A Reference Antenna Method for Non-resonant

Electrically Short Monopole Antennas

Masanori Ishii and Yozo Shimada
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, National Metrology Institute of Japan,
Radio-Frequency and Fields Section, Electromagnetic Waves Division
AIST Tsukuba Central 3, 1-1-1, Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8563, Japan
masanori-ishii@aist.go.jp
AbstractIn order to measure the electric field strength in
low-frequency bands, monopole antennas are generally used.
When carrying out EMI measurements, the antenna factor is an
important and well-known characteristic. Generally, absolute
calibration methods are commonly used for monopole antenna
calibrations. However, establishing and keeping the traceability
to standard quantities in absolute calibration methods are time
consuming. In this paper, a new reference antenna method for
non-resonant electrically short monopole antennas is proposed
and investigated through a numerical simulation. Since the
target frequency band is less than 30 MHz, the monopole
antennas work as electrically short monopole antennas. The
measurements are performed under the near-field condition. The
results show that the proposed reference antenna method is
available and effective in obtaining the antenna factor of a non-
resonant electrically short monopole antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the fields of electromagnetic interference and
electromagnetic compatibility, it is important to accurately
measure the electric field strength originating from electric
devices; to achieve this, the antenna factor of a receiving
antenna must be estimated accurately. In this paper, we
discuss a calibration method for monopole antennas in low-
frequency bands.
Thus far, various methods have been proposed and
investigated for measuring the antenna factor of a monopole
antenna. These include the standard field method [1],
equivalent capacitance substitution method [2], three-antenna
method [3], etc. However, these methods are usually not
simple calibration methods and cannot be traceable to the
standard of the antenna factor because they are absolute
calibration methods. Therefore, antenna calibration
laboratories or companies must make efforts to maintain
complicated calibration systems and establish the traceability
to the standards.
On the other hand, it is expected that reference calibration
methods are developed because they can establish traceability
to the standard of the antenna factor. The reference antenna
method [4] is well known as one of the reference calibration
methods for antenna calibration. The conventional reference
calibration method is used for the calibration of dipole
antennas, bi-conical antennas, horn antennas, etc. However,
no reference antenna method has been developed for the
calibration of electrically short monopole antennas. An
ordinary monopole antenna acts as a non-resonant electrically
small antenna in the low-frequency range below 30 MHz.
Therefore, measurements shall be performed under the near-
field condition. The conventional reference antenna method is
sometimes inadequate for the calibration of non-resonant
electrically short monopole antennas when the antenna lengths
or the antenna distances are different. In this paper, we
propose a new reference antenna method for monopole
antennas. We validate the proposed method through a
simulation.
II. DEFINITION OF ANTENNA FACTOR
An electric-wave receiving system with a monopole
antenna is considered, as shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a
monopole element, a coupling circuit, a transmission line, and
a matched load to the line impedance. The antenna factor of a
monopole antenna is defined as the ratio of an incident plane
electric field to the corresponding output voltage across the
matched load [5]. The antenna factor naturally depends on the
frequency. Then, the antenna factor, AF , is expressed as
( )
( )
( )
0
E f
AF f
V f
= , (1)
where E is the electric field of the electromagnetic plane
wave incident on the antenna element and
0
V is the output
voltage across the matched load. In this way, the antenna
factor is defined in the far-field condition.
) (
0
f V ) (
0
f V
) ( f E ) ( f E
0
Z
0
Z
Plane Wave
Electric Field
Monopole Antenna System
Transmission Line
Output Voltage
L
Z
L
Z
:
0
Z :
0
Z Line impedance
: f : f Frequency
:
L
Z :
L
Z Load impedance
Infinite Grand Plane
Fig. 1. Definition of antenna factor of monopole antenna.
978-1-4244-6307-7/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE 56
III. CONVENTIONAL REFERENCE ANTENNA METHOD
The conventional reference antenna method [4] is widely
used in antenna calibrations. The antenna factor,
A
AF
, of an
antenna under test (AUT) is expressed as
ST
A S
AT
S
AF AF
S
= , (2)
where
S
AF
is the antenna factor of the standard antenna;
ST
S
,
the transmission S-parameter between the standard and the
transmitting antenna; and
AT
S
, the transmission S-parameter
between the AUT and the transmitting antenna. In (2), it is
assumed that the reflection coefficients at the generator and
receiver port are zero. Fig. 2 shows a schematic view of the
conventional reference antenna method.
#T
#T
#S
#A
ST
S
ST
S
AT
S
AT
S
Reference antenna
(Standard antenna)
AUT
Replace
Transmit antenna
Transmit antenna
T
l
T
l
S
l
S
l
A
l
A
l
T
l
T
l
Fig. 2. Schematic view of antenna factor calibration by reference antenna
method.
In frequency bands lower than 30 MHz, monopole antennas
work as non-resonant electrically short antennas because the
wavelengths are at least 10 m. Therefore, the lengths of
monopole antenna elements vary and are sometimes different.
It is not adequate to apply (2) to calibrations of monopole
antennas with different lengths. To cope with this problem, we
must add a correction factor to (2).
IV. RESULT BY CONVENTIONAL REFERENCE ANTENNA METHOD
In the far-field condition, it is clear that the conventional
reference antenna method is effective in monopole antenna
calibration. However, in the low-frequency bands of less than
30 MHz, a monopole antenna is a non-resonant electrically
very short antenna. This means that the lengths of these
monopole antennas can vary. Except for active monopole
antennas, the sensitivities are also very low when we measure
transmission S-parameters between monopole antennas. Thus,
it is necessary to measure the transmission S-parameters at the
short distance of approximately 1.5 m. In such a near-field
condition, it is unclear whether the conventional method can
be applied to the calibration of non-resonant electrically very
short monopole antennas.
#T #S
ST
S
ST
S
#T
#A
AT
S
AT
S
#T #A
AT
S
AT
S
#T
#A
AT
S
AT
S
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
S
l
S
l
A
l
A
l
A
l
A
l
A
l
A
l
Replace
or
or
Reference antenna
(Standard antenna)
Transmit antenna
Transmit antenna
Transmit antenna
Transmit antenna
AUT
AUT
AUT
T A
l l <
T A
l l <
T A
l l =
T A
l l =
T A
l l >
T A
l l >
1.5 m
1.5 m
1.5 m
1.5 m
Fig. 3. Schematic view of reference antenna method in numerical simulation
where different or same lengths of reference antenna and AUT.
In this section, we try to apply the conventional reference
antenna method to electrically very short monopole antennas
with various lengths in a numerical simulation. The numerical
simulation is performed by the moment method. In Fig. 3,
T
l
denotes the length of the transmitting monopole antenna (#T);
S
l
, the length of the reference (standard) monopole antenna
(#S);
A
l
, the length of AUT (#A); and
ST
S
and
AT
S
are the
transmission S-parameters between monopole antenna pairs.
In this simulation, the distances between antenna pairs are 1.5
m and it is assumed that the size of the ground plane is infinite.
T
l
and
S
l
are 1 m.
A
l
is 1 m, 1.15 m, or 0.85 m. The
transmission S-parameters are calculated by the moment
method.
On another hand, using the moment method, we can
calculate the ideal antenna factor of the reference antenna
(standard antenna) and AUTs with three types of lengths,
which exist alone on an infinite ground plane, when the
perfect plane electric field is applied to these monopole
antennas. It is necessary to know the antenna factor of the
reference antenna in advance to use the reference antenna
57
method. Therefore, the reference antennas antenna factor is
also obtained as this ideal antenna factor by the simulation.
Using this reference antennas ideal antenna factor, the
reference antenna method is performed for the AUTs with
three types of antenna length.
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 4. For each AUT,
comparisons are made between the antenna factor by the
conventional reference antenna method and the ideal antenna
factor. The frequency range is from 9 kHz to 30 MHz.
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
A
n
t
e
n
n
a

f
a
c
t
o
r

[
d
B
(
1
/
m
)
]
Frequency [MHz]
Ideal antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna
Antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna by conventional reference antenna method
Ideal antenna factor of 0.85 m monopole antenna
Antenna factor of 0.85 m monopole antenna by conventional reference antenna method
Ideal antenna factor of 1.15 m monopole antenna
Antenna factor of 1.15 m monopole antenna by conventional reference antenna method
Fig. 4. Comparisons between antenna factor obtained by conventional
reference antenna method and ideal antenna factor.
In a case where
A
l
is equal to
S
l
, the results agree with
each other. However, it is found that the results are different
in the cases of
L
A S
l l >
and
S
A S
l l <
. The differences in the
values are magnified for a detailed evaluation in Fig. 5.
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
D
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
s

[
d
B
(
1
/
m
)
]
Frequency [MHz]
Difference for 0.85 m monopole antenna
Difference for 1 m monopole antenna
Difference for 1.15 m monopole antenna
0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Fig. 5. Differences between antenna factors obtained by conventional
reference antenna method and ideal antenna factor.
In Fig. 5, the absolute value of the difference is about
0.6 dB at the maximum in the cases of
L
A S
l l >
and
S
A S
l l <
.
It becomes clear that the conventional reference antenna
method cannot be applied to monopole antenna calibrations
when the monopole antenna lengths are different in the near-
field condition. On the other hand, the difference is within the
calculation accuracy of the moment method in the case of
A S
l l =
.
These results show that we must develop a reference
antenna method for monopole antenna calibration under near-
field condition. In the next section, we propose the new
method.
V. PROPOSED NEAR FIELD REFERENCE ANTENNA METHOD
In the previous section, it became clear that a reference
antenna method for the near-field condition has to be
developed and proposed. In this section, we propose a near
field reference antenna method for monopole antennas.
In the near-field condition, the electric field has a
distribution that is parallel to the monopole antennas element.
This means that the strength of the electric field applied to an
antenna element is ambiguous. Thus, in the near-field
condition, it is difficult to define E in (1). In order to cope
with this problem, we adopt an averaged electric field strength
(
avg
E
) obtained by the mutual impedance between two
monopole antenna elements. The proposed near field
reference antenna method is expressed as (3).
( ) ( )
,
, , S,A,T ,
jk jk
ik
e j e i
jk ik ik
Z K
S
F F
S Z K
i j k
=
=

(3)
where
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
0 U
U 0
L 0
L 0
2
U
2
L
2 2
0
sin exp
[
8 sin sin
exp exp
2cos ] ,
,
,
,
, S,T , A,T ,
m
l
m
mn
m n
n
mn n
mn n
mn
j k l z jkr
Z
kl kl r
jkr jkr
kl dz
r r
r d l z
r d l z
r d z
m n
q
t

=

+
= +
= + +
= +
=
)
and
( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( )
2
2 sin sin
,
1 cos 1 cos
, S,T , A,T .
p q
pq
p q
k kl kl
K
kl kl
p q
=

=
58
In these equations,
i e
F
is the antenna factor of the
reference monopole antenna;
e j
F
is the antenna factor of
AUT; k is the wave number;
ik
S and
jk
S are the transmission
S-parameters between monopole antennas;
0
q is the free-
space wave impedance; , ,
m n p
l l l , and
q
l are the lengths of
the monopole antennas; and
mn
d is the distance between two
monopole antennas. The suffixes S, A, and T in (3)
mean the reference antenna, AUT, and transmit antenna,
respectively. The mutual impedance is shown as
ik
Z
and
jk
Z
.
The entire antenna element is considered and dealt with as one
segment when the mutual impedance is obtained. The current
distribution on both antenna elements is assumed to be a
sinusoidal one. When the integral is calculated in (3),
reference [6] is referred to and used. We can say that
mn
Z
is
obtained by the electromotive force (EMF) method. In (3), it
is assumed that the reflection coefficients at the generator and
receiver port are zero, just as in (2). Therefore the
transmission S-parameters should be measured by a vector
network analyzer when we apply the proposed method to
experiments.
VI. RESULTS OF THE PROPOSED NEAR FIELD REFERENCE
ANTENNA METHOD
In this section, numerical simulations using the moment
method are performed for the proposed reference antenna
method. From (3), it is expected that the proposed reference
antenna method is effective in the case of
S A
l l =
, as shown in
Fig. 3, or in the case of
ST AT
d d =
, where
ST
d
is the distance
between the reference and transmit antennas and
AT
d
is the
distance between the AUT and the transmit antenna. We
investigate these two cases by numerical simulations.
A. The case where the lengths of the reference antenna and
the AUT are different
In section IV, we tried to apply the conventional reference
antenna method to electrically very short monopole antennas
with several types of antenna lengths in a numerical
simulation. However, we found that the conventional method
was not adequate for monopole antennas with different
lengths. In this section, we evaluate whether the proposed
reference antenna method can be applied to monopole
antennas with various lengths.
A schematic view of the simulation is shown in Fig. 3. All
of the parameters in this simulation are the same as in the
simulation for the conventional reference antenna method in
IV. The distance between the antenna pairs is 1.5 m;
T
l
and
S
l
are 1 m; and
A
l
is 1, 1.15, or 0.85 m. It is assumed that the
size of the ground plane is infinite. The frequency range is
from 9 kHz to 30 MHz. The ideal antenna factor obtained by
the perfect plane electric field is used as a reference value.
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 6. For each AUT,
the antenna factor obtained by the proposed reference antenna
method and the ideal antenna factor are compared. The ideal
antenna factor of the reference antenna (standard antenna) is
also used as the antenna factor of the reference antenna.
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
A
n
t
e
n
n
a

f
a
c
t
o
r

[
d
B
(
1
/
m
)
]
Frequency [MHz]
Ideal antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna
Antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna by proposed reference antenna method
Ideal antenna factor of 0.85 m monopole antenna
Antenna factor of 0.85 m monopole antenna by proposed reference antenna method
Ideal antenna factor of 1.15 m monopole antenna
Antenna factor of 1.15 m monopole antenna by proposed reference antenna method
0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Fig. 6. Comparison between antenna factors obtained by proposed reference
antenna method (at 1.5 m) and ideal perfect plane electric field.
In Fig. 6, it can be observed that the obtained antenna
factors are in very good agreement. They are almost the same
in the figure. The differences in the values are magnified for a
detailed evaluation in Fig. 7.
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
D
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
s

[
d
B
(
1
/
m
)
]
Frequency [MHz]
Difference for 0.85 m monopole antenna
Difference for 1 m monopole antenna
Difference for 1.15 m monopole antenna
0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Fig. 7. Differences between antenna factors obtained by proposed reference
antenna method (at 1.5 m) and ideal perfect plane electric field.
The absolute value of the difference shown in Fig. 7 is
approximately less than 0.02 dB. This difference is
perfectly within the calculation accuracy of the moment
method. Therefore, these results show that the proposed
method is effective in obtaining the antenna factor of
monopole antennas with various lengths in the near-field
condition.
59
B. The case where the distances between the transmit
antenna and the reference antenna or the AUT are
different
The proposed reference antenna method is expected to be
effective in a case where the antenna distances of antenna
pairs are different. There are passive type monopole antennas
(without amplifier) and active type monopole antennas (with
amplifier). The sensitivities of these monopole antennas are
quite different, even if they have the same antenna length.
Therefore, we sometimes need to arrange the distances
between the transmit antenna and the reference antenna or the
AUT when the reference antenna method is carried out. For
example, this arrangement is necessary in a case where the
transmit antenna is an active type (with power amplifier), the
reference antenna is a passive type, and the AUT is an active
type. In this case, we must sometimes arrange the distances to
avoid saturating the AUTs amplifier or the receiver
connected to the AUT. The schematic view of this simulation
is shown in Fig. 8.
#T #S
ST
S
ST
S
#T #A
AT
S
AT
S
#T #A
AT
S
AT
S
#T
#A
AT
S
AT
S
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
T
l
S
l
S
l
A
l
A
l
Replace
or
or
Reference antenna
(Standard antenna)
Transmit antenna
Transmit antenna
Transmit antenna
Transmit antenna
AUT
AUT
AUT
A
l
A
l
A
l
A
l
ST
d
ST
d
AT
d
AT
d
AT
d
AT
d
AT
d
AT
d
ST AT
d d >
ST AT
d d >
ST AT
d d =
ST AT
d d =
ST AT
d d >
ST AT
d d >
Fig. 8. Schematic view of reference antenna method in numerical simulation
where different antenna distances.
In Fig. 8, all of the antenna lengths are 1 m, the antenna
distance
ST
d
is 1.5 m, and
AT
d
is 1 m, 1.5 m, or 2 m. The
simulation results are shown in Fig. 9. For each distance, a
comparison is made between the antenna factor by the
proposed reference antenna method and the ideal antenna
factor. In this simulation, the ideal antenna factor is used as
the reference antennas antenna factor. The frequency range is
from 9 kHz to 30 MHz.
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
A
n
t
e
n
n
a

f
a
c
t
o
r

[
d
B
(
1
/
m
)
]
Frequency [MHz]
Ideal antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna
Antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna by proposed reference antenna method at 1 m
Antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna by proposed reference antenna method at 1.5 m
Antenna factor of 1 m monopole antenna by proposed reference antenna method at 2 m
0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Fig. 9. Comparison between antenna factors obtained by proposed reference
antenna method at three different distances and ideal perfect plane electric
field.
In Fig. 9, it can be observed that the obtained antenna
factors are in very good agreement. They are almost the same
in the figure. The differences in the values are magnified for a
detailed evaluation in Fig. 10.
-0.2
-0.15
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
D
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
s

[
d
B
(
1
/
m
)
]
Frequency [MHz]
Difference for 1 m monopole antenna at the distance 1 m
Difference for 1 m monopole antenna at the distance 1.5 m
Difference for 1 m monopole antenna at the distance 2 m
0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Fig. 10. Differences between antenna factors obtained by proposed reference
antenna method at three antenna distances and ideal perfect plane electric
field.
The absolute values of the differences shown in Fig. 10 are
approximately less than 0.1 dB. We can find that the
difference in the case of an antenna distance of 1 m is large
near the highest frequency of 30 MHz. However, this
difference is very small and within the calculation accuracy of
the moment method. Generally, the calculation accuracy of
the moment method is about 0.2 dB or 0.3 dB as a maximum
60
value. Therefore, this result shows that the proposed method is
effective in obtaining the antenna factor of electrically short
monopole antennas in the near-field condition.
Generally, for monopole antenna calibration, absolute
calibration methods have been proposed and are well known.
However, when antenna calibration laboratories or companies
adopt absolute calibration methods, they must make efforts to
maintain a complicated calibration system and establish the
traceability to the national standards.
On the other hand, we recently can measure the
transmission S-parameters between antennas easily and
accurately by a vector network analyzer. The reference
antenna method is widely known as one of the reference
calibration methods in antenna calibration. However, there has
not been a reference antenna method for monopole antenna
calibration in the near-field condition. Using the proposed
reference antenna method, it is expected that we can easily
measure the antenna factor of a monopole antenna and
establish traceability to the standard of the antenna factor
directly.
In future work, this proposed method will be compared
with other methods and the uncertainty will be estimated and
evaluated.
VII. CONCLUSION
We proposed a new reference antenna method for non-
resonant electrically short monopole antennas. At present, the
conventional reference antenna method is used for the
calibration of dipole antennas, bi-conical antennas, horn
antennas, etc. However, this method cannot be used for the
calibration of electrically short monopole antennas under the
near-field condition.
In this study, we have proposed a new method and
evaluated it through a numerical simulation using the moment
method. The results show that the proposed method is suitable
for the calibration of electrically short monopole antennas.
Further, the method is useful for measuring the antenna factor
of electrically short monopole antennas under the near-field
condition, especially at frequencies below 30 MHz.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study was supported in part by the Telecom
Engineering Center (TELEC), Japan.
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