Chapter 1

Gain vs Directivity

Figure 1.1: A general antenna system

Some assumptions
1. The entire system is assumed to be linear (including the power amplifier
and phase shifter)
2. Conductor and dielectric losses are assumed to be zero (especially, when
compared to the Prad )
From the above figure, the incident and reflect powers are given as Pinc =
2

Vinc Iinc
and Pref = |m | Pinc , respectively.
According to the power conservation principle


Pinc 1 |m |2 = Prad + Pmatch + Pnear
1

Matching the real and imagnary coponents in the above equation gives


= Prad
Re (Pinc ) 1 |m |2


2
= Pmatch + Pnear
Im (Pinc ) 1 |m |
Prad => (real) power radiated by the antenna
Pnear => (reactive) near-field power of the antenna
Pmatch => (reactive) power in the matching network

From the field perspective

If the incident power is P ref
inc (ref stands for reference), then the far-field
(radiated) electric field is given as
exp (jk0 r) far
far
~ EP
~e (, ) .
E
(, ) = Aref
r
Similarly, for the same antenna, the electric field radiated in the case of incident

power Pinc
is given by
exp (jk0 r) far
~ far
E
~e (, )
EP (, ) = A
r

Then the relation between Aref and A is

s

|A |
Pinc
=
|Aref |
P ref
inc
because of linearity.
In addition, the relation between Aref and A is
A
=
Aref
where and are phase shifts (caused by the variable phase shifter) corre
ref
sponding to Pinc
and Pinc
, respectively. Therefore, finally, the relation between
ref

A and A can written as

s

Pinc
exp [j ( )] .
A = Aref
ref
P inc

Now consider the situation of an array of N number of elements

Far-field of the entire array is given as
~ array
E

= ~e

far

(, )

N 
X

n=1

exp (jk0 rn )
An
rn


(s

)
P ninc
n exp (jk0 rn )
= A exp j ~e (, )
exp (j )
rn
P ref
inc
n=1
)
(s

X
N
h 
i
n


P inc
n
ref
1 exp (jk0 r) far

~
~
exp j + k0 rn

A exp j
~e (, )
ref
r
P inc
n=1


ref

far

N
X

where k~0 = k0 (sin cos

x + sin sin
y + cos
z ) and r~n is the position vector
corresponding to the nth element. From the above equation, directivity Darray
is given as
i
h

~ array (, ) E
~ array
(, )
4 E
i
Darray = 2 h
~ array (, ) E
~
E
array (, ) sin dd
0
0

2 
4 AF (, ) ~efar (, )

= 2 
(1.1)
2
|AF (, ) ~efar (, )| sin dd
0
0

h 
io
PN nq P ninc
n
~0 r~
exp
j

+
k
.
where AF (, ) = n=1
ref
n
P inc
Similarly, gain of the array Garray is given as
i
h

~ array (, ) E
~ array
(, )
4 E
Garray =
tot
Pinc

where is the free-space impedance. The above equation can be further reduced
to

2 
2
4 Aref  ~efar (, ) |AF (, )|2
Garray =
PN
n

n=1 (Pinc )

np
h 
io2
" 
2 
2 # PN

P ninc exp j n + k~0 r~n

4 Aref  ~efar (, )  n=1


=
P
N

n
P ref
inc
n=1 (Pinc )
P
np
io2
h 
 N

P ninc exp j n + k~0 r~n
 n=1

= G (, )
(1.2)
PN
n
n=1 (Pinc )
where G (, ) is the gain of the individual element.
3

Now, let us consider an IDEAL situation

when there is no reactive power in teh enire system, then
n
n
Pinc
= Prad
.

So, in that IDEAL situation,

Garray or Darray

P
h 
io2
np

 N
n exp j n + k
~0 r~
Prad

 n=1
n
= D (, )
(1.3)
PN
n
n=1 (Prad )

where D (, ) is the directivity of the individual element.



n
In other words, if we know Prad
somehow , then the directivity of the entire
array Darray is given by the above equation.