Lecture:8

Antenna Parameters

Dr. Avinash Chandra

School of Electronics Engineering

Microwave and Photonics Division
VIT University, Vellore, India
Radiation Pattern
Radiation pattern
•A trace or a Graphical representation of power, gain,
intensity, field strength in a particular space co-ordinates
•For example:
r and φ are kept constant, for various θ, the power at a far-
field distance can be…

1
Antenna radiation pattern
Radiation Pattern
Radiation pattern - Lobes
A quantitative portions of radiation pattern are Lobes

Main Lobe (major lobe, main beam) - radiation lobe in the direction
of maximum radiation.

Minor Lobe - any radiation lobe other than the main lobe.

Side Lobe - a radiation lobe in any direction other than

the direction(s) of intended radiation.

Back Lobe - the radiation lobe opposite to the main lobe.

Between two lobes, the zero radiation points are called “Null
points”

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Radiation Pattern
 There are two more important antenna parameters that will be
used later
1. Half Power Beam Width ( HPBW ) : It is the angle between the
points on main lobe where power falls to half of the peak power

 The points where power falls

to half its peak are also
referred as half power points
or -3dB points

 Assume peak power is 1W.

Then half power point is 0.5
W
0.5
 10 log  3.01dB
1
1
Radiation Pattern
2. First Null Beam Width ( FNBW ) : It is the angle between the first
null points in the antenna radiation pattern

 The first nulls are those

points of zero radiation
falling adjacent to the main
lobe

 FNBW signifies the angle of

radiation that encompasses
the complete main lobe

2 Dr. Yogesh Kumar Choukiker

Beamwidth
 We have already seen Half Power Beam Width (HPBW) and First
Null Beam Width (FNBW). They signify the degree of spatial
distribution of the radiation lobes
There could be other beam widths such as -10dB
or any other value. But if not specifically
mentioned, we consider HPBW or -3dB
beamwidth
 The other figure of merit is that the
beamwidth is indicative of side lobe
level. If beamwidth is decreased
then side lobe level increases and
vice versa
 The resolution capability of an
antenna  FNBW/2  HPBW
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Radiation-Isotropic
 An isotropic radiator is a lossless antenna that radiates equally in
all directions
 Hertzian dipole we studied previously is an example of isotropic
radiator. It is a hypothetical radiation that acts as a reference to
study other radiation patterns

3 Dr. Yoges
Radiation-Omnidirectional
 An antenna that has non-directional radiation pattern in one plane,
whereas a directional radiation in an orthogonal plane is called an
omnidirectional antenna. Eg : Half Wave Dipole

 Along ‘phi’, there is no

change in the magnitude of
radiation

 Whereas, along ‘theta’ you

can see a null, along the axis
of the antenna

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Radiation-Directional
 A directional antenna is one that can transmit or receive EM
waves efficiently only in certain directions than others

 The horn antenna that we saw

previously has a directional
radiation as compared to a
half wave dipole

 Both ‘theta’ & ‘phi’ planes

exhibit directional nature of
radiation

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Radiation- E & H Plane
 The E – plane of an antenna is the plane containing all electric
field vectors and direction of maximum radiation
 The H – plane of an antenna is the plane containing all magnetic
field vectors and direction of maximum radiation

b
a

a
b

E - Plane H - Plane
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Power Intensity
It is the power radiated in a given direction per unit solid angle and has units of

Watts per steradian (W/sr). Mathematically it is given by:

Steradian (sr): a measure of solid angle.

Solid angle  is the ratio of that part of a spherical surface area S subtended at
the center of a sphere to the square of the radius of the sphere.
The solid angle subtended by a whole spherical surface is
 In Fig., a small surface is in spherical polar coordinate system is shown as
dA = r2 sin d d (m2)
Hence This information will be used later for calculation of radiated
power of antennas
Beam Area

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Beam Area
The beam area or beam solid angle or ΩA of an antenna is
given by the integral of the normalized power pattern over a
sphere (4π sr)

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Radiation Power Density
 Previously, we have noted that the time-averaged power density
can be obtained using Poynting vector as

Pavg 
1
2
E H * 
 The above equation consists of both real and imaginary parts as E
and H are complex. The imaginary part of the above equation is
‘reactive power’ and it is stored in EM fields of the antenna. We
have also noted from the field equations of a dipole antenna that
the imaginary power fades rapidly away from antenna and
becomes zero at far-field point. Hence only ‘real power’ is
considered in antenna problems, which now is referred as
radiation power density

W rad
1

 Re E  H *
2

1 Let us denote this real radiation density as ‘Wrad
Radiation Power Density
 Now the ‘average radiated power’ by the antenna can be obtained
by integrating the ‘radiated power density’ over the surface of a
sphere

Prad   W rad  dS 
1
2S Re 
E  H *

dS
S

 If we consider the case of an hypothetical isotropic radiator, the

power density is constant everywhere on the surface of sphere as
it radiates equally in all directions, then
2
Prad   W 0 aˆr  dS r  W 0  r 2 sin d d 4 r2 W0
S 0 0

Prad
Or the power density W 0  W/m2
4 r 2
2
Radiation Intensity
 Radiation intensity is power radiated from an antenna per unit
solid angle. It can be expressed in Watts/Steradian as

U  r 2Wrad

 The power density of far – zone electric field is given as

W rad 
1
2
Er,, H *
r,, 1
2
Er,,
2

 Then the radiation intensity can be written as

 
2 2

E r, ,  E r,,  ( ,

r r 2
U  r Wrad    E r,
2 2 2

2 2
Where Er term is ignored as it is not present at far-field point
 J r
The far-zone electric field is E r,,    E,
e
3
r
Radiation Intensity
 Then the radiation intensity can be written as

The above equation is generalized expression, if there is only E

component, then E will be zero. But if there is a circularly polarized
wave then both the components exist.
 The total power radiated is obtained by integrating the radiation
intensity over the solid angle of a sphere (4)
2 

Prad   U  d s    U sind  d where d s  sin d d

s 0 0

 For an isotropic radiator

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Directivity
 The directivity of an antenna is the ratio of radiation intensity in a
particular direction (usually main lobe) to that of radiation
intensity averaged over all directions
U
D Where average intensity over a sphere is U 0 
Prad
U0 4
If the direction is no specified then we consider direction of maximum
radiation, then
U max  4Umax
D max 
U0 Prad

 The directivity of an isotropic antenna is unity since

U  U 0  U max

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Gain
 The gain of an antenna is the ratio of radiation intensity in a
particular direction with respect to omni antenna

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Gain
Now gain and directivity related by the following expression
Antenna Polarization
The instantaneous vector field E is given by
 Axial Ratio
The polarization state of EM waves can also indicated in terms of axial
ratio
 Input Impedance

A transmitting Antenna System

If we know the input impedance of a transmitting antenna, the

antenna can be viewed as an equivalent circuit, as shown in
Figure , where
Zg: internal impedance of the excitation source
Rg: internal impedance of the excitation source
Xg: internal reactance of the excitation source
Ig: antenna terminal current
 The radiation resistance Rr can be calculated from the power radiated Prad
as:

Power loss in the internal resistance of the excitation source:

Maximum power transfer from the excitation source to the antenna occurs if the antenna
is matched. That is,
Field Regions

Near and Far field of an Antenna

Field Regions
Friss Transmission Equation
For a directional Antenna
Problems
Problem No-2
Problem No-3
Hence;