CHAPTER 3 Practical Antenna Systems

In this chapter, some important antenna systems which are commonly used at vhf, uhf and microwave frequencies, are briefly described. They include yagi-uda array, parabolic reflectors, horn antennas, rhombic antennas and log-periodic arrays etc.. The radiated fields are not derived rigorously, instead the results are used to describe various factors. First of all, properties of yagi-uda array are discussed.

3.1 Yagi-Uda antenna

Yagi-uda antennas are very widely used as general purpose antenna at vhf and uhf. They are cheap and simple to construct, have reasonable bandwidth and provides gains of upto 17 dBi or more. The basic antenna consists of one driven element ( Folded dipole ) and a number of parasitic elements ( simple dipoles ). the parasitic element which is greater in length than the driven element is known as reflector and the elements smaller in length than the driven element are known as directors. a typical yagi-uda array is an end fire array with one driven element fed by a 300 ohm 2-wire transmission line, a reflector and 4 directors, as shown in Fig.1. The antenna provides a gain of about 12 dBi with a band width at half power of 10 % . By adjusting lengths and spacing, the dimensions can be optimized producing an increase in gain. The inherently narrow bandwidth of the yagiuda antenna can be broadened by lengthening the reflector to improve operation at low frequencies and shortening the directors to improve high frequency operation.

Fig.1

Fig.2 Arrays of this kind were first described by Shintaro Uda, a professor at Tohoku University (Japan) in 1926. Later in 1928, his senior colleague Hidetsugu Yagi, also a professor at the same university, presented the same work in English. Hence this type of array was given the name of Yagi-Uda array. Yagi-Uda antenna provides unidirectional beams with moderately low side and rear lobes. The action of a reflector and director is rather complex. Briefly it can be described as follows. As the electromagnetic wave is incident from the director side, it induces emf in all the elements. Due to flow of currents, these elements then reradiate energy. If the lengths and spacing of the elements are properly chosen, the reradiated energy arrives at the driven element with such a phase that it aids the signals arriving from the director side and opposes the signals coming from the reflector side. In this way, unidirectional pattern is obtained. The following points should be kept in mind when a Yagi-Uda antenna is designed. (1) The radiation pattern of a Yagi-Uda antenna is almost independent of the length of its driven element. Thus the length and the construction of the driven element are determined only by the impedance characteristics. (2) For the radiation patterns, close spacing will result in a higher front to back ratio with a broader main beam. Wider spacing gives a sharper beam but larger minor lobes are produced and their number also increases. This is particularly true for the spacing of director next to the driven element. (3) In order to allow for manufacturing tolerances and for the effect of rain or snow on the antenna, it is preferable to choose directors slightly shorter and reflectors slightly longer than the optimum values.

(4) Since a large yagi-uda antenna has too many parameters to be optimized, it is simpler to design two stacked yagis, each with few elements, rather than a single yagi of many elements. The folded dipole antenna is used as the driven element due to its higher input impedance. A simple half wave dipole has an input impedance of about 70 ohms. An ordinary 2-wire line has characteristic impedance of 300 - 600 ohms. The input impedance of folded dipole is about four times the input impedance of a /2 dipole, so that it can be directly connected to a 2-wire line. Two types of folded dipoles are shown in Fig.2. The one at (b) is a 3 wire type and its terminal resistance is about 9 times that of a /2 dipole ( 9x70 = 630 ohm ).

Fig.3 For the vhf channels, Yagi's with more than 10 elements are rarely used because of their bulky construction and decrease in gain per element. The number of reflectors is invariably limited to one, because an additional reflector does not improve the performance significantly. However, the use of double reflector rods stacked vertically or a reflector screen as shown in Fig.3, can improve the gain and band width.

3.2 Parabolic Reflector

At microwave frequencies, the parabolic reflectors or microwave dish is perhaps the most useful and widely used antenna for communication purposes. The majority of satellite communication links, the microwave links and radar systems use the parabolic reflectors. Some typical forms of parabolic antennas are shown in Fig.4. The parabola has the property that all the points on the curve are equidistant from a point ( focus ) and a line ( directrix ). If a source of radiation is placed at the focus, all the

waves are reflected from the surface parallel to the axis. As a result, radiation is very strong and concentrated along the axis.

Fig.4 Some forms of parabolic reflectors

Fig.5 Feed arrangements Figure 5 shows some typical parabolic reflectors with their feed arrangements. The primary antenna is placed at the focus of the paraboloid for best results in transmission or reception. In Fig.5(a), horn antenna pointing at the main reflector is shown. The horn radiates towards the reflector only and in this way direct radiation from the feed, cannot spoil the directivity of the parabolic reflector. However, the feed antenna obstruct a certain amount of reflection from the paraboloid, but this obstruction is as small as 1 % of the total area. Another feed method is offset feed arrangement for cut-paraboloids, as shown in Fig.5(b). Here horn-feed antenna is placed at the focus which is outside the aperture. The path of reflected waves is not obstructed by the feed antenna.

The cassegrain feed as shown in Fig.5(c), uses a hyperboloid reflector whose focus coincides with the focus of paraboloid. the waves radiated from the feed horn are first reflected from the hyperboloid mirror, which after reflection from the paraboloid become parallel. The directional characteristics of a parabolic reflector can be studied using the following expression for the normalized field E(m) as a function of and D ( mouth diameter ).
J 1 ( DSin / ) DSin /

E() = 2

The radiation from a paraboloidal antenna is therefore maximum in the axial direction ( = 0 ). The angle o of the first null of the radiation pattern corresponds to J1 ( DSino/ ) = 0 From the Table of Bessel function, we find that J1(3.83) = 0, so DSino/ = 3.83 Thus o = Sin-1 (3.83/D) = Sin-1 (1.22/D) For large values of D/, o can be approximated to o = 1.22 /D = 69.9 /D rad degrees

The beamwidth between the two nulls being 2o, we obtain BWFN = 139.8 /D degrees

In deriving the above results, we have assumed uniform illumination of the aperture of the paraboloidal reflector which is difficult to obtain in practice. The power gain of a circular aperture over a half wave dipole antenna is

Ap = 6 (D/)2 and the beamwidth between half power points is HPBW = 58 /D degrees

At microwave frequencies where D/ may be as high as 50 - 100, half power beamwidth as small as only 1o or 2o may be obtained. ............................................... Example 1 Calculate the beamwidth between first nulls and gain of a 2m paraboloid reflector used at 6 GHz.

Solution BWFN = 139.8 /D degrees = c/f = 1/20 m BWFN = 3.5o Ap = 6 (D/)2 = 6 ( 2 x 20 )2 = 9600 .................................................. Example 2 Design a parabolic antenna for an antenna gain of 6000 at a frequency of 6 GHz. Calculate the beamwidth between half-power points in the vertical and horizontal planes of this antenna. Assuming a 90 % antenna efficiency, calculate the power received if the incoming signals have a power density of 1 W/m2 . Solution

Here Using we obtain D

Ap = 6000, and = c/f = 1/20 m Ap = 6 (D/)2 D = 158.1 cm.

Half-Power beamwidth = 58 /D degrees = 1.84o Incident power density = 1.86 W. ..................................................... Pi = 1W/m2 Power received = Effective Aperture x Pi

Problem A 64 m diameter parabolic reflector fed by an isotropic antenna is used at 1.43 GHz. Calculate its beamwidth between half power points and between first nulls, and the power gain with respect to a half wave dipole. Assume uniform illumination. Ans [ 0.23o , 0.46o , 558,000 ] ....................................

3.3 Horn Antenna

At microwave frequencies, an open ended waveguide act as an antenna. However the gain of such an antenna is not very large. If the dimensions of a waveguide are gradually increased at the open ends, an electromagnetic horn will result. This type of structure has better matching to the free space and so directivity will be improved. Several types of horn antennas are shown in Fig.6

Fig.6 Commonly used Horn types The axial length of the transition from the throat to the radiating aperture is generally on the order of 5 - 15 . The source of radiation is the electromagnetic field existing across the mouth of the horn. The rectangular horns with a flare in only one dimension, are called sectoral horns. For the H-plane sectoral horn ( Fig.6(b) ), the dimensions are flared in the plane of the magnetic field while for the E-plane horn, the dimensions are gradually increased in the plane of electric field. By flaring the waveguide in both the H-plane and E-plane, a pyramidal horn, shown in Fig.6(d) is obtained. This horn is frequently used as a standard horn of known gain, in the gain measurements of other antennas. Small pyramidal horns are also used as feed horns for paraboloidal reflectors. The radiation characteristics of some commonly used electromagnetic horns are summarized in Table 1. Some typical E and H-plane radiation patterns of rectangular horns are shown in Fig.7 where flare angles o and o are as indicated in Fig.6(b) and (c). The sectoral H-plane horns are more popular than the sectoral E-plane horns because of the relative absence of secondary lobes of radiation. The pyramidal horn and conical horn give pencil like beams that have very high directivity in both vertical and horizontal planes. The sectoral horns of Fig.5(b) and (c) give a fan shaped beam. Table 1 Radiation characteristics of some commonly used horns Type of horn Property that is Optimum optimized property Half-Power beamwidth degrees in

Pyramidal

Gain

A=

3L

53/A 80/A

0.5x4AB/2

B = 0.81A Sectoral plane Sectoral plane Conical H- Beamwidth H-plane E- Beamwidth gain = 15.3L/ in A = 3L in B =
2 L

51/A 80/A 53/B 68/A

0.63x4AB/2 0.65x4AB/2

E-plane Gain 60/D 70/D 0.522D2/2 D = 2 .8 L L is the length of the horn from the throat to the aperture.

Fig.7 Measured E-plane and H-plane patterns of rectangular horns as a function of flare angle o and o and horn length R.

3.4 Rhombic Antenna

Rhombic antennas are so named because of their shape. They are mainly used for point to point communication links. The rhombic is a large traveling wave antenna which is terminated at its far end by a resistive load , as shown in Fig.8. It consists of four straight wires arranged in the form of a rhombus, suspended horizontally above the earth.

Fig.8 Rhombic antenna 9

When the leg lengths , tilt angle and termination are properly chosen, then the main radiation lobe will be unidirectional along the axis of rhombus as shown in the figure. The relative gain of a typical well-designed rhombic antenna, compared with a reference half wave dipole, is 10 - 15 dB. The rhombic antenna has the advantage of high gain, unidirectional pattern, wideband operation and relative simplicity in installation and adjustment. The main disadvantages are the large amount of space required for installation and the fixed horizontal plane of maximum radiation. Moreover considerable power is lost in the terminating resistance resulting in decrease in its power gain.

3.5 Log-Periodic Antennas

The log-periodic antenna is an example of a frequency-independent antenna and the one using dipoles, is shown in Fig.9. It is seen that there is repetitiveness in the physical structure which results in a repetitive behavior of the electrical characteristics. The lengths of the dipoles and their separations are increasing in a fixed ratio.
l n +1 S = n +1 ln Sn

r=

It is seen that the two lines drawn to join the opposite ends of the dipoles will be straight and convergent, forming an apex angle . The cutoff frequencies are approximately those at which the shortest and longest dipoles have a length of /2. The array takes the name of log-periodic array because its input impedance is a periodic function of the logarithm of the frequency over which the array operates. The input impedance is a function of the length-to-diameter ratio of the dipole; Zin = 120 [ ln (/2d) 2.55] Where d is the rod diameter. The gain SWR, beamwidth and front-to-back ratio all remain fairly constant over a wide frequency range. The input signal is applied to the shortest dipole. A current is induced in this element, which then couples energy to the second element through radiation. The conducted current arrives at the second dipole later in time than the current to the first dipole. Because of the cross-feed arrangement, the phase delay caused by the spacing and the separate phase delay caused by the coupled energy between elements will result in a 10

signal radiation from the small end of the array only. Different spacing between elements could be selected to make the antenna radiate from both ends, similar to the end fire antenna. The log-periodic antenna is capable of operating over a 4 : 1 frequency ratio. The longest element length is determined as 95% of one-half wavelength at the lowest frequency in the operating band. The shortest dipole is 95% of one-half wavelength at the highest frequency. The length and spacing ratios are determined from the chart shown in Fig.10.

Fig.10 This figure is the graph of equal-gain contours for the log-periodic dipole array (LPDA) with a line showing optimal design conditions. On the basis of desired gain, values of g and r are found from the figure. The angle is calculated from g and r as follows. = Tan-1 [(1 - r)/4g] The location of the dipole x1 from the apex of the triangle is given by x1 = The applications of the log-periodic antenna lie mainly in the field of high-frequency communications. It has advantage over the rhombic in that there is no terminating resistor to absorb power. Antennas of this type have also been designed for use in television reception, with one antenna for all channels including the UHF range. Example Design a log-periodic antenna that has to cover the frequency range of 200 MHz to 600 MHz and has to provide a gain of 10 dB. Solution The length of longest element (L1 ) is

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3x10 8 (0.95 ) = 71 .25 cm 2 x 200 x10 6

The length of the shortest element is

3x10 8 (0.95 ) = 23 .75 cm 2 x 600 x10 6

From the 10 dB curve in Fig.10, a scale factor r of 0.92 is selected, resulting in a spacing factor (g) of 0.158. The space S1 between the longest element and the second element is S1 = 2gL1 = (2)(0.158)(71.25) = 22.515 cm The other spaces are found to be S2 = rS1 = (0.92)(22.515) = 20.714 cm S3 = 0.92S2 = 19.057 cm S4 = 0.92S3 = 17.532 cm . . . S13 = 0.92S12 = 8.278 cm S14 = 0.92S13 = 7.615 cm The lengths are found to be : L1 = 71.25 cm L2 = 0.92L1 = 65.55 cm . . . L13 = 0.92L12 = 26.19 cm L14 = 0.92L13 = 24.10 cm L14 is close enough to 23.75 cm, so that further calculation is stopped. The antenna has 14 elements and it is 71.25 cm wide and 1.86 m long. Its structure is sketched below.

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Fig.11 Problem Design a log-periodic dipole array with 7 dBi and a 4 to 1 bandwidth. Specify apex angle , scale factor and the number of elements. Use minimum frequency of 100 MHz.

3.5 Practical Considerations Top Loading

At low and medium frequencies, where wavelengths are large, the vertical antennas used are too short electrically. The actual antenna height should be at least a quarterwavelength for efficient operation. For example the input impedance at the base of a /8 Marconi antenna is only about (8 j500) ohms. It has low efficiency due to small value of radiation resistance. Moreover, because of large capacitive component, matching to the feeder transmission line is difficult. This second problem can be partly solved by placing inductance in series with the antenna but this does not increase the resistive component. A good method of increasing radiation resistance is to have a horizontal portion at the top of the antenna. This process is known as top loading. By top loading, the current at the base of the antenna is increased and current distribution becomes more uniform as shown in Fig.12.

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Fig.12 Top Loading Top loading may take the form of a single horizontal piece, resulting in inverted-L and T antennas. It may also take the form of a top hat which has the effect of adding capacitance in series with the antenna and thus total capacitive reactance is reduced. The radiation pattern is not changed much and the antenna, though small horizontal portion is introduced, can be still considered as a vertically polarized radiator.

Optimum Length
At VLF and LF, the energy is propagated along the surface of the earth in the form of ground wave. From the radiation patterns of dipole antennas of various lengths, we see that an antenna whose height is a wavelength is useless for ground-wave propagation. If we plot all heights of the antenna, we can find that the horizontal field strength increases with height upto about 5/8 . Unfortunately, when height of the antenna is increased above /2, other lobes are formed. The presence of side lobes may produce sky-wave interference that may be harmful in certain cases. So an optimum height between too short and a full wavelength should be chosen. Usually, the antenna height of vertical radiators should not exceed 0.53 for undisturbed ground-wave propagation.

Earth Mat
The earth has generally been assumed to be a perfect conductor but it often falls short of this assumption. Usually, the best grounding is achieved by placing a network of buried wires directly under the antenna. The network consists of a large number of radials extending from the base of the tower and placed between 15 and 30 cm below the ground. Each radial wire has a length which should be at least /4 and preferably /2. Upto 120 such wires may be used for good results and the whole assembly is then known as an Earth Mat. A conductor joining the radials at a distance of about half the radial length, is often employed. In addition, the far end of each radial is grounded deeply into the subsoil. In rocky areas or with the antennas on top of tall buildings, the counterpoise, another form of earth mat, is used. It also consists of radial wires supported above ground by low loss dielectric material.

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Antenna Couplers
Antenna couplers or the coupling networks are usually required to connect the antenna with the transmitter circuitry. They consist of reactances and transformers which may be lumped or distributed. They have to provide impedance matching. The reactive component of the antenna impedance should be tuned out and resistive component be adjusted with the help of transformer. The transmitter may be directly coupled to the antenna or it may be coupled through a transmission line. The coupling networks for directly fed antennas are shown in Fig.13.

Fig.13 Antenna coupling (a) Direct coupler (b) coupler The coupling with a transmission line is also similar. Here balance lines are used as shown in Fig.14.

Fig.14

Selection of Feed Point

The point at which a particular antenna is fed is determined by several considerations, of which perhaps the most important is the antenna impedance. When an antenna has an effective length that is multiple of half-wavelength, then the impedance is purely 15

resistive at the centre. This impedance is low for a half-wave dipole as its voltage node (minimum) lies at the centre. Since at the feed point, current is maximum, so this antenna is said to be current-fed. However, centre-fed full-wave antenna, has voltage maximum at the centre, so it is said to be voltage-fed. Both the voltage-feeding and current-feeding lose their meaning if an antenna is fed at some intermediate point. More appropriate names are low-impedance feed (below 600 ohms) and high-impedance feed (above 600 ohms). For grounded quarter-wave Marconi antenna, we have 36 ohms purely resistive at the center. Although the antenna is placed vertically on the ground but in fact it is insulated from the ground electrically. The base of the antenna stands on an insulator close to the ground and is fed between the base and ground.

. Compiled by Prof. Umar Farooq Department of Electrical Engineering, UET Taxila.

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