Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Al-Iraqia University
College of Engineering – Electrical Depatrment
Third Stage

directivity of antenna

This Report is submitted to fulfill the

Requirements of the antenna
1st Semseter 2020

Prepared By
Yasser mohammed

Supervised By
MSc. Jenan Jabbar
2019-202

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 directivity of antenna

Introduction :
In electromagnetics, directivity is a parameter of an antenna or optical
system which measures the degree to which the radiation emitted is
concentrated in a single direction. It measures the power density the antenna
radiates in the direction of its strongest emission, versus the power density
radiated by an ideal isotropic radiator (which emits uniformly in all directions)
radiating the same total power.
An antenna's directivity is a component of its gain; the other component is its
(electrical) efficiency. Directivity is an important measure because many
antennas and optical systems are designed to radiate electromagnetic waves in a
single direction or over a narrow-angle. Directivity is also defined for an
antenna receiving electromagnetic waves, and its directivity when receiving is
equal to its directivity when transmitting.
The directivity of an actual antenna can vary from 1.76 dBi for a short dipole to
as much as 50 dBi for a large dish antenna.

Contents
1) Definition
2) In antenna arrays
3) Relation to beam width
4) Expression in decibels
5) Accounting for polarization
a) Partial directive gain
b) Partial directivity
c) Partial gain
6) In other areas
7) Directivity
a) Directivity Example
8) References

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Definition
The directivity, D , of an antenna is the maximal value of its directive
gain. Directive gain is represented as   and compares
the radiant intensity (power per unit solid angle)  that an
antenna creates in a particular direction against the average value over
all directions:

In antenna arrays
In an antenna array (a set of multiple identical antennas which work
together as a single antenna), the directivity of the entire array is the
multiplicative sum of the individual antenna's directivity function with
a mathematical expression known as the array factor AF , which
typically depends on the location, the excitation and the phase of each
antenna element. The overall directivity function is given by

where  is the directivity of a single element. This single

element term is sometimes referred to as the element pattern

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Relation to beam width
The beam solid angle, represented as  , is defined as the solid angle
which all power would flow through if the antenna radiation intensity
were constant at its maximal value. If the beam solid angle is known,
then maximum directivity can be calculated as

which simply calculates the ratio of the beam solid angle to the solid
angle of a sphere. The beam solid angle can be approximated for
antennas with one narrow major lobe and very negligible minor lobes
by simply multiplying the half-power beamwidths (in radians) in two
perpendicular planes. The half-power beamwidth is simply the angle
in which the radiation intensity is at least half of the peak radiation
intensity.The same calculations can be performed in degrees rather
than in radians:

where   is the half-power beamwidth in one plane (in degrees) and 
 is the half-power beamwidth in a plane at a right angle to the other
(in degrees).In planar arrays, a better approximation is

For an antenna with a conical (or approximately conical) beam with a

half-power beamwidth of   degrees, then elementary integral calculus
yields an expression for the directivity as

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Expression in decibels
The directivity is rarely expressed as the unitless number D but
rather as a decibel comparison to a reference antenna:

The reference antenna is usually the theoretical

perfect isotropic radiator, which radiates uniformly in all
directions and hence has a directivity of 1 . The calculation is
therefore simplified to

Another common reference antenna is the theoretical perfect

half-wave dipole, which radiates perpendicular to itself with a
directivity of 1.64:

Accounting for polarization

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When polarization is taken under consideration, three additional
measures can be calculated:

1- Partial directive gain

Partial directive gain is the power density in a particular direction
and for a particular component of the polarization, divided by the
average power density for all directions and all polarizations. For any
pair of orthogonal polarizations (such as left-hand-circular and right-
hand-circular), the individual power densities simply add to give the
total power density. Thus, if expressed as dimensionless ratios rather
than in dB, the total directive gain is equal to the sum of the two
partial directive gains.

2- Partial directivity
Partial directivity is calculated in the same manner as the partial
directive gain, but without consideration of antenna efficiency (i.e.
assuming a lossless antenna). It is similarly additive for orthogonal
polarizations.

3- Partial gain
Main article: Antenna gain
Partial gain is calculated in the same manner as gain, but considering
only a certain polarization. It is similarly additive for orthogonal
polarizations

In other areas
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The term directivity is also used with other systems.
With directional couplers, directivity is a measure of the difference in
dB of the power output at a coupled port, when power is transmitted
in the desired direction, to the power output at the same coupled port
when the same amount of power is transmitted in the opposite
direction.
In acoustics, it is used as a measure of the radiation pattern from a
source indicating how much of the total energy from the source is
radiating in a particular direction. In electro-acoustics, these patterns
commonly include omnidirectional, cardioid and hyper-cardioid
microphone polar patterns. A loudspeaker with a high degree of
directivity (narrow dispersion pattern) can be said to have a high Q.

Directivity
Directivity is a fundamental antenna parameter. It is a measure of how
'directional' an antenna's radiation pattern is. An antenna that radiates
equally in all directions would have effectively zero directionality,
and the directivity of this type of antenna would be 1 (or 0 dB).

[Silly side note: When a directivity is specified for an antenna, what is

meant is 'peak directivity'. Directivity is technically a function of
angle, but the angular variation is described by its radiation pattern.
Hence, directivity throughout this page will mean peak directivity,
because it is rarely used in another context.]

An antenna's normalized radiation pattern can be written as a function

in spherical coordinates:

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A normalized radiation pattern is the same as a radiation pattern; it is
just scaled in magnitude such that the peak (maximum value) of the
magnitude of the radiation pattern (F in equation [1]) is equal to 1.
Mathematically, the formula for directivity (D) is written as:

This equation for directivity might look complicated, but the

numerator is the maximum value of F, and the denominator just
represents the "average power radiated over all directions". This
equation then is just a measure of the peak value of radiated power
divided by the average, which gives the directivity of the antenna.

Directivity Example
As an example consider two antennas, one with radiation patterns
given by:

These radiation patterns are plotted in Figure 1. Note that the patterns
are only a function of the polar angle polar angle theta, and not a
function of the azimuth angle (uniform in azimuth). The radiation

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pattern for antenna 1 is less directional then that for antenna 2; hence
we expect the directivity to be lower.

Using Equation [1], we can figure out which antenna has the higher
directivity. But to check your understanding, you should think about
Figure 1 and what directivity is, and determine which has a higher
directivity without using any mathematics.
The results of the directivity calculation, using Equation [1]:
The directivity is calculated for Antenna 1 to be 1.273 (1.05 dB).
The directivity is calculated for Antenna 2 to be 2.707 (4.32 dB)

Again, increased directivity implies a more 'focused' or 'directional'

antenna. In words, Antenna 2 receives 2.707 times more power in its
peak direction than an isotropic antenna would receive. Antenna 1
would receive 1.273 times the power of an isotropic antenna. The
isotropic antenna is used as a common reference, even though no
isotropic antennas exist.

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Antennas for cell phones should have a low directivity because the
signal can come from any direction, and the antenna should pick it up.
In contrast, satellite dish antennas have a very high directivity,
because they are to receive signals from a fixed direction. As an
example, if you get a directTV dish, they will tell you where to point
it such that the antenna will receive the signal.

Finally, we'll conclude with a list of antenna types and their

directivities, to give you an idea of what is seen in practice.

As you can see from the above table, the directivity of an antenna can
vary over several order of magnitude. Hence, it is important to
understand directivity in choosing the best antenna for your specific
application. If you need to transmit or receive energy from a wide
variety of directions (example: car radio, mobile phones, computer
wifi), then you should design an antenna with a low directivity.
Conversely, if you are doing remote sensing, or targetted power
transfer (example: received signal from a mountain top), you want a
high directivity antenna, to maximize power transfer and reduce
signal from unwanted directions.

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References
1.  Antenna Tutorial
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, “The IEEE standard dictionary
of electrical and electronics terms”; 6th ed. New York, N.Y., Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, c1997. IEEE Std 100-1996. ISBN 1-55937-833-6 [ed. Standards Coordinating
Committee 10, Terms and Definitions; Jane Radatz, (chair)]
3. ^ "Array factors"  (PDF). Retrieved  19 June 2015.
4. ^ "Antennas and Propagation"  (PDF). Jacobs university. Retrieved  19 June 2015.
5. ^ "Antenna Arrays"  (PDF).
6. ^ Electronically Scanned Arrays by Arik D. Brown
7. ^ App note, Mini-Circuits directional couplers
8. ^ AES Professional Audio Reference definition of Q

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