HANDOUTS ON ANTENNAS AND GUIDED WAVES- PART 1

PREPARED BY Assistant professor Joyce George

Abstract:-In the wave propagation so far discussed, In rectangular coordinates for the non-conducting
only uniform plane waves, remote from any guiding
region above equations will become
surfaces, have been considered. In many actual cases,
propagation is by means of guided waves, that is,
waves that are guided along or over conducting or
dielectric surfaces. Common examples of guided
electromagnetic waves are the waves along• ordinary
parallel-wire and coaxial transmission lines, waves in
wave guides, and waves that are guided along the
earth's surface from a radio transmitter to the receiving
point. The study of such guided waves will now be
undertaken.

I. WAVES BETWEEN PARALLEL

PLANES

An electromagnetic wave, propagating between

a pair of parallel perfectly conducting planes
of infinite extent in the y and z directions. In
order to determine the electromagnetic field It will be assumed that propagation is in the z
configurations in the region between the planes, direction, and that the variation of all field
Maxwell's equations will be solved subject to components in this direction may be expressed in
the appropriate boundary conditions. Because the form e-ϒz, where in general
perfectly conducting planes have been assumed,

is a complex propagation constant. whose

value is to be determined. This is a quite
reasonable assumption because it is easy to
show that for any uniform transmission line or
guide the fields must obey an exponential
law along the line. When the time variation
factor is combined with the z variation
factor, it is seen that the combination
these boundary conditions are very simple.
Being

E tangential=0, H normal=0
represents a wave propagating in the z
direction. If Ƴ happens to be an imaginary
In general Maxwell’s curl equations and wave number, that is if a = 0, expression
represents a wave without attenuation. On the
equations are
other hand, if Ƴ is real so that β= 0, there
is no wave motion but only an exponential
decrease in amplitude.

Since the space between the planes is

infinite in extent in the y direction, there are
no boundary conditions to be met in this
direction, and it can be assumed that the
field is uniform or constant in the y direction.
This means that the derivatives with respect to
y can be put equal to zero. In the x
direction however, there are certain boundary
conditions which must be met. Therefore it is
not possible to specify arbitrarily what the
distribution of fields in this direction will be.
This answer must come out of the solution of
the differential equations when the boundary
conditions are applied.
When the variation in the z direction of each of
the field components is shown explicitly by
writing, for example,
It is seen immediately that
with similar results for the z derivatives of
the other components. Making use of this
result and remembering that the y derivative
of any component is zero.
it should be remembered that each of these
equations is really three equations, one for
each of the components of E or H. Equations
can be solved simultaneously to yield the
following equations
In eqs. the various components of electric
and magnetic field strengths are expressed in
terms of E, and Hz, With the exception of
one possibility, to be discussed later, it will be
observed that there must be a z component
of either E or H; otherwise all the components
would be zero and there would be no fields at
all in the region considered. Although in the
general case both E, and Hz could be
present at the same time, it is convenient and
desirable to divide the solutions into two sets.
In the first of these, there is a component of
E in the direction of propagation , but no
component of H in this direction. Such waves
are called E waves, or more commonly, transverse
magnetic (TM) waves, because the magnetic
field strength H is entirely transverse. The
second set of solutions has a component of H
in the direction of propagation, but no E,
component. Such waves are called H waves or
transverse electric (TE) waves. The solutions
to eqs. for these two cases will now be
obtained. Since the differential equations are
linear, the sum of these two sets of solutions
yields the most general solution
II. TRANSVERSE ELECTRIC
WAVES (Ez=0).
Inspection of eqs.
shows that when Ez= 0, but Hz does not equal
zero, the field components Hy and Ex will
also equal zero, whereas, in general, there will
be nonzero values for the components Hx and
Ey Since each of the field components obeys
the wave equation as given by eqs the wave
equation can be written for the component Ey
This can be written as
Recalling that
Equation is the differential equation of simple
harmonic motion. Its solution can be written in
the form
Applying boundary conditions
Application of the second boundary condition
imposes a restriction on h. In order for Ev to
be zero at x = a for all values of z and t it is
necessary that
The other components of E and H can be
obtained by inserting eqs. When this is done,
it is seen that the expression for the field
strengths for transverse electric waves between
parallel planes are
III. TRANSVERSE MAGNETIC
WAVES
The case of transverse magnetic waves between
parallel planes can be solved in a manner
similar to that used for TE waves. In this
instance Hz will be zero, and inspection of eqs.
shows that Hx and Ev will also be zero,
while in general, Ex, Ez, and Hv will have
value. Solving the wave equation for Hv,
gives as before
The boundary conditions cannot be
applied directly to Hy to evaluatethe
constants C3 and C4 because in general
the tangential componentof H -is not zero
at the surface of a conductor. However
from eqs. the expressions for Ez can be
obtained in terms of Hy, and then the
boundary conditions applied to E; From
eqs.
Applying boundary conditions
TM Wave for parallel conducting plates
Examination of eqs. for TE waves and eqs.
for TM waves shows that for each of the
components of E or H there is a sinusoidal
or cosinusoidal standing-wave distribution across
the guide in the x direction. That is, each of
these components varies in magnitude, but not
in phase, in the x direction. In the y
direction, by assumption, there is no variation of
either magnitude or phase of any of the field
components. Thus any x-y plane is an
equiphase plane for each of the field
components (that is, any particular component,

Ey for example, reaches its maximum value in

time at the same instant for all points on the
plane). Also these equiphase surfaces
progress along the guide in the z direction
with a velocity v = ω/β, where β, is the phase-
shift constant, is the imaginary part of the
propagation constant ϒ. Now from eqns, ϒ
can be expressed in terms of hand frequency
and the constants of the medium by

Inserting the restrictions on h imposed by eq.

this becomes

Inspection of eq. shows that at frequencies

sufficiently high so

that , the quantity under the

radical will be negative and ϒ will be a pure
imaginary equal to jβ, where

IV. CHARACTERISTICS OF TE AND

TM WAVES

The transverse electric and transverse magnetic Under these conditions the fields will progress
waves between parallel conducting planes in the z direction as waves, and the
exhibit some interesting and rather surprising attenuation of these waves will be zero (for
properties that seem quite different from those perfectly conducting planes).
of uniform plane waves in free space.
As the frequency is decreased, a critical
These properties can be studied by investigating
frequency fc will be reached at which
the propagation constant ᵞ for these waves.
Cutoff frequency
The frequency fc, at which wave motion ceases,
is called the cut-off frequency of the guide.
For this special case of transverse magnetic
waves the component of E in the direction of
propagation, that is Ez, is also zero so that the
electromagnetic field is entirely transverse.
Consistent with previous notation this wave is
called the transverse electromagnetic (TEM)
wave.

. The distance required for the phase to shift

through 2π radians is a wavelength

Also the wave or phase velocity is given by

the wavelength times the frequency

V. TRANSVERSE
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES

For transverse electric (TE) waves between

the parallel planes, it was seen that the
lowest value of m that could be used
without making all the field components
zero was m = 1. That is, the lowest-order TE
wave is the TE10 wave. For transverse
magnetic (TM) waves however, a value of m
equal to zero does not necessarily require that
all the fields be zero.

m = 0 in eqs. leaves