Lecture No.

EE262. Antenna Theory &

Design

Fall, 2021

Instructor: Y. Ethan Wang

 EE262 Course Information
Instructor: Y. Ethan Wang

Tel: 310-206-5670 Email: ywang@ee.ucla.edu, Office: EN IV 56-147K

Textbook: Constantine Balanis, Antenna Theory

Office Hour: Tuesday 2:00 to 4:00pm

7 Homework (25%), distributed on Tue. and due on next Tue.

1 Midterm (20%), date to be determined

1 Course Project (20%) Planar antenna design

1 Final Exam (35%)

No late submission of homework will be accepted !!!

 Coverage of the Course
• Basic antennas (dipole, aperture)
• Planar antennas (microstrip patch, printed
dipole, slot antenna)
• Antenna arrays and synthesis
• Antennas in wireless communication systems
 Expectation of the Course
• Understand the basic physics in antenna
radiation
• Grasp standard antenna design skills
• Be aware of the state of art in antennas
• Familiar with major antenna applications in
modern RF systems
 Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of antennas
1.2 Radiation mechanisms & potentials
1.3 Infinitestimal dipole
1.4 Radiation from line currents
1.5 Radiation from slit or aperture
 Antenna Classifications
Electrically small antennas
Electrical Resonant antennas
Property Broadband antennas
Aperture antennas

Wire antennas (dipole, loop)

Physical
Structure Planar antennas (microstrip patch …)
Surface antennas (horn, reflector)

Radiation Current (wire antenna like dipole, monopole)

Mechanisms
Aperture (slot, horn)
 Antenna Applications

•Wireless communication
•Radar
•Satellite communication
•Radio
•Sensor
Pictures of Antenna Applications
 Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of antennas
1.2 Radiation mechanisms & potentials
1.3 Infinitestimal dipole
1.4 Radiation from line currents
1.5 Radiation from slit or aperture
 How Antennas Radiate
Radiation is a disturbance in the electromagnetic fields that propagates
away from the source of the disturbance

This disturbance is created by a time-varying current source

exposed under an open space

From one of the Maxwell’s equations, we know

Ñ ´ H = jweE + J

Therefore, any time-varying current

S
will generate electromagnetic fields,
but they won’t radiate until it is
exposed to an open space

Radiation mechanism: Electric current

 Antenna -Transducer
“Antenna” – transducer between a guided wave propagating in a
transmission line and an electromagnetic wave propagating in an
unbounded medium (usually free space), or vice versa.

Radiation mechanism: Aperture field

Various Type of Antennas
 The Basic Question
Given the distribution of time-varying current, how to find the radiation
characteristics of the antenna?

Time varying current

element contributes to
the radiated fields
S

Radiation
Pattern
Wire Antenna Reflector Antenna

The overall antenna radiation performance can be obtained by the superposition

(in vector) sense of the elementary current elements
 Scalar & Vector Potentials
Potentials are physical variables explicitly related to the excitation source
(charge, current) and the fields, e.g. an effective way to bridge these two.

• Electrostatics: rv
Ñ ´ E = 0 Þ E = -ÑV ÞÑ V =-
2 (Poisson’s eq.)
e
rv 1 rv
Ñ×E =
Solution: V = òR
'
e Scalar potential dv
4pe v'
'

• Magnetostatics: Ñ×B = 0 Þ B = Ñ´ A
Þ Ñ 2 A = - µJ (Vector Poisson’s eq.)
Ñ ´ B = µJ
Vector potential µ J '
Solution: A =
4p òv ' R ' dv
• Electrodynamics:

Scalar and Vector potentials can no longer be separately defined

 Scalar & Vector Potentials
Starting from Maxwell’s equations,
1 1
M.E. (4): Ñ × B = 0 Þ B = Ñ ´ A = µH H= B= Ñ´ A
µ µ
Vector
calculus observe that Vector potential yet to
identity Ñ × Ñ ´ A = 0 be determined

M.E. (1): Ñ ´ E = - jwµH Ñ ´ ( E + j wA ) = 0 E + jwA = -ÑV

observe that Ñ ´ ÑV = 0 Vector
Ñ´A calculus
identity
1 - jwA - ÑV
H= Ñ´ A 1
µ Ñ ´ Ñ ´ A = jweE + J
M.E. (2): Ñ ´ H = jweE + J
µ

Ñ ´ Ñ ´ A = Ñ(Ñ × A) - Ñ 2 A
vector calculus identity
 Scalar & Vector Potentials
Therefore,
1
µ
(Ñ(Ñ × A ) - Ñ A ) = jwe ( - jwA - ÑV ) + J
2

Ñ 2 A + w 2 µeA - Ñ( jwµeV + Ñ × A) = - µJ

At the same time, assume Ñ × A + jwµeV = 0 (Lorentz Gauge)

E = - j wA - Ñ V
r
r Ñ × ( - j wA - Ñ V ) =
M.E.(3) Ñ×E = e
e
Ñ 2V Ñ × ÑV = Ñ 2V
r vector calculus identity
Ñ V + j wÑ × A = -
2

e
Ñ × A = - jwµeV
Note: The above two equations are coupled and have no unique solution
 Retarded Potentials
To uncouple previous equations Lorentz condition is introduced:
Ñ × A + jwµeV = 0
Therefore,

Ñ2 A + k 2 A = - µJ k = w µe Wave number

1
ÑV +k V =- r
2 2 These are vector and
e scalar wave equations !

Observation:
These differential equations relate the electromagnetic potentials to sources
Retarded
Solutions:
µ J (R i , t - R' / u p ) '
4p òv '
Time 1 r v (R i , t - R ' / u p ) A (R, t ) = dv
domain : V (R, t ) =
4pe ò
v'
R'
dv ' R'

~ ~ '
~ 1 r v ( R i )e - jkR '
~ µ J (R i )e - jkR '
Phasor: V (R ) =
4pe òv ' R'
dv '
A(R ) = ò
4p v ' R '
dv
 Solving Radiation Problems
STEP 1. Write down the expression of current density function J(r’)

STEP 2. From current density J(r ’) find vector potential A(r) using
~ - jkR '
~ µ J ( R i )e
4p òv '
A(R ) = '
dv '

R
1
STEP 3. Find magnetic field H = Ñ ´ A, based on the definition of the
µ
vector potential

1
STEP 4. Find electric field E = Ñ´H
jwe

Impedance relationship between E field and H field like

in the plane waves no longer hold generally