Radiation from an Oscillating Electric Dipole 1

Electric field lines of free-space wave for a λ/2 antenna

2
1.4 CURRENT DISTRIBUTION ON A THIN WIRE ANTENNA
Illustration of the creation of the current distribution on a linear dipole:

b- Flared Transmission line

a-Two wire Transmission line

c- Linear dipole
Fig. Current distribution on a lossless two-wire 3
transmission line, flared transmission line, and linear dipole.
Providing the diameter of each wire is
very small (d << λ)

Fig. Current distribution on linear dipoles 4

Fig. Current distribution on a λ/2 wire antenna for different times 5
1.5.2 Methods of Analysis

There are two fundamental methods:

1- Integral Equation (IE) method.

2- Geometrical Theory of Diffraction method (GTD).

Method 1 has two types:

a-Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE).
b-Magnetic Field Integral Equation (MFIE).

Another method called FDTD (finite difference time domain method)

6
 Chapter 2
Fundamental Parameters of Antennas

To describe the performance of an antenna, some parameters

must be defined (IEEE 145-1983 standard)
2.1. Radiation patterns:
An antenna radiation pattern or antenna pattern is defined as “a
mathematical function or a graphical representation of the
radiation properties of the antenna as a function of space
coordinates (In most cases, the radiation pattern is determined
in the far field region) and is represented as a function of the
directional coordinates.
Radiation properties include for example:

• Power flux density

• Radiation intensity

• Field strength

• Directivity

• Polarization
a. Field pattern (in linear scale) typically represents a plot of the
magnitude of the electric or magnetic field as a function of the angular
space at constant radius.
b. Power pattern (in linear scale) typically represents a plot of the square
of the magnitude of the electric or magnetic field as a function of the
angular space at constant radius.
c. Power pattern (in dB) represents the magnitude of the electric or
magnetic field, in decibels, as a function of the angular space at
constant radius.

By dividing the field/ power by its maximum we obtain a normalized plot 10

2.1.1 Radiation Pattern Lobes
Various parts of a radiation pattern are referred to as lobes, which may be
sub classified into major or main, minor, side, and back lobes.

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2.1.2 Isotropic, Directional, and Omnidirectional Patterns

An isotropic radiator is defined as “a hypothetical lossless antenna having equal

radiation in all directions.”

A directional antenna is one “having the property of radiating or receiving

electromagnetic waves more effectively in some directions than in others.

Omnidirectional antenna is defined as one “having an essentially non-directional

pattern in a given plane (in this case in azimuth) and a directional pattern in any
orthogonal plane (in this case in elevation).” An omnidirectional pattern is then a
special type of a directional pattern.