1.

TYPES OF ANTENNAS
1.2.1 Wire Antennas
 Wire antennas are familiar. They are seen virtually everywhere. Example: automobiles,
buildings, ships, aircraft, spacecraft and so on.
 There are various shapes of wire antennas such as a straight wire (dipole), loop and helix
as shown in Figure 1.3.
 Dipole antenna is made up of two straight wires or conductors lying along the same axis.
 Loop antennas need not only be circular. They may take the form of a rectangle, square,
ellipse or any other configuration.
 A Loop antenna consists a single turn or many turns of wire forming a loop.

Figure 1.3Wire antenna configurations.

 The antenna with a wire in the form on helix backed by a ground plane is called helical
antenna.

1.2.2 Aperture Antennas

 Some forms of aperture antennas are shown in Figure 1.4.
 This type is very useful for aircraft and spacecraft applications. It is easily mounted on the
skin of the aircraft or spacecraft and can be covered with dielectric material to protect them
from hazardous conditions of the environment.
(a) Pyramidal horn (b) Conical horn(c) Rectangular waveguide

Figure 1.4 Aperture antenna configurations

1.2.3 Micro strip Antennas

 It consists of a metallic patch on a grounded substrate.
 Rectangular and circular patches as shown in Figure 1.5. This type of antennas is most
popular because of easy analysis and fabrication.
 These antennas can be mounted on the surface of high-performance aircraft, spacecraft,
satellites, missiles, cars and even handheld mobile.
Figure 1.5Rectangular and circular micro strip (patch) antennas.

1.2.4Array Antennas

 Many applications require higher directivity that may not be achievable by a single
element.
 To increase the directivity in one particular direction by using group of antennas
excited simultaneously. Such a group of antennas is called array of antennas.
 It maybe possible that an aggregate of radiating elements in an electrical and
geometrical arrangement (an array) will result in the desired radiation characteristics.

 Typical examples of arrays are shown in Figure 1.6. Usually the term array is reserved for
an arrangement in which the individual radiators are separate as shown in Figures 1.6(a–
c). However the array is also used to describe an assembly of radiators mounted on a
continuous structure, shown in Figure 1.6(d).
 Figure 1.6 a) Typical wire b) aperture c) micro strip array configuration

1.2.5 Reflector Antennas

 This type of antennas are to achieve the high gain required to transmit or receive signals
after millions of miles of travel.
 For the microwave radiation, the parabolic reflector is most commonly used. It is based on
the principle that the EM waves are reflected by a conducting sheet.
 A very common antenna form is a parabolic reflector shown in Figures 1.7(a) and (b).
 This type of antenna is most suitable in point to point communications and radars.
Figure 1.7 Typical reflector configurations.

Lens Antennas
 Lenses are primarily used to collimate incident divergent energy to prevent it from
spreading in undesired directions.
 Lens antennas are complex in nature but have the ability to scan wider angles.
 Lens antenna may be of convex or concave shape. Some forms are shown in figure 1.8.
 Choosing the appropriate material of the lenses, they can transform various forms of
divergent energy into plane waves.

Figure 1.8 Typical lens antenna configurations.

2. Derive the relationship between directivity and effective aperture.

Relation between Maximum aperture and Gain or directivity

Consider the two antennas 1 and 2, the directivity of the antenna is proportional to the
maximum effective aperture.
Let antenna 1 be the isotropic radiator for which the directivity is unity.

Putting the above value in expression D2

The maximum effective aperture in terms of effective length is given by

3. Describe the radiation mechanism of single wire and two wires.

single wire:
(a) Curved

(b) Bent

(c) Discontinuous

ZL
Ground
(d) Terminated

(e) Truncated

Figure 1.10 Wire configurations for radiation.

Two-Wires:

Figure 1.11Source, transmission line, antenna, and detachment of electric field lines.
4. Derive the FRIIS transmission equation that relates the power received to power
2D 2
R
transmitted between two antennas separated by distance 

 The Friis Transmission Equation relates the power received to the power transmitted
between two antennas separated by a distance R > 2D2 /λ, where D is the largest
dimension of either antenna.

Fig.Radio link between transmitter and receiver

 The utility of aperture determining the transmission loss between two antennas in free
space is shown in figure.
 Let R= Distance between transmitting and Receiving antennas
Aet, Aer=Effective aperture of transmitting and receiving antenna
Wt =Total power radiated by isotrophic antenna
Wr = Power received in antenna terminal
Wr’=Power received at receiver
lambda =Wavelength in metre
 The power received per unit area at receiving antenna is
Wt
p 
4r 2
and power received at the receiver
Wr'  Aer .P

Wt
Wr'  Aer .
4r 2
 The directivity Dt of the practical antenna is given by
4
Dt  . Aemt
2
 Aemt=maximum effective aperture of the transmitting antenna
 The power received at the receiver is given by

Wr  Wr' .Dt

Wr Aer , Aemt
 2 2
Wt R 
This is known as Friss transmission formula which represents the
ratio of the power received to the power transmitted for a direct path.
 This equation is applied as long as the fraunhofer condition is as
2d 2
R

where d=Largest dimension of each antenna
 =Wavelength

 The equation can be generalized as

Wr Aer . Aet
 2 2
Wt R 
 The above equation can be written as follows
Gt .2
Aet 
4
G r 2
Aer 
4
Wr
 Putting these equations in is given by
Wt
Wr G .G
 t r2
Wt  4r 
 
  
This is also known as Friss formula.

  
2

 The term   is called the free space loss factor and it takes into account the losses due
 4r 
to the spherical spreading of the energy of the antenna
5. How the directivity of an antenna is defined and also derives the expression for the
directivity.

 Directivity of an antenna is defined as the ratio of maximum radiation intensity to the

average radiation intensity.
  , max 4  , max
D 
av W

4
D where  A = Beam solid angle
A
Therefore the directivity of an antenna is nothing but solid angle of a sphere divided by
the antenna beam solid angle  A .
6. What is the effective aperture of an antenna? Derive the expression for maximum
effective aperture.
Same as 2nd question

7. Write short notes on antenna polarization and give the applications of polarization.

Polarization
 Polarization of a radiated wave is defined as “that property of an electromagnetic wave
describing the time-varying direction and relative magnitude of the electric-field vector”.
 The polarization of a wave can be defined in terms of a wave radiated (transmitted) or
received by an antenna in a given direction.
 The polarization is described in terms of Electric vector E.
 The polarization or plane of polarization of a radio wave can be defined by the direction in
which the electric vector E is aligned during the passage of atleast one full cycle. Since
Electric vector E and magnetic vector H are mutually perpendicular and this
electromagnetic wave propagate in the perpendicular direction as shown in figure 1.21.
 Fig 1.21 Electromagnetic wave in free space.
 It is also defined as the physical orientation of the radiated electromagnetic waves in space.
 A electromagnetic wave is said to be linearly polarized if they are have the same alignment
in space.
Polarization can be classified as linear, circular, or elliptical. If the vector that describes the
electric field at a point in space as a function of time is always directed along a line, the field is
said to be linearly polarized.

APPLICATIONS:

 To differentiate longitudinal and transverse waves.

 Used in some sunglasses(fisherman,skiers,Sports man).

8.Problems

9. Explain briefly the current distribution on thin wire antenna.

.
  Let us first begin with the geometry of a lossless two-wire transmission line, as shown in
Figure 1.15(a).
 The movement of the charges creates a traveling wave current of magnitude I0/2 along each
of the wires.
 When the current arrives at the end of each of the wires, it undergoes a complete reflection
(equal magnitude and 180◦ phase reversal).
 The reflected traveling wave, when combined with the incident traveling wave forms in
each wire a pure standing wave pattern of sinusoidal form as shown in Figure 1.15(a).
 The current in each wire undergoes a 180◦ phase reversal between adjoining half-cycles.
 If the spacing between two wires is very small (s<<λ) , the fields radiated by the current of
each wire are cancelled each other. There is no radiation
 The transmission line between 0 ≤z≤l/2 begins to flare as shown in Figure 1.15(b).
 Here it can be assumed that the current distribution is essentially unaltered.
 The two wires of the flared section are not necessarily close to each other, the fields
radiated by one do not necessarily cancel those of the other. Therefore ideally there is a net
radiation by the transmission-line system.
 If the transmission line is spread further apart into a dipole antenna. If l<λ, the phase of
current standing wave pattern in each arm is the same throughput its length. Thus the fields
radiated by the two arms of the dipole (vertical parts of a flared transmission line) will
primarily reinforce each other toward most directions of observation.
The flared section of the transmission line can take the form shown in Figure 1.15(c). This is the
geometry of the widely used dipole antenna.

10.Problem

11.Problem

12.Problem
13. Define radiation intensity. What is the relation between radiation intensity and total
power radiated by an antenna?
RADIATION INTENSITY

 Radiation intensity in a given direction is defined as “the power radiated from an

antenna per unit solid angle.”

14.Problem
15.Problem
16.Problem

17.What are the applications of antennas?

 Used in RADAR
 Used in SONAR
 Used in Communications
 Used in Imaging
 Used in Bio-medical

18. Explain the terms a) Beam width b) HPBW

Beam width:
Antenna Beam width is a measure of directivity of an antenna.
HPBW:
Antenna beam width is angular width in degrees between two points on a major lobe of a
radiation pattern where the radiated power has fallen is to half of its maximum value. This is
called as beam width between half power point or half power beam width (HPBW)