LECTURE 9

Antennas
and Wave
Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
 RL C Concept

𝒁 = 𝑹 + 𝒋𝑿
• As frequency goes up, inductive reactance also goes up and capacitive
reactance goes down.

• When both a capacitor and an inductor are placed in series in a circuit, their
contributions to the total circuit impedance are opposite.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

RLC CONCEPT
Capa citive Rea cta nce
• Capacitive reactance is an opposition to the change of voltage
across an element

• Driven by an AC supply (ideal AC current source), a capacitor will

only accumulate a limited amount of charge before the potential
difference of supply changes polarity and the charge is returned
to the source. T he hig her the frequency, the less cha rg e
will a ccum ula te a nd the sm a ller the opposition to the
current.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

 RL C Concept

Inductive Reactance

• L enz 's L aw
• For an ideal inductor in an AC circuit, the effect on change in current flow
results in a delay, or a pha se shift, of the alternating current with respect
to alternating voltage. Specifically, an ideal inductor (with no resistance)
will cause the current to lag the voltage by a quarter cycle, or 90°.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

 RL C Concept

• In electric power systems, inductive reactance (and capacitive reactance,

however inductive reactance is more common) can limit the power
capacity of an AC transmission line, beca use power is not
com pletely tra nsferred when voltage a nd current a re out -of-
pha se.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Antennas and Wave Propagation
We know for a capacitor that
Q = CV
where Q is the charge on the capacitor's plates, C is its
capacitance, and V is the voltage across the capacitor.
We also know that I, the electric current is the flow of
electric charge with time:
I = dQ/dt
Combine these two, and for a capacitor, we see:
I = dQ/dt = C* dV/dt
Now, if we have a sinusoidal input voltage, we can calculate
the current across the capacitor as a function of the voltage:
V( t ) = sin( t )
I ( t ) = C* dV( t )/dt = C*cos( t )
But cos(t) is just sin(t) plus pi/2 radians (90 degrees). So our
final equations for the capacitor circuit above become:
V( t ) = sin( t )
I ( t ) = C*cos( t ) = C*sin( t + pi/2)
So for a sinusoidal input voltage, we see that we also get a
sinusoidal current, but the current lea ds the voltage by
pi/2 ra dia ns (90 degrees)!
Antennas and Wave Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
 M a xim um Power Tra nsfer T heorem
Conjug a te M a tching is required for m a xim um power
tra nsfer from source to loa d
i.e.
If ZT is the impedance of transmission line
𝒁𝑻 = 𝑹 + 𝒋𝑿
Then ZA should be the impedance of Antenna
𝒁𝑨 = 𝑹 − 𝒋𝑿

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Introduction to Transmission Lines

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Antennas and Wave Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
Since antennas are high-frequency devices (in the sense that their size is on
the order of a half wavlength or more), transmission line effects are often
VERY important.
Hence, a thorough understanding of antenna theory requires an
understanding of transmission lines.
Examples of common transmission lines include the coaxial cable, the
microstrip line which commonly feeds patch/microstrip antennas, and the
two wire line:

Antennas and Wave Propagation

When are transmission line effects significant?

It is not the length of the transmission line, or what frequency we

operate at that determines if a transmission line will affect a circuit.
What matters is how long the transmission line is, measured in
wavelengths at the frequency of interest.
If a transmission line has a length greater than about 10% of a
wavelength, then the line length will noticably affect the circuit's
impedance. Let's look at some examples to make this clear:

Let's say you plug your vaccuum cleaner into a wall outlet. The chord
(transmission line) that connects the power to the motor is 10 meters long.
The power is supplied at 60 Hz. Should transmission line effects be taken
into account?

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Answer:
The wavelength at 60 Hz is 5000 km (5 million meters). Hence, the
transmission line in this case is 10/5,000,000 = 0.000002 wavelengths
(2*10^-6 wavlengths) long. As a result, the transmission line is very
short relative to a wavelength, and therefore will not have much
impact on the device.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Example #2. Suppose a wireless device is transmitting at 4 GHz.
Suppose also that a receiver is connect to a microstrip antenna via a
microstrip transmission line that is 2.5 centimeters (cm) long. Should
transmission line effects be taken into account?

Answer:
The wavelength at 4 GHz (4*10^9 Hz) is 7.5 cm. The transmission
line is 2.5 cm long. Hence, the transmission line is 0.33 wavelengths
long. Since this is a significant fraction of a wavelength (33%), the
length of the line must be taken into account in analyzing the
reciever/transmission line/antenna system.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

PDF Notes

Tra nsm ission L ines - M odels a nd Cha ra cteristic Im peda nce

Tra nsm ission L ines: Reflection Coefficient a nd V S W R
Tra nsm ission L ines: Input Im peda nce
Tra nsm ission L ines: Qua rter-Wave Tra nsform er
Tra nsm ission L ines: Open a nd S hort Circuit L ines

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Antennas and Wave Propagation
 S -pa ra m eter

S -pa ra m eters describe the input-output relationship between ports (or

terminals) in an electrical system.

S11 then would be the reflected power radio 1 is trying to deliver to

antenna 1.
S22 would be the reflected power radio 2 is attempting to deliver to
antenna 2.
S12 is the power from radio 2 that is delivered through antenna 1 to radio
1. Note that in general S-parameters are a function of frequency (i.e. vary
with frequency).
Antennas and Wave Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
 S -pa ra m eter

consider the following two-port network:

S21=0 dB implies that all the power delivered to antenna 1 ends up at the
terminals of antenna 2. If S21=-10 dB, then if 1 Watt (or 0 dB) is delivered
to antenna 1, then -10 dB (0.1 Watts) of power is received at antenna 2.

If an amplifier exists in the circuitry, then S21 can show gain (i.e. S21 > 0
dB). This means that for 1 W of power delivered to Port 1, more than 1 W
of power is received at Port 2.
In practice, the most commonly quoted parameter in regards to antennas is
S 11. S11 represents how much power is reflected from the antenna, and
hence is known as the reflection coefficient or return loss.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

If S11=0 dB, then all the power is reflected from the antenna and nothing
is radiated. If S11=-10 dB, this implies that if 3 dB of power is delivered
to the antenna, -7 dB is the reflected power. The remainder of the power
was "accepted by" or delivered to the antenna.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Antennas and Wave Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
 VSWR
For a radio (transmitter or receiver) to deliver power to an antenna, the
impedance of the radio and transmission line must be well matched to the
antenna's impedance. The parameter VSWR is a measure that numerically
describes how well the antenna is impedance matched to the radio or
transmission line it is connected to.
The VSWR is always a real and positive number for antennas. The smaller the
VSWR is, the better the antenna is matched to the transmission line and the
more power is delivered to the antenna. The minimum VSWR is 1. In this
case, no power is reflected from the antenna, which is ideal.

In general, if the V S W R is under 2 the antenna match is considered very

good.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Antennas and Wave Propagation
 S pecific A bsorption Ra te (or S A R)
Specific Absorption Rate (or SAR) is a measure of how transmitted RF energy is
absorbed by human tissue. SAR is a function of the electrical conductivity ( σ,
measured in Siemens/meter), the induced E-field from the radiated energy
(measured in Volts/meter), and the mass density of the tissue ( ρ , in kg/cubic-meter).
The SAR is calculated by averaging (or integrating) over a specific volume
(typically a 1 gram or 10 gram area):

The units of SAR are W/kg, or equivalently, mW/g. The SAR limit in the US for
mobile phones is 1.6 W/kg, averaged over 1 gram of tissue. In Europe, the SAR
limit is 2.0 W/kg averaged over 10 grams of tissue. It is typically harder to achieve
the US specification than the Europe spec, so if the phone meets the US spec it will
typically also meet the European spec.
Antennas and Wave Propagation
Antennas and Wave Propagation
S AR

The antennas for mobile phones are typically

on the bottom of the phone. Why?

Antennas and Wave Propagation

 APPLE
IPHONE 4
ISSUE
Antennas and Wave Propagation
 Reciprocity a nd Resona nt A ntenna

Reciprocity

An antenna is said to be resona nt if its input impedance is entirely real,

i.e.
Zin = R + j*0.

Antennas and Wave Propagation

Revise for com ing lecture
Topic:
U niform P la ne Waves
• The derivation of Wave Propagation in free space
• Helmholtz equation
• Wave equation
• Wave number constant
• Intrinsic Impedance

Chapter 11,
Engineering Electromagnetcis by
William H Hayt, John A Buck
Sixth Edition

Antennas and Wave Propagation