effective aperture of the receiving antenna, given by
Gr 2
Aer =
4
hence the power received by an antenna in a freespace point-to-point link is:
Gt Gr Pt 2
Pr = [W]
(4r)2
note that multipath reflections with constructive and destructive interference

and atmospheric absorption change this value!
The 32.45 factor comes The link equation can obviously also be conveniently expressed in dBs:
from +20 log(300) for
frequency conversion Pr = Pt + Gt + Gr 32.45 20 log10 r 20 log10 f
(20 since squared),
where Pr and Pt are expressed in dBm, Gt and Gr are in dBi, r is in km, and f
20 log(4), and
is in MHz.
20 log(1000) for the
km conversion.
Example: Geostationary satellite comms
A geostationary satellite must be in the Clarke orbit at 36 000 km in order

to appear stationary above a point on the earth. If the power required at the
2.5 Free-space link equation and system calulations 27
satellite receiver is only 8pW, how much power is required to be transmitted

by the earth station? Receiver gain is 20dB, earth station gain is 30dB, at a
frequency of 5GHz.
Converting to linear gains:
Gr = 20 dB = 100; Gt = 30 dB = 1000
300
= = 60mm
5000
hence the power we are required to transmit is:
Pr (4r)2 8pW(4 3.6 107 m)2

Pt = = = 4547W
Gt Gr 2 100 1000 (0.06)2
So 4.5kW is needed to get 8pW to the satellite. Note that the link equation
ignores atmospheric absorption or any other losses along the path, and purely
assumes line-of-sight (LOS) situations.
Actually, satellites transmit at hundreds of watts, not kW!
The dB version is thus:
Pt = Pr Gt Gr + 32.45 + 20 log r + 20 log f

= 80.9 20 30 + 32.45 + 91.12 + 73.98
= 66.58dBm = 4556kW
Chapter 3
Matching Techniques
3.1 Balun action
3.1.1 Unbalance and its effect
A T RF FREQUENCIES recall that from section 1.3.5, the skin-depth is only

a few microns. As a direct result, the inside of the coax braid is quite a
seperate conductor than the outside of the braid, even though, from a DC
perspective, we view the braid as one conductor.
If we feed an antenna using a coaxial cable as shown in fig 3.1, the antenna
radiation can induce a current flow on the outside of the braid, i3 , quite inde-
pendant of the current flow on the inside of the braid due to the transmitter,
i2 .
i2 + i3 i1
i3 i2 i1
BalunReason
Figure 3.1: The reason for unbalanced currents
Since on the inside of the braid, balanced currents must flow i1 = i2 , and both An absolutely tell-tale
the inside and outside currents meet at the antenna junction, this implies that sign of external current is
a larger current can flow on one dipole arm than on the other. The antenna a change in a measure-
pattern is distorted, and the input impedance is changed. ment parameter when the
cable is grabbed by a
hand. 29
30 Matching Techniques
The job of the BALance to UNbalance converter (Balun) is to prevent the

currents flowing on the outside of the braid by presenting a high impedance to
them.
3.1.2 Balanced and unbalanced linesa definition
Tr Ln Cross Sections
Balanced
UnBalanced
UnBalanced
BalLine
Figure 3.2: Balanced and Unbalanced Transmission lines
Essentially, a balanced line is one in which symmetry ensures that equal fields,
currents, voltages exist along it in the equal and opposite sense!
It is clear that a two-wire line of equal diameter conductors is balanced, but that
a coaxial line is notthe field strength is much higher on the inner conductor
than the outer conductor.
3.2 Impedance Transformation
The Balun action is to be distinguished from the Transformer action. A circuit

that does both functions should be called a Balun-Transformer, but in practice
all are simply called Baluns, whether they transform, or just do a Balance-to-
Unbalance conversion (sometimes even when they only transform.
Impedance transformation has the goal of matching the antenna impedance to
the line, and the generator in order that no reflected power existsmaximum
power transfer.
A transmitter cannot deliver full power to an unmatched load, but this is not
the only consideration:
High VSWR means high V &I, hence txln losses.
High V means flashover/dielectric breakdown.
High I means hotspots/copper melting.
Output electronics of the transmitter can be damaged, or more likely, the
automatic power reduction circuitry kicks in. (Typically at a VSWR of
2:1)
Impedance matching is important both for transmission and reception. It is
more critical, however, for the transmitting case and the VSWR specifications
3.2 Impedance Transformation 31
are usually more severe. To illustrate this point the following equation gives the
power reduction as result of a mismatch in terms of VSWR:
2 !
VSWR 1
Power lost in transfer = 10 log 1 dB
VSWR + 1
Thus a VSWR of 2 : 1 results in a power reduction of only 0.5 dB. Even a VSWR
as high as 5 : 1 only causes a reduction of 2.5 dB. The power reduction due to the
mismatch condition itself is thus not all that significant, but some transmitters
will start reducing power output to protect the driving stage electronics at such
low values as 1.5 : 1 or 2 : 1 (Or simply blow up if no power reduction protection
is in place). The power lost (in dB) versus VSWR is illustrated in figure 3.3.
4.5
3.5
3
Power lost in dB
2.5
1.5
0.5
pwrvswr
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
VSWR
Figure 3.3: Power loss in dB versus VSWR on the line.
The additional line losses with a higher VSWR is also of concern and is a func-
tion of the normal line losses, which are usually specified by the manufacturer
of the lines in terms of dB/30m (ie dB/100ft!). It should be noted that the
manufacturer specification assumes matched conditions. The graph in figure 3.4
indicates the additional loss under mismatch conditions (ARRL 1988, pg3-12).
Losses in the line will improve the VSWR at the input end as compared to This improvement is
the VSWR at the antenna. A curve quantifying this characteristic is given in clearly obtained at the
figure 3.5 expense of efficiency,
indicating the need to
avoid long transmis-
sion lines when doing
measurements of VSWR.
10 1
SWR=20
Additional loss in dB SWR=7
SWR=4
10 0
SWR=2
10 -1
10 -1 10 0 10 1
AddLoss
Additional Loss in dB when Matched
Figure 3.4: Increase in Line Loss because of High VSWR

100
50
3dB Loss
2dB Loss
SWR at Antenna
1dB Loss
10
5 0dB Loss
1
1 2 3 5 10
SWRChange
SWR at Transmitter
Figure 3.5: VSWR at Input to Transmission Line versus VSWR at Antenna
3.2.1 Angle Correction
Remember that a low-loss or lossless transmission line has a purely real char-
acteristic impedance. For matching to occur, the antenna has to be resonated.
3.3 Common baluns/balun transfomers 33
This is most often accomplished before impedance transformation. Some match-

ing techniques include angle correction, some dont.
3.3 Common baluns/balun transfomers
3.3.1 Sleeve Balun
Recall that a short-circuited quarter-wavelength transmission line presents a

high (theoretically infinite) impedance. Thus the simplest balun is a short-
circuited quarter-wave sleeve around the coaxial feeder cable, where the sleeve
is short-circuited to the coaxial feeder cable braid a quarter wavelength away
from the feed. Currents wanting to flow in the outside of the braid now see a
high impedance, as shown in fig 3.6.
/4
Bazooka
Figure 3.6: The Bazooka or Sleeve balun.
A sleeve balun has no transformer action, but simply prevents the current flow. The Americans tend to
It is rather narrow-band however, and care must be taken to ensure that it is refer to the sleeve balun
the correct length in terms of the Velocity Factor of the coax outer insulation, as a Bazooka balun!
which is normally a different material than the inner dielectric (hence a different
VF).
3.3.2 Half-wave balun
/2
HalfWaveBalun
Figure 3.7: A HalfWave 4:1 transformer balun.
In addition to a balun action, due to the halfwave section, there is also a 4:1
impedance transformation as shown in fig 3.7.
The impedance transformation is because after the /2 transmission line, the
voltage is exactly out of phase, hence twice the voltage is applied between the
dipoles. Naturally, the current is halved, hence the impedance (voltage over
current) has a factor of four.
Obviously, the half-wave balun is narrow-band too.
3.3.3 Transformers
Ordinary transformers can be used as impedance transformers (remember that

a 2:1 voltage transformer is a 4:1 impedance transformer). Transformers are
broadband, but tend to be lossy. The selection of the ferrite core is important
as they are frequency selective.
A very useful variety is the Transmission Line Transformer shown in fig 3.8.
TxLn 9:1 Ant
TLTrans
Figure 3.8: Transmission-line transformer.
Sevick (1990) is an excellent reference on transmission-line transformers. They

are usually bifilar(4:1) or trifilar(9:1) wound, and the main coupling mechanism
is that of a transmission line. They are effectively autotransformers and are
For the HF band, the usually wound on a frequency-band specific ferrite core. They are quite broad-
Philips 4C6 material is band achieving bandwidths of up to 15:1. The transmission line transformer (if
excellent. connected correctly) also has a Balance to Unbalance conversion. If the input
Gnd is reversed, NO Balun action.
3.3.4 LC Networks
Physical inductors and capacitors can also be used to resonate the antenna
and then transform the impedance. One drawback is that inductors are lossy.
Both pi and T networks are commmon. One popular match is known as
the L-match, shown in fig 3.9. In the L-match, the LC transformer network
is simply an extension of the resonating inductor for the antenna. Therefore
popular when the antenna is short in terms of wavelength, eg mobile HF whips.
LC networks do not have a Balun action, and are naturally narrow-band.
3.3.5 Resistive Networks
Resistive networks (pi and T) are also used, and are broadband, but very lossy.
They are used only in extreme cases, and have no balun action.
RRadiation
CAnt.Reactance
LResonate
LMatch
CMatch
LMatch
Figure 3.9: L-Match network.
3.3.6 Quarter wavelength transformer
Zin Z0 ZL
x = /4 quarter
Figure 3.10: Quarter wavelength transformer
For a transmission line of a quarter-wavelength long, recall that (section 1.1.3

on page 6):
p
Z0 = ZL ZS
In matching one impedance to another, if a transmission line can be found with

a Z0 of the geometric mean of the two impedances, a match can be made.
The match is fairly narrow-band, and requires a practically available Z0 . At

low frequencies the cable length may be inconvenient, at high frequencies a
microstrip line is used.
Ordinarily there is no balun action. However, if a series connection of two

coaxial cables is used as the transformer, there is balun action since both lines
are shielded. A series connection uses two pieces of coax, with the two braids
connected at both ends, but the two centres are used as the transmission line.
The characteristic impedance of the series connected line is half the character-
istic impedance of the coax.
3.3.7 Stub matching
This type of matching can be used to obtain a narrow-band match to any

impedance. The general arrangement is shown in figure 3.11.
d1
Z0 Z0 ZL
Z0
Stub
d2
Figure 3.11: Single Matching Stub
Both the lengths d1 and d2 need to be adjustable which can present some diffi-
If the cable is coax, vary- culty. This type of matching is most clearly illustrated on the Smith Chart and
ing d1 can prove im- is shown in figure 3.12.
possible. The Double-
Due to the fact that stubs are always connected in parallel it is easier to use ad-
Stub match uses fixed dis-
mittance, rather than impedance notation where parallel components are simply
tances from the load, and
added. To achieve this the normalized antenna impedance is plotted (P1 ) and
only varies the length of
rotated halfway round the chart to obtain the corresponding admittance value
the stubs
(P2 ).
Once an admittance has been converted by length d1 to lie on the circle indicated
(Rn = 1) a match can always be achieved by simply adding or subtracting the
necessary amount of susceptance (inverse of reactance) using the open or short
circuited stub. This value can be found by starting at the outer circle on the
chart at the right hand end (admittance of infinity) for short circuited case or
the left hand side (admittance of zero) for open circuit stub and finding the
required value of susceptance and reading of the length of the required stub
(d2 ) from the Smith Chart.
3.3.8 Shifting the Feedpoint
Changes can be made to the feed geometry in order to effect a narrow-band

match. The T and Gamma matches are well suited to feed folded dipole anten-
nas. They are illustrated in fig 3.13
These two types of matching sections are very similar in behaviour. It is difficult
to analyze their performance but the following general trends referring to the T
match have been observed:
d1
Towards 1
Generator
1.8
0.5 2
P2
P3
0.2
0 0.2 0.5 1 2 5
0.2
P1 d2
0.5 2
Towards
1 1.8
Load
SmithStub
Figure 3.12: Smith Chart of Single Stub Tuner Arrangement
`
A
Balanced
TGamma
Unbalanced
Figure 3.13: T and Gamma Matching Sections
The input impedance increases as A is made larger. The desired value of

the real part does not always occur as the imaginary part crosses zero,
causing some problems.
The maximum impedance values occur in the region where A is 40 to 60
percent of the total antenna length.
Higher values of input impedance can be realized when the antenna is
shortened to cancel the inductive reactance of the matching section.
Some flexibility can be obtained by inserting variable capacitors in series with
these sections at the feed. As a first approximation values of about 7 pF per
meter of wavelength can be used.
3.3.9 Ferrite loading
Wrapping the coax/TxLn round a ferrite toroid/clamping ferrite beads around

the TxLn. (eg VGA cables). This simply increases the impedance to external
current flow.
3.4 Impedance versus Gain Bandwidth

The goal of matching is to make the antenna present an acceptable impedance
to the transmitter over the bandwidth that is necessary. However it is senseless
to achieve a broad bandwidth match if the antenna does not maintain its gain
over that bandwidth. Hence we can speak of an impedance bandwidth and a
gain bandwidth. Impedance bandwidth is usually taken as the 2:1 VSWR level,
whereas gain bandwidth is usually taken as 3dB down on the peak gain.
As an example, a SuperNEC run on a 10-director Yagi-Uda array produces
a gain bandwith as shown in 3.14, and an impedance bandwith (normalizing
to 200) as shown in fig 3.15. It is clear that some work needs to be done to
improve the match so that the impedance bandwidth falls in line with the gain
bandwidth.
3.4 Impedance versus Gain Bandwidth 39
Gain at =90, =0
15
Line1
10
5
Gain (dBi)
10
200 250 300 350
Freq (MHz)
Figure 3.14: Gain bandwidth
5
Line1
4.5
3.5
VSWR
2.5
1.5
1
200 250 300 350
Freq (MHz)
Figure 3.15: Impedance bandwidth

Chapter 4
Simple Linear Antennas
T HE SIMPLEST FORM OF ANTENNA , and the form in most common

use is the linear antennathe dipole. Used on its own, or in arrays, it is
the most recognisable antenna.
4.1 The Ideal Dipole
The ideal dipole must be one of the most useful theoretical antennas to un- Though it may seem im-
derstand as a large number of other antennas are analyzed using the equations practical, it is often eas-
that are quite easily developed for this antenna. Examples of these are the iest to consider an ideal
short dipole, loop antennas, travelling wave antennas and some arrays. The case and thence deduce
radiation pattern of any wire construction on which the currents are known can results for more complex
also be readily determined by considering the structure to consist of connected examples.
ideal dipoles and adding the pattern contribution due to each to form the full
pattern. Many computer analysis codes rely on this approach.
The ideal dipole is defined as a linear wire antenna with length very small with
respect to the wavelength and a uniform current distribution. For convenience,
this antenna is positioned at the centre of the coordinate system and aligned in
the z-direction, as shown in figure 4.1.
4.1.1 Fields
Using Maxwells equations and the simplicity of this geometry it is very easy
to find the fields due to the constant current I (Kraus & Fleisch 1999, pg278).
When such an analysis is performed it is found that the far field of the antenna
has an E-field in the direction, E , and a -directed H-field, H only. The
expression for the E-field will be given but the H-field can clearly be found by
Ohms Law of Free Space as discussed in section 1.3.3.
60I0 ` j(2f r)
E = je sin (4.1)
r
41
42 Simple Linear Antennas
` I0 H
E y
IdealCoord
x
Figure 4.1: The Ideal Dipole in Relation to the Coordinate System
There are a number of important points relating to this expression. Considering

it factor by factor:
60 is the constant or magnitude
Io is the (constant) current magnitude. An increase in this value results

in a corresponding increase in the field
` is the electrical length of the antenna and again an increase in this ratio
will imply a larger field. Changes in this ratio should only be made such
that the assumption of small electrical length still holds (0.1 maximum).
jej(2f r) is the phase factor. This factor is relatively unimportant unless

this antenna is combined with another and the total pattern becomes an
addition of the fields where phase plays an important role.
sin is the pattern factor. This is the only factor indicating variation with
respect to the spherical coordinate system angles. Since none of the factors
contain a -term this antenna has constant pattern characteristics in the
Another way of putting azimuth direction. The resulting pattern has the familiar doughnut
this is that the antenna shape as illustrated in figure 4.2
has omnidirectional az-
imuthal coverage.
The form of equation (4.1) is common to the expressions for most antenna field
distributions. Such distributions are always a function of excitation, geometry
in terms of wavelength and and angles. The relative pattern of the antenna
can be drawn using only the sin term and regarding the rest as a normalizing
factor. Where absolute field strengths are required the total equation should
clearly be used.
4.1 The Ideal Dipole 43
dipole Doughnut
Figure 4.2: Pattern of an Ideal Dipole Antenna
4.1.2 Radiation resistance
The radiation resistance of the antenna can be found once the field distribution
is known. Using circuit concepts, the radiation resistance Rr is given by:
2Pt
Rr = (4.2)
I02
The total power transmitted Pt is found by integrating (adding) the power The factor of two is in-
density over a surface surrounding the antenna. Clearly if the power densities troduced as result of the
in all directions have been accounted for, the total power is found. The power fact that I0 is the peak
density in any direction can be found using the expression discussed before: current and not the RMS
value.
E2
Pd =
2(120)
Performing this integration, an expression for total power radiated is obtained

and using 4.2 the radiation resistance is found as:
2
`
Rr = 80 2 (4.3)

This value is clearly always small since the ratio of antenna length to wavelength
(`/) was assumed to be small (0.1) at the outset of the analysis.
4.1.3 Directivity
The directivity of the ideal dipole is calculated by assuming an input power of

1 W to the antenna. Since the reference used is always the isotrope, the power
1
that it would radiate, given the same input power is simply Pd (isotrope) = 4r 2.
q
2
The current to an ideal dipole with 1 W input power is given by I0 = Rr .
Using (4.3) for Rr in the expression above results in:
s
2
I0 = (4.4)
80 2 (`/)2
Substituting (4.4) into (4.1) the E-field can be found in the maximum direction
( = 90 ). The power density in this direction, Pd (ideal dipole) is found by the
relationship:
E2
Pd =
2(120)
(60)2 2 `2
=
(r)2 80 2 (`/)2 2(377)
The directivity by definition is the ratio, which becomes:
Pd (ideal dipole)
D= = 1.5(= 1.76dBi)
Pd (isotrope)
4.1.4 Concept of current moment
An important concept which allows the use of the results achieved for the ideal
dipole above to other antennas is that of current moment. By inspection of
(4.1) it is clear that the E-field is proportional to the product of the length of
the antenna and the current (assumed constant over the whole antenna). The
current moment M for an ideal dipole is therefore the area under the current
distribution:
M = I0 `
The power density and power transmitted is proportional to the current moment
squared ie:
EM
P M2
4.2 The Short Dipole
The short dipole antenna is a practically realizable antenna which is assumed

to have a triangular current distribution when shorter than about a tenth of a
wavelength, as shown in figure 4.3.
Since it can be shown that the current distribution on thin linear radiators
is sinusoidal, the two small parts of a sinusoid starting at either tip of the
short dipole is well approximated by two straight lines and hence a triangular
distribution.
4.2 The Short Dipole 45
Iin
ShortDip
Figure 4.3: Current Distribution on a Short Dipole Antenna
4.2.1 Fields
The current moment of the short dipole in terms of the feedpoint current Iin is:
Iin `
M=
2
The E-field from the antenna is thus half the E-field found for the ideal dipole
(disregarding the phase terms which would be the same) i.e.
30Iin `
E= sin
r
4.2.2 Radiation resistance
The power transmitted by the short dipole is proportional to the square of the
current moment (ie a quarter):
Pt (ideal dipole)
Pt (short dipole) =
4
since Pt = I 2 R the radiation resistance of the short dipole would be a quarter

of that of the ideal dipole
2
`
Rr (short dipole) = 20 2

4.2.3 Reactance
The reactance of a short dipole is always capacitive and usually quite large The reactance of these
and is not as easily calculated as the radiation resistance. Reactance values short antennas is a very
can be measured for a specific antennaand tables (King & Harrison 1969) strong function of the an-
are available for different thickness antennas. The equivalent circuit of a short tenna thickness and (ob-
dipole antenna can be given as in figure 4.4 viously) length.
C R0
Rr
TxLn Short Dipole
ShortCct
Figure 4.4: The equivalent circuit of a short dipole antenna
The R0 value indicated in figure 4.4 refers to the loss resistance and should be
included when that value is significant in relation to the radiation resistance Rr .
This antenna thus presents a serious problem when power has to be delivered
to it. The capacitive reactance (X = 1/2f C) is typically a few hundred
ohms which is a large mismatch condition. Matching is usually accomplished
by placing an inductor in series with the feed line which has a positive reac-
tance (X = 2f L) that is equal in magnitude to the capacitive reactance thus
resonating the antenna, as shown in figure 4.5.
L C R0
Rr L/2 L/2
TxLn Short Dipole
Tuning
Figure 4.5: Tuning out dipole capacitive reactance with series inductance
This is an improvement but a few catch-22 problems still exist which explains
the inherent difficulty in transferring power to small antennas:
The coil will have some loss resistance which is very often large compared
to radiation resistance (which is often a fraction of an ohm) resulting in
very low efficiency.
To decrease coil losses the Q of the inductor should be increased but this
causes a reduced operating bandwidth and a more sensitive antenna, also
increasing the circulating currents and hence the voltages associated with
them.
If the decrease in bandwidth can be tolerated, the resultant real (resonant)
impedance would approximate the very low radiation resistance and this
still presents a matching problem.
4.2.4 Directivity
It is clear from the sin factor in the E-field expression that the shape of the
pattern is exactly the same as that of the ideal dipole. The directivity (gain) of
a short dipole is therefore equal to the gain of the ideal dipole:
D (short dipole) = 1.5

4.3 The Short Monopole 47
4.3 The Short Monopole
I0
`
Ground Plane
ShortMono
Figure 4.6: Short monopole antenna
When a ground plane is present as in figure 4.6 antennas can be analyzed in Once image theory is ap-
terms of image theory. The antenna/image combination has the same radiation plied (and this is true
pattern as the short dipole. The two major differences between the two are: of any antenna/image
combination) the ground-
the monopole current moment is half that of the dipole
plane behaviour can be
the monopole radiates no power in the lower hemispherefor the same deduced from that of the
input power as the dipole, the monopole radiates twice as much power free space equivalent.
into the upper hemisphere.
The power radiated is halved and the radiation resistance is half that of a short
dipole when expressed in terms of `. For monopoles, the length of the antenna
above the ground h = `/2 is clearly more relevant than ` and in terms of this
the radiation resistance is:
2
h 2
Rr = 40

All the power is radiated in the upper hemisphere which implies double power
density in all directions in comparison to shortor ideal dipoles with the same
power input. The directivity of this antenna would thus also be double that of
the previous two antennas: As usual, increased gain
is at the expense of de-
D (short monopole) = 2 (1.5) = 3 creased gain elsewhere
under the ground plane
in this case!
4.3.1 Input impedance
It was shown above that the radiation resistance of the short monopole is half
that of the equivalent short dipole. The same applies to the capacitive reactance
of the antenna.
4.4 The Half Wave Dipole
/2
I0
HalfDip
Figure 4.7: A Half wave dipole and its assumed current distribution
Although the derivation will not be performed here, the fields from a half wave
dipole with an assumed sinusoidal current distribution as shown in figure 4.7
can also be found by considering the antenna to be made up of small ideal
It is interesting to note dipoles. The only difference in this case is that the phase of the current can not
that the current distribu- be assumed to be constant and that the path lengths to a distant point P can
tion must be known be- differ from the different locations on the antenna.
fore the various parame-
In the above cases, the current distributions were assumed to be sinusoidal mak-
ters of an antenna can be
ing analysis possible. This assumption is quite valid for thin linear radiators as
determined.
was shown by Schelkunoff (1941) and others. For more complex structures (and
thick dipoles) the current distribution may be more difficult to determine. Com-
putational techniques such as the Method of Moments, embodied in SuperNEC,
are therefore primarily concerned with the determination of the current on the
antenna wires. Once this is known it is a relatively straightforward task to
calculate impedance and radiation pattern of the antenna.
4.4.1 Radiation pattern
Using the sinusoidal current assumption, the magnitude of the electric field
distribution around the dipole can be determined as (noting that `/ = /2):

60I cos 2 cos
E=
r sin
4.4.2 Directivity
The pattern of this antenna relative to that of a short dipole is shown in figure 4.8
The directivity of this antenna is clearly not much larger than that of the short
dipole. The accurate value is:
D (half wave dipole) = 1.64
this is equivalent to 2.16 dBi (relative to isotropic).

4.4 The Half Wave Dipole 49
= 0 (Dipole axis)
Isotrope
Short Dipole
90
Half Wave Dipole
HalfPat
Figure 4.8: Half wave dipole, short dipole and isotrope patterns
It is immediately clear that there is not a large difference between the gain of
the half wave dipole and that of the short dipole. This initially does not make
sense since a short dipole can be very much smaller than a dipole and hence
cheaper and more practical. The primary reason for the popularity of the half
wave dipole is its large and resonant input impedancewhich was the problem
with the short dipole.
Similarly, the directivity of a quarter wave monopolewhich is the image theory
equivalent of a half wave dipolecan be found as:
D (quarter wave monopole) = 2.16 + 3 = 5.16 dBi
The notation dBi is quite important and has been assumed until now. Very
often antenna gain and directivity is quoted relative to a half wave dipole since
this is a physically realizable antenna unlike the isotrope. The gain can thus be
directly measured by comparing the signal strength received from a half wave
dipole to that of the test antenna. When gain is quoted relative to a dipole
it should be clearly stated and often this is done by using the notation dBd It is always important to
(decibels relative to dipole). The conversion between the two is evident: ascertain which of these
two references are used
dBi = dBd + 2.16 when gain is specified
or quoted since many
sources do not distin-
guish between the two
4.4.3 Input impedance not an ignorable differ-
ence!
By analysis, the input impedance for thin half wave dipoles is:
Zin = 73 + j43
This antenna is thus slightly longer than the length required for resonance.
When a thin antenna is shortened by about 2% resonance can be obtained.
Figure 4.9 indicates the shortening required for various length to diameter ratios.
As before, the quarter wave monopole has half the input impedance of the half
wave dipole.
Zin (quarter wave monopole) = 36.5 + j21

0.99
0.98
0.97
Multiplying factor, K
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
0.92
0.91
0.9
10 1 10 2 10 3 10 4
Ratio of half-wave length to diameter Short
Figure 4.9: Shortening factors for different thickness half wave dipoles
The relatively large values of radiation resistance of these antennas makes for
easy transfer of power and virtually lossless antennas when good conductors are
The impedance band- used. Efficiencies are typically 99% or higher and losses can thus be neglected.
width of thin dipole This may be untrue in cases of extremely thin wires or high frequencies (>1000
antennas as defined by MHz).
the VSWR 2 : 1 limi-
tation is typically 5%
of the centre frequency.
For thicker antennas
4.5 The Folded Dipole
(small length to diameter
ratios) this bandwidth It is very seldom that folded dipoles of other values than half wave length (or
can be larger. slightly less to achieve resonance) are used. The term folded dipole would thus
be used to denote such an antenna unless otherwise stated. A typical Folded
Dipole is shown in figure 4.10. Folded dipoles are often used instead of normal
/2
FD
Figure 4.10: Half Wave Folded Dipole Antenna
dipoles for the following reasons:

Mechanically easier to manipulate and more sturdy
4.5 The Folded Dipole 51
Larger bandwidth than normal dipoles

Larger input resistance than a normal dipole
Can offer a direct DC path to ground for lightning protection. The element centre op-
posite the feed can be
This antennas characteristics are again easily understood using the current shorted to the boom
moment technique. Clearly the currents in each arm are sinusoidally distributed since this is a zero volt-
as in a half wave dipole and are in the same direction. The current moment of age point
this antenna is thus double that of the normal dipole. This implies:
Rin = 4(70) = 280
D (folded dipole) = D (half wave dipole) = 2.16dBi
E (folded dipole) = 2E (half wave dipole)

Folded dipoles typically have an impedance bandwidth (defined by the VSWR
2 : 1 limit) of 10 to 12%. This increase relative to an half-wave dipole can be
explained by noting that the antenna can be considered to be a superposition
of a normal dipole and a short circuit transmission line. When the frequency is
lowered the dipole exhibits a capacitive reactance whereas the transmission line
starts to be inductive. These two factors initially cancel each other causing the
increase in bandwidth. A comparison of the VSWR bandwidths of an ideally
matched dipole and folded dipole is shown in figure 4.11.
4.5
3.5
VSWR
Dipole
3
Folded Dipole
2.5
1.5
dipbw
1
200 250 300 350 400 450 500
freq (MHz)
Figure 4.11: VSWR bandwidth of a dipole and folded dipole.
A very interesting fact about these antennas is that the input resistance can
be increased or decreased by making the two elements of different diameters as
shown in figure 4.12.
2r1 2r2
FDThick
Figure 4.12: Impedance transformation using different thickness elements
The impedance transformation ratio is
Rin (folded dipole) = (1 + a)2 Rin (half wave dipole)
log(d/r1 )
where a =
log(d/r2 )
The impedance can also be manipulated by using more than two elements, as
shown in figure 4.13. The impedance step-up ratio under these conditions (where
/2
FDMany
Figure 4.13: Triply Folded Dipoles
n is the number of elements) is:
Rin = n2 Rin (half wave dipole)
4.6 Dipoles Above a Ground Plane

So far only monopole antennas which are dependent on the ground for their
operation have been discussed. It is interesting to observe the changes that
occur for horizontal dipoles above a ground plane as shown in figure 4.14. A
Since image theory is few general cases will be considered here to indicate the effects qualitatively.
used to determine ground
plane effects, it implies
that a dipole above
ground can be considered
to be a two element
array (see section 5.1 on
page 57).
4.7 Mutual Impedance 53
Direct-wave path

S1
Reflected-wave path
2h
Reflecting Surface
P1
S2 Path Difference = 2h sin ReflRay
Figure 4.14: A horizontal dipole above a ground plane
There are are two rays with different path lengths to point P and constructive
and destructive interference will take placedepending on the path and hence
phase difference. When constructive interference occurs, the two waves will add
in phase and double the E-field result as compared to the free space pattern. In
power density terms this would be an increase of 4 times, or 6 dB! This apparent
free gain obtained by placing an antenna above a ground plane is clearly at
the expense of reduced gain at other angles where the interference would be
destructive, resulting in a null. However, with intelligent use it can be put to
great effect.
One of the main disadvantages of antennas close to the ground is that the
current in the antenna and that in the image are clearly in opposite directions.
At grazing angles they will always be out of phaseand cause a null. This Grazing angles are those
can be a severe problem for ground-to-ground communications and the only that are close to the
real remedy is to mount the antenna sufficiently high so that this effect can be ground plane
neglected.
4.7 Mutual Impedance
When two dipoles (or in fact any two antennas) are close enough to each other
to cause appreciable currents to flow on the one antenna as result of radiation by
the other they are said to be mutually coupled. The radiation patterns of such
an intentional or accidental combination can easily be determined by adding
the field contributions from each vectorially. Another important consequence is
that the input impedance of the antennas is often altered considerably.
The same statement clearly applies to antennas close to a reflecting plane since
interaction with the image results. This effect is graphically illustrated by con-
/2
2Dip
Figure 4.15: Two dipoles in eschelon
sidering two parallel half wave dipoles side-by-side. Each of these antennas has
a self impedance which is the impedance seen without the other antenna present.
For the two dipoles in this example, their self impedances are called Z11 and
Z22 . Due to the interaction between the two dipoles their input impedances
in the configuration shown is different. This can be calculated by defining the
mutual impedance between the two dipoles, Z12 as the ratio of the voltage at
the terminals of the second antenna V2 as a result of a terminal current applied
to the first dipole I1 . That is:
V2
Z12 =
I1
Curves of the mutual impedance for the geometry shown in figure 4.15 is given
in figure 4.16.
The following equations can be written to find the currents on the antennas and
hence their impedance (Balanis 1982, sec 8.6,pg 412):
V1 = I1 Z11 + I2 Z12
V2 = I1 Z12 + I2 Z22
Usually some voltage is assumed as an excitation (V1 & V2 ) for the two antennas
and thus using the above two equations, the resultant currents I1 and I2 are
found. The input impedance to dipole 1 would then be conventionally defined
as:
V1
Zin =
I1
This value will generally be different to the free space self impedance of the
antenna Z11 .
4.7 Mutual Impedance 55
80
60
Mutual Resistance
40 Mutual Reactance
Impedance (Ohms)
20
-20
-40
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Spacing in terms of wavelength

ddvalre
Figure 4.16: Mutual impedance between two parallel half wave dipoles placed
side by sideas a function of their separation, d
This theory can be extended to include further dipoles, where the equations are
then arranged in matrix form and solved using any of the standard techniques.
This is usually the method used by computer programs specifically written to If the one dipole in this
analyze Yagi and log periodic arrays. As was said before: once the current arrangement is a para-
distribution on an antenna is known all other parameters can be calculated sitic element like those
not only the input impedance as was shown above. found in Yagi antennas,
the equations still apply
From the curves in figure 4.16, it is clear that the mutual impedance is large
and V2 is simply set to
when antennas are close together and decreases as they are moved further
zero.
apartas one would expect. It is clear that the coupling becomes quite small
for separations of more than about one wavelength, and this is a useful rule-of-
thumb. This gives a general indication of the distances to conducting bodies
which can start to effect antenna performance.
Once again these effects can be used to advantage if they are taken into account
since one can sometimes actually improve the match to a antenna by choosing
the optimum separation. It also indicates the importance of considering the Remember that the sepa-
effects of surroundings on antenna performance. ration in terms of wave-
length is important, one
For cases where the antenna is close to a reflecting plane, the separation is
should not be fooled by
clearly twice the distance from the surface if these curves are to be applied to
physical dimensions.
such cases. The effect on the input resistance of a half-wave dipole above a
ground plane is shown in figure 4.17.
Again a feel for the distances where coupling becomes significant is obtained
from this curve. Note that radiation resistance drops to zero when a dipole
is brought very close to a ground plane. Seen from a different point of view
this makes sensesince at close separation the currents in the antenna and the
image are oppositely directed as in a transmission line and thus no nett radiation
results.
100
90
80
70
60
R()
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
RinMut
Height above Ground,
Figure 4.17: Change in resistance of a half wave dipole due to coupling to its
image at different heights above a ground plane
The mutual coupling is also shown for collinear half-wave dipoles in figure 4.18,
which shows that the coupling is much smallercollinear configurations are less
sensitive to coupling considerations.
30
25
20
R21
X21
15
10
-5
-10
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Spacing,
Figure 4.18: Mutual impedance between two collinear dipoles

Chapter 5
Arrays and Reflector Antennas
5.1 Array Theory
M UCH OF ANTENNA THEORY consists of correctly adding field contri-

butions at a point from all parts of an antenna, or antenna array. Note
that fields must be used, not power, as proper vector addition of magnitude and
phase must occur.
5.1.1 Isotropic arrays
Consider two isotropic sources, separated by d, having the same magnitude and
phase.

1 2
= 0
d/2 d/2
d cos TwoIso
Figure 5.1: Two Isotropic point sources, separated by d
The far E-field is given by (Kraus & Fleisch 1999, pg260):
E = E2 ej/2 + E1 ej/2
where = d cos = (2d/) cos is the phase-angle difference between the

fields from the two sources. If E1 = E2 = E0 , we get:
E = 2E0 cos(/2)
57
58 Arrays and Reflector Antennas
For the special case of d = /2,

E = E0 cos cos
2
which is shown in figure 5.2.
h i
E = E0 cos cos
2
1 2
= 0
d = /2
TwoIsoPat
Figure 5.2: Two Isotropic Sources separated by /2
5.1.2 Pattern multiplication
The total field pattern of an array of non-isotropic sources is given by the

multiplication of the element field pattern and the array field pattern.
h i
E = E0 cos cos
2
E = k sin

1 2
= 0
h i
E = E0 cos cos k sin
2
PatMult
d = /2
Figure 5.3: Pattern multiplication.
Two short dipoles placed in eschelon /2 apart. The element pattern is k sin ,
a figure
of eight
perpendicular to the dipoles. From the above, the array factor
is cos 2 cos , a figure of eight parallel to the dipoles.
5.1 Array Theory 59
By pattern multiplication, we now get four (weak) lobes at 45 as seen in fig 5.3. Ordinarily one wants the
Note that in this case, the overlap is very small. element and array pat-
tern to have strength to-
gether.
5.1.3 Binomial arrays
If we take the two element isotropic array above, the (normalized) pattern is

E = cos cos
2
If we place another identical array one /2 away, we get a three element array
with relative current magnitudes of 1:2:1.
By applying pattern multiplication, the pattern of this array is

E = cos2 cos
2
h i
E = E0 cos cos
2
h i
E = E0 cos6 cos
2
Binomial
Figure 5.4: Binomial array pattern
If this process is repeated, we will have a four source array with relative cur-
rent magnitudes of 1:3:3:1. Clearly, continuing the process will provide source
magnitudes given by Pascals triangle, the pattern of which is shown in fig 5.4.
1
11
121
1331
14641
1 5 10 10 5 1
Clearly, the pattern multiplies each time, and we get that the pattern of an
array of n sources is:

E = cosn1 cos
2
This array has no minor lobes, but its directivity is less than that of an array
of the same size with equal amplitude sources. In general, most arrays fall in
between these two extremes (binomial/uniform).
5.1.4 Uniform arrays
= 90
2d
= cos

=0
1 2 3 4 5
d d d d Uniform
Figure 5.5: Uniform linear array of isotropic sources.
If instead, we have an array of equal amplitude, E0 , and spacing, d, (not neces-

sarily equal phase as shown in figure 5.5, the far field E-field at angle is given
by:
E = E0 1 + ej + ej2 + ej3 + + ej(n1) (5.1)
where = d cos + , being the progressive phase difference between the

sources. (Phase reference is source 1)
Since (5.1) is an infinite Multiplying (5.1) by ej and subtracting (5.1) from the result yields:
series, we adopt the usual
geometric series method. (1 ej ) = E0 (1 ejn ) ie:
jn

1e
E = E0
1 ej
This can be manipulated using half-angle expansion, and assuming a new phase
reference in the middle of the array, we get:
sin(n/2)
E= (5.2)
sin(/2)
As 0, E = nE0 , ie the E field of n sources at the same point, as it should!

This is the maximum E field attainable. Two special cases of maximum field
are of interestbroadside and end-fire arrays.
Broadside (as in a naval galleon :-) fires its maximum at = 90 as shown in
fig 5.6. For max field, = 0 = d cos 90 + , hence for max broadside field,
=0
This means that there is no progressive phase shift, ie that all sources are fed
in-phase. Note the minor lobing that occurs. (The sources are /4 apart.)
5.1 Array Theory 61
n=4 n=8
UniformBroad
Figure 5.6: Uniform Isotropic Broadside array
90
Radiation Pattern (Elevation) 10
120 60
10 dBi
8
120 60
0
6
150 30
10
4
20
2
30
180 0
180 0
210 330
240 300
120 60 270
(a) Ordinary dB scale (b) Linear Scale
Figure 5.7: Eight In-Phase Isotropic sources, dB vs Linear scales.
It is instructive to compare the results with a SuperNEC run, shown in fig 5.7
which doesnt look anything like the above until you plot on a linear scale shown
next to it. Hence the usefulness of the dB scale.
Endfire has its maximum at = 0 , hence = 0 = d cos 0 + , hence for
max endfire field,
2
= d = d

As an example, if the sources a spaced a quarter wavelength apart,
2
= = = 90
4 2
ie that there needs to be a 90 progressive phase shift between sources.
Fig 5.8 shows an Endfire Array with sources /2 apart, with a progressive phase
shift of . Again, note the lobing.
n=4 n=9 n=12
UniformEnd
Figure 5.8: Uniform Isotropic Endfire Array
Beamwidth
From (5.2) it can be seen that the nulls occur when sin(n/2) = 0 (with the
proviso that sin(/2) cannot also be zero!)
We are interested only in the first null, and this occurs at: n/2 = , or
= 2
n (= d cos 0 + ), where 0 is the angle of the first null.
Hence the first null occurs at

2
0 = cos1
n 2d
For the Broadside case, we are interested in the beamwidth at = 90 , hence

we use the complementary angle = 90 . Recall that for broadside, = 0,
so that the first broadside null is given by:

0 = sin1 Broadside
nd
If the array is large, nd and the argument to the arcsin is small, (for small
angles sin ):
1 1
0 = =
nd/ L/
where L is the length of the array L = (n 1)d nd for a large array.

The BWFN is obviously twice this angle, hence:
2 114.6
BWFN = 20 [rad] =
L/ L/
For most purposes, we can say that HPBWBWFN/2, hence
57.3
HPBW =
L/
For the Endfire case, recall that = 2

d, hence the first null occurs at

1
0 = cos +1 Endfire
nd
5.1 Array Theory 63
Recognizing that we wish to use the small angle approximation again, ( sin )
we convert to a sin via cos 2 = 1 2 sin2

2 0
1 2 sin = +1
2 nd
Hence r
0
sin = 0 /2
2 2nd
As before, using L nd, the first null angle is:

s
2
0 =
L/
s s
2 2
BWFN = 20 = 2 [rad] = 114.6
L/ L/
and hence
s
2
HPBW = 57.3
L/
Interferometer
The resolution of (beamwidth) of an antenna can be improved by having a larger

aperture, but this is not always possible. A synthetically large aperture can be
achieved by array theory (Kraus 1988, 522). Consider a simple two-element
array consisting of two short dipoles placed 10 apart and fed in phase, shown
in fig 5.10. The element pattern is sin and the array factor is cos /2.
TenWave
Array 10 Dipole
Figure 5.9: Array pattern of 2 isometric sources 10 apart, and the element
pattern.
Hence the E field pattern is given as
E = 2 sin cos /2
where = d cos

d
= 2 sin cos cos

Fig 5.9 shows the pattern multiplication process.
Interferometer
Figure 5.10: Two in-phase dipoles 10 apart.
Following similar arguments as before, and using the complementary angle ,

the First Null occurs at
1
0 = sin1
2d/
Assuming the distance between the two elements is large, we can approximate:
57.3
BWFN = 20 =
d/
Hence the further apart Across continent, or over large separations, the time-base is critical to ensure in-
they are, the smaller the phase feeding. Radio-astronomers have even used the yearly cycle of the earth
beam is between first around the sun (with very accurate timing) to resolve distant astronomical
nulls, and the better the artefacts. A SuperNEC simulation of the 10 separation interferometer is
resolution. shown in fig 5.11.
5.2 Dipole Arrays

From array theory, it is clear that a collinear array of dipoles is a uniform
broadside array. It is almost exclusively used in the broadside mode of oper-
ation since the dipoles themselves have maximum directivity in this direction.
From the broadside condition this implies that the elements of such an array
should always be in phase. These arrays are useful due to the omnidirectional
5.2 Dipole Arrays 65
Radiation Pattern (Elevation)

0
10 dBi
10
60 60
20
30
Structure: =90
120 120
180
Interferometer
Figure 5.11: SuperNEC run of the 10 Interferometer
characteristics of the pattern about the array axis. If such an array is there-
fore vertically mounted it will give omnidirectional azimuth coverage but still
produce gain due to concentrating the radiation in the elevation plane.
5.2.1 The Franklin array
This is an ingenious method of arraying three half-wave dipoles with half a

wavelength spacing, and is shown in fig 5.12.
The quarter wave phasing section reverses the current phase by 180 and ensures
that all three dipoles are in phase. The gain of this arrangement has been
measured at 4 to 5 dBi.
Often, the phase reversal section is a loading coil, which has a sufficient amount
of self-capacitance to form a resonant L-C network, which performs the 180
phase shift. Many cellphone car-kits employ this technique.
5.2.2 Series fed collinear array
An example of this structure is shown in figure 5.13.

This arrangement is thus equivalent to a 4 dipole array with a 0.7 wavelength
spacing. The value of 0.7 wavelength spacing results in one wavelength electrical
length (0.7/0.66) between the excitation slots and so ensures in-phase operation.
The gain of this antenna is about 8.5 dBi. Usually such antennas are mounted
in a fibreglass radome to give them mechanical rigidity. Unfortunately there is
/4
/2
/2
/2
Franklin
Figure 5.12: The Franklin array
Coax Inner Conductor

Coax Outer (Braid) Dipole 4
Additional Sleeve
0.7
Break in Coax Braid. Dipole 3
/2 Dipole 2
Dipole 1
CoaxArray
Figure 5.13: A Series Fed Four Element Collinear Array
no DC path to earth, and lightning protection is a problem with this array in

The year the cell net- South African conditions.
work first rolled out, in
June or so, these ar-
rays were used all around
Gauteng, come Septem-
ber, they were replaced!
5.3 Yagi-Uda array 67
5.2.3 Collinear folded dipoles on masts
From array theory, it is fairly easy to calculate the gain of a collinear array of
dipoles in free space. The effects of a mast will distort the azimuth pattern
somewhat however.
Folded dipoles are usually mounted about a quarter of a wavelength from the
mast to yield some gain from the mast reflection and to ensure practical boom-
lengths and feed harnesses. A SuperNEC run on a /2 folded dipole, mounted
/4 away from a mast of /8 diameter is shown in figure 5.14. The gain in
front of the dipole is 5.01dBi, and behind the mast is -3.43dBi. If omnidirec-
tional coverage is essential the antennas forming the array should be mounted
symmetrically on opposite sides of the mast.

10 dBi
120 60
0
10
20
30
180 0
240 300
Figure 5.14: Distortion to folded dipole azimuth pattern in presence of a mast
5.3 Yagi-Uda array

If you ask a 6 year old child to draw an aerial it is likely to be a Yagi-Uda
array. This indicates the popularity of this antenna and not without reason.
A Yagi antenna is probably the simplest, cheapest and most effective medium
gain antenna available, and is found on every rooftop!
The Yagi-Uda antenna, shown in fig 5.15 on the next page was invented in 1926
by Dr. H Yagi and Shintaro Uda (Yagi 1928). Since then numerous reports The Yagi antenna can
on this antenna have appeared in the literatureone of the most noteworthy is be analyzed using mu-
the study done by Viezbicke (1976) of the U. S. National Bureau of Standards tual coupling theory pre-
(NBS). He optimized the gain of a number of Yagi antennas and investigated the sented earlier.
effect of the boom and element length on the performance of the antenna. The
NBS experimental findings were later confirmed during an excellent series of
articles on Yagi antenna design by James Lawson in the Ham Radio magazine
(1979 - 1980). These articles were later combined in a book by the ARRL
(Lawson 1986), which is the best practical Yagi-Uda design text available today.
Main beam
Directors
Driven Element Yagi
Reflector
Figure 5.15: Yagi-Uda array
5.3.1 Pattern formation and gain considerations
The antenna usually has only one driven element, usually a folded dipole; the
other elements are not directly driven, but are parasitic, obtaining their current
via mutual coupling. The spacing between elements is approximately a quarter
wavelength. The reflector is slightly longer than required for resonance and is
thus inductive (current phase retarded ). The directors are shorter than reso-
nance and therefore exhibit a capacitive reactance and hence a phase advance.
The overall structure therefore has a progressive phase in the forward direction
and it behaves like a travelling wave or endfire array.
As a general rule of thumb the gain is directly proportional to boom length for
well designed Yagis. In other words, a 3 dB gain increase is obtained by doubling
the boom length. The number of elements per se is not the determining factor.
Generally, the gain bandwidth of Yagi antennas decreases with an increase in
gain (length of Yagi). Also, for a given length Yagi antenna the bandwidth will
decrease with increased gain and vice versa. The gain bandwidth of a Yagi is
usually a function of the reflector length relative to director lengths. If a given
design is therefore built with slightly longer reflector and shorter directors gain
bandwidth will be larger with slightly lower maximum gain.
The comments above apply to impedance bandwidth as well. Experience has
ie the Yagi-Uda is typ- shown that the VSWR 2 : 1 bandwidth will correspond more or less to the 1.5
ically impedance band- dB gain bandwidth.
width limited, not gain
bandwith limited, see
fig 3.14 and 3.15 on
page 39.
5.3 Yagi-Uda array 69
5.3.2 Impedance and matching
The free space input impedance of the folded dipole is usually considerably
reduced from 300 due to the mutual coupling to the parasitic elements. The
mutual coupling also results in some reactive component being introduced to the
input impedance. The reactive part can be eliminated by changing the overall
length of the driven dipole to achieve resonancethe driven element length does
not influence the antenna performance much and may be manipulated to achieve
matching. The resultant resistive input impedance is usually around 200 and
can be matched to a 50 line using a 4 : 1 balun transformer. This value must
not be assumed automatically! Measurements or SuperNEC simulations will
get the accurate impedance.
5.3.3 Design
The NBS data for Yagi design forms a good base line for design, but are based on
unequal director lengths. The difference in gain between these and equal length
director Yagis is negligible for short antennas and about 0.5 dB for long ones.
Lawson (1986) showed that using the average length of the NBS specification
for all elements results in much simpler antennas with equivalent performance
as shown in the table below:
Yagi Design Details (All dimensions in wavelengths)
Boom length 0.4 0.8 1.2 2.2 3.2 4.2
Reflector 0.482 0.482 0.482 0.482 0.482 0.475
Reflector spacing 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
No of directors 1 3 4 10 15 13
Director 0.442 0.427 0.424 0.402 0.395 0.401
Director spacing 0.2 0.2 0.25 0.2 0.2 0.308
G(dBd) (Lawson) 7.1 9.2 10.2 12.25 13.4 14.2
Driven (SN) 0.426 0.421 0.417 0.423 0.435 0.434
Rin 8.6 20.4 19.0 43.4 55.6 44.5
Driven FD (SN) 0.389 0.382 0.378 0.382 0.396 0.396
Rin 34.1 76.1 72.1 158.3 202.9 166.2
SuperNEC gains(dBi) 9.1 10.5 10.8 12.3 12.7 13.3
The length of the driven element can be chosen for the optimum match condition
since it does not affect gain operation much. As an example, the SuperNEC
determined resonant lengths and input impedances are shown in the above table.
Driven (SN) refers to the SuperNEC derived dipole driven lengths, and Driven
FD (SN) is the SuperNEC derived folded dipole driven lengths. All diameters
are 0.008, and the folded dipole separation is 0.05. The gain as calculated
by SuperNEC is shown in the last line, in dBi. As can be clearly seen, the
Lawson gain figures are optimistic for the longer arrays.
Element correction
The element lengths shown above are for a diameter to wavelength ratio of
0.008. For different radius elements the same design data can be modified by
using a curve with correction factors as determined by the NBS team. They
used a very complicated process to determine the correct element lengths due
to a clumsy formulation of these curves. Figure 5.16 shows a modified curve
derived from their sets of curves that achieves the same effect quite simply.
1.1
1.08
1.06
Reflector
1.04
Directors
Correction factor
1.02
0.98
0.96
0.94
0.92
0.9
10 -3 10 -2 10 -1
Element diameter to wavelength ratio

ElemFactor
Figure 5.16: Multiplication factor for different diameter to wavelength ratios of

director and reflectors
When the elements are If the elements are mounted through a metal boom, as is often done for mechanical
mounted on insulators support, a further correction factor must be applied to get the correct length.
at least an element radius This is due to the slight distortion of the field at the centre of the dipole due
away from the boom to the boom. It is viewed as some additional capacitance and will thus require
this effect becomes negli- the length to be increased with increased boom diameter. The curve to do this
gible. correction is given in figure 5.17.
Stacking and Spacing
Yagi antennas can be vertically stacked or horizontally spaced to give additional

gain. As seen from section 2.4 on page 24, the criterion for determining the
spacing is the effective aperture of the antenna. Since the beamwidths are
different in the E and H planes, the optimum separation for stacking Yagi
antennas is 1.6 wavelengths apart and for spacing side by side it is 2 wavelengths
between antenna centres. Either of these two methods produce 2.5 dB gain
relative to a single antenna. Clearly four yagis can be both stacked and spaced
to produce 5 dB of extra gain.
These techniques are attractive since the gain is increased without compromising
bandwidth. The antennas clearly have to be driven in phase via a phasing harness
5.4 Log Periodic Dipole Array 71
0.03
0.025
Increase in Electrical Length
0.02
0.015
0.01
0.005
0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04
Diameter to wavelength ratio of Boom

BoomFactor
Figure 5.17: Graph showing the length to be added to parasitic elements to

compensate for the effect of the supporting boom
to achieve the desired effect.

It is also evident that the 6 dB reflection gain mentioned earlier can be obtained
using the antenna image when mounted above a conducting plane. This is often
possible when mounting antennas on metal roofs or for lower frequencies when
the antenna is mounted above the earth.
5.4 Log Periodic Dipole Array

The LPDA, first proposed by Isbell (1960), is a truly frequency-independent
antenna and probably the most popular broadband array. The term true fre-
quency independence in this instance implies pattern and input impedance con-
stancy. These antennas are used successfully in applications ranging from HF
to microwaves. Carrel (1961) developed a particularly straight-forward design
procedure for these antennas which has ensured their success.
Carrel disregarded the effects of the characteristic impedance of the antenna
boom/transmission line and also the thickness of the elements. Peixeiro (1988)
presents a more complete design technique catering for these defects, but which
still incorporates a large number of the features introduced by Carrel. The
general form of an LPDA antenna is shown in figure 5.18.
The array is fed at the small end of the structure, and the maximum radiation
is toward this end. The lengths of the dipoles and their spacing are varied such
that these dimensions bear a constant ratio to each otherregardless of the
1
2
n1
n
n+1
N
dn Ln
2 ZT
Diameter Dn
LPDA
Figure 5.18: The log-periodic dipole array
position on the antenna (except at the two ends). This design ratio, , is one
of the design parameters and the following relationships hold:
Ln+1 dn+1
= = (5.3)
Ln dn
One of the characteristics It is apparent that these conditions cause the ends of the dipoles to trace out an
of frequency independent angle, 2. When the antenna is fed from the small end with a frequency that is
antennas is that they can much too low for the short dipoles to resonate, these elements will absorb very
be defined in terms of an- little power (hence they will radiate very little power too). The phase of the
gles rather than linear di- current is mechanically changed by 180 degrees between these electrically short
mensions. elements. The radiation any of these will produce will therefore be cancelled by
the out-of-phase radiation of adjacent elements.
Once a portion on the antenna has been reached where the dipoles are resonant
and electrically further apart these dipoles will absorb most of the energy from
the transmission line and radiate it. This part of the antenna is called the active
region. If the frequency is increased, this active region will simply move towards
the small end of the antenna. This explains the frequency independence of the
antenna for frequencies where the active region is not at one of the two ends.
The directional property of the antenna is due to the elements in front of the
active element being shorter than resonance and therefore capacitiveand act as
directors. Similarly, elements behind (towards the large end) act as reflectors
giving the antenna a endfire beam towards the small end. Referring again to
figure 5.18 the space factor, , of the antenna is:
dn
= (5.4)
2Ln
The antenna must always be truncated at both ends which is determined by the
minimum and maximum frequencies of operation. The truncation coefficients
K1 and K2 are defined to determine the values of shortest and longest elements
to ensure satisfactory performance:
L1 K1 max (5.5)
LN K2 min (5.6)
The number of dipoles can then be obtained using

ln(L1 /LN )
N =1+
ln(1/ )
Carrel produced curves to find the (, ) pairs for different values of directivity.
These curves were modified using computer techniques, with some improvement
to the theory by Peixeiroand both of the authors curves are reproduced in
figure 5.19 for the case where Z0 = 100 ; Ln /Dn = 177
Improved Pexiero
Original Carrel
CarrPex
Figure 5.19: Constant directivity contours (dBi)
Peixeiro also produced numerous curves showing the relationships between:

and the LPDA design constants
K1 and K2 the truncation coefficients
R the input resistance
Z0 the connecting transmission line characteristic impedance
D the directivity of the antenna and
Figure 5.20: Characteristics for feeder impedances of 100, 250 and 400 and
dipoles with L/D ratios of 177, 500 and 1000
L n
Dn the thickness of the elements.
For accuracy, these curves are reproduced from his document in figure 5.201 .
5.4.1 Design procedure
An easy-to-use design procedure for the LPDA can be based on sets of constant
directivity D, input resistance R and truncation coefficient contours K1 ; K2 as
shown in figure 5.20.
Pairs (, ) are selected taking into account both directivity and input
resistance specifications.
Find the truncation coefficients, K1 and K2 from the same curves based
on the required directivity and selected spacing factor.
L1 and LN are then calculated by equations 5.5 and 5.6.
Having chosen suitable dipole diameters the antenna geometry can be
calculated using equations 5.3 and 5.4.
If constraints are placed on some of the parameters, the procedure is naturally
iterative in order to find the best compromise. The following comments may
help to do so efficiently:
The effects of increasing Z0 are
a decrease in directivity
an increase in the input resistance
a decrease in the truncation coefficients.
On the other hand, the effects of length-to-diameter ratio have a moderate
influence on the LPDA parameters. Often the maximum boom length is one of
the constraints imposed in practical examples. This value is not immediately
evident from the various design constants but can be found using the following
equation:
2(L1 LN )
boom length =
(1 )
5.4.2 Feeding LPDAs
A very useful method of feeding a LPDA is illustrated in figure 5.21.

The coaxial cable is passed through the hollow boom from the large endwhich
is usually convenient and prevents the cable from affecting the radiation pattern.
This connection has the additional advantage that it acts as a broadband balun
as result of the hollow boom forming a sleeve around the outside of the coaxial
cable.
1 IEE Proceedings, Part H, Vol 135, No 2, pg 100
LPDAFeed
Figure 5.21: Coaxial Connection to LPDAs
5.5 Loop Antennas
The theoretical analysis of loop antennas exploits the dipole and array theory.
This again emphasizes the power available to the antenna designer once the
simple concepts such as ideal dipoles, isotropic array theory and transmission
line operation are understood.
5.5.1 The small loop
Figure 5.22 shows a small circular loop and how it can be analyzed as a square
loop with the same area.
I
I
d
I I s
Loop
Figure 5.22: The small circular loop and the equivalent square loop
In this analysis the term small loop implies that d and s . The square loop
will duplicate the performance of its circular equivalent as long as the areas of
both are equal:
2
2 d
s =
2
5.5 Loop Antennas 77
This is true in general for different loop configurations such as triangular or

multi-sidedas long as they contain some approximately circular area and are
not flat. A flat or narrow rectangle, for instance, looks more like a short
circuited stub than a loop antenna.
Radiation pattern
Since the loop circumference is small it will carry a uniform current with con-
stant phase. The square antenna can therefore be considered as made up of four
ideal dipoles. The radiation in the xy-plane is clearly isotropic due to the sym-
metry of the situationwhich is quite clear when the circular loop is considered.
The xz-plane is of specific interest and is also shown in figure 5.22. The dipoles
1 and 3 do not contribute to radiation in this plane, since they carry opposing
currents and the path difference to all points in the plane is exactly equal.
Dipoles 2 and 4 also have equal and out of phase currents, but they form a two
element array which can be analyzed using the theory in the previous chapter.
The dipoles are isotropic in the xz-plane and the equation for a array of two
isotropic sources may be applied to this case. The separation is s and there is
a 180 phase difference between the two resulting in the E field distribution:

s sin
E() = 2E0 sin
2
but s (implies s 1), thus
E() = E0 s sin
This is the equation for the isotropic array and the E0 term refers to the radi-
ation due to one of the isotropes. In the case of the loop this value is due to an
ideal dipole and the E-field of this antenna is used:
60Is
E0 =
r
This gives the full E-field of the loop as
120 2 IA
E() = sin
r2
where A = s2 , the area of the loop.
The radiation pattern of the small loop is similar to that of the ideal and short
dipoles as shown in figure 5.23.
Input impedance
From the E-field distribution the power density distribution can be obtained.
Integrating this over a full sphere results in an expression for the total trans-
mitted power and from this the radiation resistance can be obtained as was
outlined in Chapter 4.
320 4 A2
Rrad =
4
= 0
LoopDip
Figure 5.23: The Radiation Pattern of a Short Dipole and a Small Loop
When the loop contains N turns instead of one the current moment will increase
by N times and the radiation resistance is proportional to the current moment
squared. The equation above for a multi-turn loop of N turns is:
320 4 A2 N 2
Rrad =
4
If the loops are made around a ferrite rod the so-called ferrite loop results
with the radiation resistance modified by the ferrite effective permeability, eff :
Rrad (ferrite loop) = 2eff Rrad (air loop)
The radiation resistance of small loops is usually small as was the case for short
dipoles. The reactive part is always inductive and the value can be roughly
estimated using the standard equation for loop inductance:
L = 0 N 2 A H
the inductive reactance will then be:
X = 2f L
5.6 Helical Antennas
5.6.1 Normal-mode
This antenna is analyzed by considering it to consist of an array of loops and

ideal dipoles. The pattern of such an array is the same as the pattern of the
5.6 Helical Antennas 79
`
h
Helix Axis
SmallHelix
Figure 5.24: The normal-mode helix antenna and its radiation pattern
individual elements since the array size is small resulting in an isotropic array
factorand is shown in figure 5.24.
The pattern contains both vertical E-field components due to the dipoles; and
horizontal components due to the loops. This results in circular polarization
when these values are equal. Usually they are not equal resulting in predomi-
nantly horizontal or vertical polarization. The ratio between the two types of
polarizations is:
E(vertical) `
=
E(horizontal) 2A
If this value is large the antenna pattern is vertically polarized and if it is small
the polarization is approximately horizontal. If the ratio is close to unity the
polarization is circular. The pattern (intensities) are not affected however.
The reason for the popularity of this antenna is due to the fact that much
shorter length resonant linear antennas can be produced. This is due to the
fact that the velocity of propagation along the helix axis is slow and the current
and voltage will thus be in phase before the helix is a quarter wavelength. The
reduction in resonant length, k, is given by the formula:
1
k=p
1 + 20(nd)2.5 (d/)1/2
where n is the number of turns per meter.

The radiation resistance of this antenna when it is resonant is given by:
Rrad = (25.3h/)2
where h is the height of the monopole helix.

This results in slightly lower values of input resistance when compared to the
36 input resistance of the quarter wave monopole.
5.6.2 Axial mode
In 1946, J.D Kraus attended a physics lecture in which a helical structure was
used to guide an electron beam in a traveling wave tube. He asked the lecturer
about the possibility of using the helix to radiated electromagnetic wave into
space, to which the answer was an emphatic NO! Nevertheless, Kraus went
home and started to experiment with the structure. As he suspected (or was it
to his amazement), the helix showed good promise as an antenna.
When the diameter D and the spacing S are large fractions of a wavelength, the
operation of the helical antenna changes considerably from the normal-mode
behaviour, and it behaves as an endfire array of loops and the pattern therefore
has a main beam in the axial direction as shown in figure 5.25.
S
L
S
C = D
Helix Axis
AxialHelix
Figure 5.25: Axial Mode Helix Antenna and its Typical Pattern.
To excite the axial mode of operation, the circumference of the helix, C(= D),
must be in the range
C
0.8 1.15

with a circumference of 1 near optimum. The spacing, S must be about /4
and the pitch angle, in the range:
12 14
where = arctan(S/C)
Most often the antenna is used in conjunction with a ground plane, whose
diameter is at least /2. The number of helix turns, N , should be more than 4.
Intuitively, the circularly polarization comes about since opposite sides of the
helical turn are 180 out of phase, hence providing the E-field vector in that
plane. Also, referring back to the Yagi-Uda array where the directors are about
0.2 apart, in order to capacitively suck the wave forward, the turns are about
0.21 to 0.25 apart (For a C/ of 1).
5.6 Helical Antennas 81
Original Kraus design
During the years 1948-1949, Kraus empirically studied the helical antenna and
published the following findings (assuming 0.8 C/ 1.15; 12 14 ;
and n 4):
The radiation pattern of a helix is predominantly cigar shaped and has a
maximum gain given by:
2
C NS
G = KG

where KG is the gain factor, originally 15, but later reduced to 12 by
Kraus (1988, pg284)
The Half Power BeamWidth (HPBW) is given by:
KB 3/2
HPBW =
C NS
where KB is the beam factor, which is about 52, derived from the standard
approximation on beamwidths:
41000
G=
HP HP
Since the beam is generally circularly symmetric, HP =HP =HPBW:
p
41000/KG 3/2
HPBW =
C NS
p
where 41000/KG = KB , the beam factor.
The input impedance is nearly resistive and is given by:

C
R = 140

The beam is circularly polarized.
King and Wong design
King & Wong (1980) performed a study which involved varying the parameters
of a uniform helix and measuring the electrical performance of the structure.
They found that the expressions derived by Kraus tended to overestimate the
performance of the antenna. Their results are summarized (empirically) as
follows:
N +21 0.8 N /2
C NS tan(12.5)
G = 8.3
tan
When comparing this result to that published by Kraus, the gain factor KG
is between 4.2 and 7.7 (compared to Krauss reduced estimate of 12). The
beamwidth factor, KB , is therefore between 61 and 70 (compared to 52).
Please note:
C
The revised factors are valid for antennas with 0.8 1.2.
King and Wong also note that the Kraus original factors depend on other
design parameters of the helix and are only constant for helices with ap-
proximately 10 turns. The revised factors do not suffer from this limita-
tion.
In addition,
C
The peak gain of a helix occurs when = 1.155 for N = 5; and for
C
= 1.07 for N = 35.
Since the beam is circular, HPBW =HPBW =HPBW. The Gain-HPBW2

product was found to be significantly less than 41 000, and lies in the range
of 18 000 to 31 500. They note that:
G HPBW2 = 18 000 for N = 35 and 0.75 C
1.1
G HPBW2 = 31 000 for N = 5 and 0.75 C
1.2
The smaller the pitch, the larger the gain-beamwidth product.
The gain bandwidth of the helix is presented as:
4

fH 0.91 3 N
1.07
fL G/Gpeak
where the subscript L refers to the lower frequency, and H the higher;
G/Gpeak is 3dB or 2dB etc according to preference (usually want the 3dB
point).
Note that the bandwidth decreases as the axial length/ gain/ number
of turns increases.
The bandwidth is approximately 42% for a helix of N = 5; and
approximately 21% for N = 35.
The impedance bandwidth (2:1 VSWR) is typically 70%. The input
impedance of the helix (with C/ = 1) is about 140, almost purely
resistive. However, if the last quarter-turn of the helix is made parallel
to the ground plane, it creates a quarter-wave transformer, which allows
matching down to 50. Since a frequency-selective device has now been
introduced, the 70% impedance bandwidth drops to about 40%. This can
be ameliorated by tapering the matching section in the usual way.
5.7 Patch antennas

At higher frequencies, the convenience of manufacturing antennas on PCBs
(Printed Circuit Boards) becomes attractive. The higher the frequency, the
more patches can be used, resulting in better gain, and more controllable pa-
rameters.
At V/UHF frequencies, it is simply not possible to have a large number of
elements in an array. One problem at the higher frequencies is that the dielectric
5.7 Patch antennas 83
of the PCB has to be carefully controlled, and standard PCBs have quite lossy
dielectrics. At microwave frequencies, therefore, antennas are manufactured on
low-loss substrates.
The simplest patch antenna is a rectangular patch, roughly /2 in size,
being the wavelength in the dielectric (Kraus & Fleisch 1999, pg307). The
patch is fed in the middle of one of its longest edges, as shown in fig 5.26.
patch
Figure 5.26: A /2 patch (of copper) on a dielectric slab, over a ground

plane. The patch is fed by coax through the dielectric, halfway along the longest
edge.
The antenna functions as an array of slots. The long edges radiate as two
vertical slot antennas.
It is common to have large arrays of patches to achieve a high gain. Since
this kind of array is readily produced using ordinary printed circuit technology
(albeit using fancy dielectrics), it is a popular method of producing arrays.
Balanis (1982, pg.730) outlines a design method which produces good results:
Width The patch width, w, which produces good radiation efficiencies is given
by: r
c 2
w=
2fr r + 1
r(eff) The effective dielectric constant (since w h) is determined by (Balanis

1989):
1/2
r + 1 r 1 h
r(eff) = + 1 + 12
2 2 w
` The extension length, `, is found using (Hammerstad 1975):

` (r(eff) + 0.3) wh + 0.264
= 0.412
h (r(eff) 0.258) w h + 0.8
Length The patch length, `, is then given by:

1
`= 2`
2fr r(eff) 0 0
Actually, there are so many ways to feed a patch, and so many ways to construct
it, that a comprehensive guide cannot be readily established. Essentially, it is
required that a set of modes are resonant within iteg with feedpoints roughly
90 in spatial separation, and with a 90 phase separation, circular polarization
is easily achieved.
The size of groundplane also affects all parameters. An example of an (essen-
tially) edge-fed square patch (SuperNEC run) is shown in fig 5.27
Figure 5.27: Geometry of square patch, as simulated in SuperNEC
The 3D and max 2D patterns are shown in figs 5.28 on the next page and 5.29
on the facing page
Patches are simply asking to be arrayed, and fig 5.30 on page 86 shows a four
edge-fed square patch array with its 3D pattern; the 2D pattern at max gain is
shown in fig 5.31.
5.7 Patch antennas 85
20
3D Radiation Pattern
8.2
15
4.2
10 0.3
3.7
5 Y
X
7.6
0
11.6
5 15.5
19.5
10
23.4
|Gain |
Tot
15
20
20
15 35
30
10 25
5 20
0
5
Figure 5.28: 3D pattern of the square
5
patch.
10
15
10 0
15 5
10
20 15

0
10 dBi
10
60 60
20
30
Structure: =92
120 120
180
Figure 5.29: 2D cut through the maximum gain of the square patch
30 Z
3D Radiation Pattern
10.4
20
5.3
0.2
10
4.9
0 10.1
15.2
10
20.3
25.4
20 Y
30.5
|Gain |
Tot
30
30
20
10
0
10 40
30
20 20
10
Figure
30
40
5.30: Geometry and 3D 10pattern
0 of a 4-square patch array.
20
30
40

0
10 dBi
10
60 60
20
30
Structure: =92
120 120
180
Figure 5.31: 2D cut through the maximum gain of the 4-patch array.
5.8 Phased arrays and Multi-beam Smart Antennas 87
5.8 Phased arrays and Multi-beam Smart An-

tennas
It is often important to track a moving targeteg direction finding. For this pur-
pose, relatively large antenna arrays can be employed, with electrically steerable
beams (or multiple beams) (Johnson & Jasik 1984, ch.32).
Applications are:
Classic Direction-Finding: Beacons for aircraft navigation; Illegal trans-
mitters; Triangulation of a Cell phone from different adjacent cells (911
requirement in USA 2005?); Finding enemy radar :-)
Classic Interference minimizing: Steer a Null towards an interfering signal
eg multipath (hence delayed) signal; Steer a null towards an intentional
jammer.
Re-use of spectrum: Instead of an omnidirectional pattern for cellphone
coverage, you could have multiple beams to track individual users, and
use the SAME frequency for both! Also used in the (now largely defunct)
satellite mobile phone Low-Earth Orbiting antennas.
To feed an array, the input is usually passed through a power splitter, shown
in fig 5.32, which may provide differing amounts of power to each antenna, or
equal power. This is possibly followed by a phase shifting section, so that the
individual phases of the sources in the array can be changed.

Power Splitter
PowerSplit
Figure 5.32: Power Splitter followed by phase modification.
Changing the phasing allows the beam to be steered to follow an object etc. Commercial phase
One of the simplest (in theory) phase shifter is a transmission line based binary shifters use transmission
one as shown in fig 5.33, where various sections of TxLn are switched into the lines as above for the
circuit. lower frequencies, but
variable lumped elements
For example a four element array, spaced /2 apart. If the beam needs to fire
at higher frequencies.
at 60 , the E-field must be in phase at 60 . Hence the incremental phase change
between sources must be zero at 60 . Thus
2d
= cos + (= 0 at = 60 )

Hence we get that = 90 ie that the phase difference between each source Interestingly, if =
+90 , we get a Null at
= 60 .
BinPhase
Figure 5.33: Binary phase shifter, based on transmission line segments.
must be 90 . The exercise can be repeated for any angle, and by changing the
relative phases of the (uniform amplitude) array, we can steer the beam.
Beam steering in Elevation is often used in cellular systems, as shown in fig 5.34,
which shows a standard eight-stack, ie 8 /2 dipoles, spaced 3/4 apart. A

0
10 dBi
Broadside
0 5 Downtilt
10 Downtilt
10
60 60
20
30 DownTilt
120 120
180
Figure 5.34: Electrically achieved DownTilt by progressive phasing.
careful look at the magnitudes in fig 5.34 will show a slight degradation in peak
value (10.81;10.80;10.06) dBi respectively. This is due to the array pattern being
multiplied by the element pattern which is a sinusoidal function of theta. The
electrical downtilt is achieved by slightly lengthening the cables progressively in
the corporate feed network, shown in fig 5.35.
For the 5 downtilt, = 95 , so from = d cos(95 ) + , we get =
0.41radians = 24 . (Typical spacing is 3/4).
For the 10 downtilt, = 47 . This translates directly to additional cable length
5.9 Flat reflectors 89
All 75; n/4; n odd

Corporate
Figure 5.35: A Corporate feed networkequal amplitude and phase.
required (NB at 50) to each antenna.

It should be obvious that to have a number of beams, each with a reasonable
gain requires a very large number of elements. This implies a high frequency in
order for the array to be of reasonable size. At radar frequencies (11GHz), this
is possible.
Apart from actually switching in different amounts of phase to each element,
one can use a fixed phasing network and change the frequency at which the
system operates, resulting in a beamshift. Assuming that the exact frequency is
not critical, one can get a fair degree of beamshift. Useful in RFID applications
where the exact frequency used to excite the passive tags is not critical, but
where a relatively large area needs to be scanned.
5.9 Flat reflectors
The simplest reflector antenna is a dipole in front of a flat plate, which is easily
analysed by image theory. The distance between the dipole and plate affects
the gain markedly. Kraus (1988, pg546)
Supergain conditions hold at very close spacings, and a very impressive gain can
be obtained, but at the expense of having a very low input resistance, (close
coupling with a negative image), making the antenna difficult to feed. The
supergain condition is also very narrowband.
A tradeoff distance has to be obtained which provides a decent gain and a decent
(feedable) input impedance.
A SuperNEC run of a 0.75 square plate and a /2 dipole shows gain versus
distance in figure 5.36, and the input impedance in figure 5.37.
Gain vs separation for a 0.75 by 0.75 plate

9
8.5
7.5
7
Gain (dBi)
6.5
5.5
4.5
4
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Separation (Wavelengths)
Figure 5.36: Gain vs separation for a 0.75 plate
Impedance vs separation for a 0.75 by 0.75 plate

120
Real part
Imag Part
100
Real and Imaginary impedance ()
80
60
40
20
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Separation (Wavelengths)
Figure 5.37: Impedance vs separation for a 0.75 plate

5.10 Corner Reflectors 91
5.10 Corner Reflectors
Kraus (1988, Pg549) first designed a corner reflector. They can come in many
shapes and sizes, but the most common form is where the corner is defined
as being 90 , and the reflector panels are simply made from vertical rods. At
some distance from the corner, symmetrically placed is a dipole driven element.
A SuperNEC run shows the structure in fig 5.38.
Figure 5.38: The SuperNEC rendition of a corner reflector.
After several iterations, my standard design is now simply a 90 corner with

each of the two panels being 0.7 0.7, with the dipole separation, s, from the
corner being 0.3.
The SuperNEC predicted xy-plane radiation pattern of such a reflector is
shown in fig 5.39
If the panels are made larger (1.2 1.2, say) the gain improves slightly, but
at the expense of the antenna being very large. I have not seen more than about
9dBi in a common corner reflector.
5.11 Parabolic Reflectors
The classic parabolic dish is shown in fig 5.40 on the next page(a). If the feed
is placed at the focal point of the parabola, all rays are reflected with the same
efective path length, and are hence in phase after leaving the parabola. It is
therefore possible to achieve a very high gain with a dish, limited mainly by the
constructional deformities of the actual parabola.

10 dBi
120 60
0
10
20
30
Structure: =90
180 0
240 300
Figure 5.39: SuperNEC predicted xy-plane radiation pattern of a corner re-

flector.
(a) (b) (c)
Figure 5.40: (a)Ordinary parabolic dish with feed blockage; (b) an offset feed;
(c) Cassegrain
The feed system for the parabola must illuminate the entire dish, but no more
than the dish, otherwise it results in spillover loss. The feed (and its supports)
obviously block some energy, resulting in a slight shadow behind the feed.
Most DSTV antennas A better idea is shown in fig 5.40(b), where the feed is offset. Simply put, the
use offset feeds. It shape still follows a parabola, and the rays are still in phase, but the feed is not
therefore appears that obscured.
they point very low on
the horizonbut stand Fig 5.40(c) shows a Cassegrain feed. The subreflector, which is not at the fo-
fig 5.40 so that the dish cal point of the parabola, is a hyperbola. The combination of hyperbola and
in (b) is almost vertical parabola ensures in-phase behaviour of the dish. Note that there is a blockage
and see where it points of the area behind the sub-reflector again, resulting in a lowered Aperture ef-
to! ficiency. The Cassegrain is mainly used in large dishes, as the feed system is
more readily accessible as compared to it being out on supports.
Although a parabolic reflector ensures that the phase of the wavefront is con-
stant, there is usually an amplitude taper associated with the wavefront. It is
5.11 Parabolic Reflectors 93
thus usually desirable to design the feed system to have the inverse taper, which
finally results in a uniform wavefront.
Appendix A
Smith Chart
The next page contains a smith chart. A postscript and Laserjet version can be
found at http://ytdp.ee.wits.ac.za/smith.html.
95
The Smith Chart Calculator
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RADIALLY SCALED PARAMETERS

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Tr
ORIGIN
References
ARRL (1988), The ARRL Antenna Book, 14th edn, The American Radio Relay
League.
Balanis, C. A. (1982), Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 2nd edn, John
Wiley & Sons.
Balanis, C. A. (1989), Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics, John Wiley &
Sons, New York.
Carrel, R. L. (1961), Analysis and Design of the Log periodic Dipole Antenna,
PhD thesis, Elec Eng Dept, University of Illinois, Ann Arbor, MI.
Carson, J. R. (1929), Reciprocal theorems in radio communication, Proceed-
ings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 17(6), 952956.
Clark, A. R. (2001), Smith chart downloads in various forms,
http://ytdp.ee.wits.ac.za/smith.html.
Gardiol, F. E. (1984), Introduction to Microwaves, Artech House, Inc, Dedham,
MA, USA.
Gupta, K. C., Garg, R. & Bahl, I. J. (1979), Microstrip lines and Slotlines,
Artech House, Inc, Dedham, MA, USA.
Hammerstad, E. O. (1975), Equations for microstrip circuit design, in Proc.
Fifth European Micrwave Conf., pp. 268272.
Isbell, D. E. (1960), Log periodic dipole arrays, IRE Trans. Antennas Prop-
agat. AP-8, 260267.
Johnson, R. C. & Jasik, H. (1984), Antenna Engineering Handbook, 2nd edn,
McGraw Hill.
King, H. E. & Wong, J. L. (1980), Characteristics of 1 to 8 wavelength uniform
helical antennas, IEEE Transactions on Antennas & Propagation AP-
7, 291.
King, R. W. P. & Harrison, C. W. (1969), Antennas and Waves - a Modern
Approach, MIT Press, Mass, chapter Appendix 4 - Tables of Impedance
and Admittance of Electrically Long Antennas - Theory of Wu, pp. 740
757.
Kraus, J. D. (1988), Antennas, second edn, McGraw-Hill.
Kraus, J. D. (1992), Electromagnetics, fourth edn, McGraw-Hill.
97
98 REFERENCES
Kraus, J. D. & Fleisch, D. A. (1999), Electromagnetics: with Applications, fifth

edn, WCB/McGraw-Hill.
Lawson, J. L. (1986), Yagi Antenna Design, The American Radio Relay League,
Newington, CT. Publication 72.
Lefferson, P. (1971), Twisted magnet wire transmission line, IEEE Transac-
tions on Parts, Hybrids and Packaging PHP-7(4), 148154.
Nitch, D. C. (2001), SuperNEC, 1.5 edn.
Peixeiro, C. (1988), Design of log-periodic antennas, IEE Proceedings, Part
H 135(2), 98102.
Schelkunoff, S. A. (1941), Theory of antennas of arbitary size and shape,
Proceedings of the IRE 29(September), 493521.
Sevick, J. (1990), Transmission line transformers, 2nd edn, American Radio
Relay League, Newington.
Smith, P. H. (1939), Transmission line calculator, Electronics 12, 29.
Viezbicke, P. P. (1976), Yagi antenna design, Tech. doc. NBS-TN-688, National
Bureau of Standards, Dept. of Commerce, Washington D.C.
Wadell, B. C. (1991), Transmission Line Design Handbook, Artech House, Inc.,
Norwood, MA, USA.
Yagi, H. (1928), Beam transmission of ultra short waves, IRE Proc. 16, 715
741.
Index
Aperture, 24, 70 medium, 11

Array transmission lines, 3
binomial, 59 coaxial line, 6
collinear, 64 microstrip line, 6
dipole, 64 one-wire line, 5
Franklin, 65 twisted pair, 5
isotropic, 57 two-wire line, 4
LPDA, see LPDA Circular polarization, 24
pattern multiplication, 58 Coaxial characteristic impedance, 6
series fed collinear, 65 Collinear dipole array, 64
theory, 57 series fed, 65
uniform, 60 Corner reflector, 89
broadside, 60 Corporate feed, 88
endfire, 61 Current moment, 44
Yagi-Uda, see Yagi-Uda array Curvature of earth, 13
Autotransformer, 34
Axial ratio, 24
dB, 19
Axial-mode helix, 80
vs. linear scale, 61
dBd, 49
Balun
Decibels, see dB
bazooka, 32
half-wave, 33 Depth of penetration, see Skin depth
sleeve, 32 Design
transmission line transformer, 33 LPDA, 75
Baluns, 30 Yagi-Uda, 69
Bandwidth Dipole
impedance, 50, 51 array, 64
vs Q, 46 folded, 50
Bazooka balun, 32 ground interaction, 52
Beam steering, 88 half wavelength, 48
Beamwidth ideal, 41
between first nulls (BWFN), 21 short, 44
half power(HPBW), 21 Directivity, 19
uniform array, 62 folded dipole, 51
Binomial array, 59 half wave dipole, 48
Broadside array, 60 ideal dipole, 43
quarter wave monopole, 49
Cassegrain parabolic, 91 short dipole, 46
Characteristic impedance short monopole, 47
free space, 11 Directivity estimation, 22
measuring, 7 Downtilt, 88
99
100 INDEX
Earth curvature, 13 Input impedance

Effect of mast on pattern, 67 folded dipole, 51
Effective aperture, 24 half wave dipole, 49
Efficiency, 19 quarter wave monopole, 49
Electrical downtilt, 88 short monopole, 47
Element correction, 69 small loop, 77
Elliptical polarization, 24 Interferometer, 63
Endfire array, 61 Inverse square law, 18
Equation Isotropic array, 57
free-space wavelength, 2, 10 Isotropic source, 18
power loss ito VSWR, 31
L-match, 34
Ferrite cores, 34 LC networks, 34
Fields Line of sight, 13
ideal dipole, 41 Linear polarization, 23
short dipole, 45 Linear vs. dB scale, 61
Flat reflector antennas, 89 Log periodic dipole array, see LPDA
Folded dipole, 50 Loop antenna, 76
Franklin array, 65 input impedance, 77
Free-space small, 76
characteristic impedance, 11 LPDA, 71
Ohms law, 12 design procedure, 75
permeability, 12 feeding, 75
permittivity, 12
Mast mounted dipoles, 67
speed of propagation, 12
Matching, 8, 30
wavelength, 2, 10
tuning coil, 46
Frequency independance, 71
Yagi-Uda, 69
Frequency scanning arrays, 89
Maximum power transfer, 8
Front-to-back ratio, 21
Measuring
characteristic impedance, 7
Gain, 19
gain, 49
bandwidth, 37
velocity factor, 8
estimation, 22
Medium, 3
isotropic, 18
Method of Moments, see SuperNEC
measuring, 49
Microstrip line characteristic impedance,
Half wavelength dipole, 48 6
Half-power beamwidth (HPBW), 21 Mutual impedance, 53
Half-wave balun, 33 Normal-mode helix, 78
Helix, 7882
axial-mode, 80 Offset feed parabolic, 91
King and Wong design, 81 Ohms law in free-space, 12
normal-mode, 78 One-wire line characteristic impedance,
original Kraus design, 81 5
Ideal dipole, 41 Parabolic reflector, 91

Impedance bandwidth, 37 Patch antennas, 8284
folded dipole, 51 Pattern multiplication, 58
half wave dipole, 50 Permeability of free space, 12
helix, 82 Permittivity of free space, 12
INDEX 101
Polarization, 2324 Steradians, 22

axial ratio, 24 Stub matching, 35
circular, 24 SuperNEC, 20, 22, 48, 61, 64, 67,
elliptical, 24 84, 90
horizontal, 23 Surge impedance, see Characteris-
linear, 23 tic impedance
loss, 23
vertical, 23 Table
frequency allocations & desig-
Q, 46 nations, 10
Quarter wave transformer, 7, 34 microwave bands, 11
skin depths, 16
Radiation pattern, 20 typical spectrum usage, 11
backlobe, 20 Yagi-Uda array design, 69
effect of mast on, 67 Transmission line
half wave dipole, 48 additional loss ito VSWR, 31
principle planes, 20 behaviour, 1
sidelobes, 20 characteristic impedance, 3
small loop, 77 equation, 7
Radiation resistance transformer balun, 33
ideal dipole, 43 Tuning coil, 46
short dipole, 45 Twisted pair characteristic impedance,
short monopole, 47 5
Radio horizon, 13 Two-wire line characteristic impedance,
Reactance 4
short dipole, 45
Reflection coefficient, 8 Uniform array, 60
Rule of thumb beamwidth, 62
coupling separation, 55
Velocity factor, 7, 12
transmission line behaviour, 1
measuring, 8
Yagi gain vs boomlength, 68
plastics, 12
Series connected coax, 35 Velocity of propagation, see Speed
Series fed collinear, 65 of propagation
VSWR, 8, 10
Short dipole, 44
Short monopole, 47 Waveguide, 3
Skin depth, 16 Wavelength
Sleeve balun, 32 in free-space, 2, 10
Small loop, 76
Smith chart, 9 Yagi-Uda
download, 9 matching, 69
Solid angle, 22 stacking, 70
Speed of propagation Yagi-Uda array, 67
free-space, 12 design, 69
medium, 12
sound, 12 Z0 , see Characteristic impedance
transmission line, 4
Spherical coordinate system, 17
Square degrees, 22
Stacking, 70

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Antennas in Practice

EM fundamentals and antenna selection

Alan Robert Clark

Version 1.4, December 23, 2002

Titles in this series:

Copyright c 2001 by Alan Robert Clark and

3.1.2 Balanced and unbalanced linesa definition . . . . . . . . 30

4 Simple Linear Antennas 41

5 Arrays and Reflector Antennas 57

5.3.2 Impedance and matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

1.1 A transmission line connects a generator to a load. . . . . . . . . 1

2.1 Standard coordinate system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.1 The reason for unbalanced currents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3.15 Impedance bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

4.1 The Ideal Dipole in Relation to the Coordinate System . . . . . . 42

5.1 Two Isotropic point sources, separated by d . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5.24 The normal-mode helix antenna and its radiation pattern . . . . 79

This book Antennas in Practice has been in existence in a multitude of forms

1.1 Transmission line theory

T RANSMISSION lines connect generators to loads as shown in fig 1.1. In

Generator Transmission Line Load

Figure 1.1: A transmission line connects a generator to a load.

Figure 1.2: 2-wire; Coax; strip; waveguide; fibre; RF; 50Hz!

Transmission line theory is thus a superset of classical circuit theory. In this

text we assume a Uniform transmission line, ie one whose properties do not

A resistance resists current flow. An impedance impedes current flow. ie They

where X = jL or X = 1/(jC); being the radian frequency: = 2f (f in It is important to note

A transmission line can be viewed simply as a waveguide. It simply provides the

The concept of characteristic impedance has nothing to do with loss, but it

Typical values of Z0 range from 200 to 800.

One conductor over ground plane

One conductor at a height, h, above a (theoretically) infinite groundplane looks

Figure 1.4: Twisted-Pair geometry

where: is normally between 20

For w/h > 1:

A slotline has no groundplane, but uses adjacent tracks as the transmission

1.1.3 Impedance transformation

line. Under sinusoidal, steady state conditions a transmission line transforms

where the velocity factor, VF = 1 and is quoted by the manufacturers.

Some important simplifications of the Transmission line equation are:

1.1.4 Standing Waves, Impedance Matching and Power

1.2 The Smith Chart

0.19+j0 0.6 5.3

Figure 1.5: Impedance values plotted on the Smith Chart

1.3 Field Theory

1.3.1 Frequency and wavelength

As seen previously, the wavelength in free-space is given as

Achievable frequencies are limited by electronics (for oscillators)

1.3.2 Characteristic impedance & Velocity of propagation

where 0 and 0 refer to the electric permittivty and magnetic permeability of

1.3.3 EM waves in free space

An EM wave travels in free-space and in most transmission lines as a Transverse

Figure 1.6: Electromagnetic Wave in free-space

Figure 1.7: Radio Horizon due to earth curvature.

The classic means of long distance communication is by means of reflecting

1.3.4 Reflection from the Earths Surface

S2 Path Difference = 2h sin ReflRay

It is clear that if S1 is an isotropic source and would normally radiate equally

Application of this formula to the particular value of h/ = 1.44 results in the

In cases where radiation at some angle is required this reflection results in an

Figure 1.9: Interference pattern field strength contours for h/ = 1.44

1.3.5 EM waves in a conductor

If we solve Maxwells equations for EM wave propagation in a conductor, we