Chapter 2

Types of Antenna
There are many types of antennas in use depending upon size and frequency of operation.
Antennas are divided into these following types depending upon their size, frequency and
communication distance.
.
1) Linear wire Antennas.
2) Aperture Antennas.
3) Micro strip patch Antennas.
4) Array Antennas.
5) Reflector Antennas.
6) Lens Antenna.

1. Linear wire antennas

Wire antennas, linear or curved are some of the oldest, simplest, cheapest and in many cases the most
versatile for many applications. Linear wire antennas may consist of a single wire in the form of
monopole and dipole antennas. Wire antennas are mostly built in loop form. These loops can be of
different shapes like circular, square, rectangular, ellipse, helix or spring type. Some of them are as
shown in Figure 2.1

(a) Circular loop antenna (b) Simple wire antennas

Figure 2.1: Linear wire antennas
These types of antennas are used in automobiles, buildings, ships, aircrafts, spacecrafts etc. The most
common type is the circular wire antenna because of its easy construction.
 Short dipole antenna :

The short dipole antenna is the simplest of all antennas. It is simply an open-circuited wire, fed
at its center as shown in Figure (a).

Figure (a). Short dipole antenna of length L

The words "short" or "small" in antenna engineering always imply "relative to a

wavelength". So the absolute size of the above dipole antenna does not matter, only
the size of the wire relative to the wavelength of the frequency of operation.
Typically, a dipole is short if its length is less than a tenth of a wavelength:

If the short dipole antenna is oriented along the z-axis with the center of the dipole at
z=0, then the current distribution on a thin, short dipole is given by:

The current distribution is plotted in Figure (b). Note that this is the amplitude of the
current distribution; it is oscillating in time sinusoidally at frequency f.

Figure b. Current distribution along a short dipole antenna.

2. Aperture Antennas:

These antennas can transmit and receive electromagnetic waves through their apertures.
These apertures are the openings through which these antennas send and receive
electromagnetic waves.
Aperture antennas are horn (pyramidal, conical), waveguides (rectangular, circular). These
are high frequency antennas used in aircrafts or space crafts applications. Wave guides are
used with these kinds of antennas. These wave guides can be of rectangular or circular
type. Aperture antennas are shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: Aperture Antennas

3. Microstrip Patch Antenna:

 Introduction :

Microstrip antennas received considerable attention starting in the 1970s, although the idea
of microstrip patch antenna can be traced to 1953 and a patent in 1955. First micro strip
patch antenna was introduced in 1953 but practical implementation started in 1970s when
material for substrate was available.
Microstrip patch antennas are low profile, conformable to planner and non planner surfaces,
easy to fabricate using modern printed circuit technology, easy to install and versatile in
term of resonant frequency, polarization pattern, impedance. They are mostly used in
mobile, radio and wireless communication system.
  Structural Configuration:

Structural configuration of microstrip patch antenna is shown in fig 2.3. It consists of a metallic
patch on one side of dielectric material which is also called substrate, substrate or dielectric ( εr
) value depends on the material which can be copper, silver, Gold, Aluminum etc. Substrates
that are used is FR4 epoxy, polymer etc and their range of dielectric constants is 2.2 ≤ εr ≤ 12.
And ground is on the other side of the dielectric material. Patch can be rectangular, circular,
elliptical and triangular, dipole, square, angular or any other configuration. For rectangular
patch, the Length L of the element is usually 0.003λo < L < 0.05λo. Length height and width of
the patch and substrate can be found by using different equations.

Figure 2.3: Microstrip Antenna

 Properties of Microstrip Patch Antenna:

Microstrip patch antennas are easy to install and versatile in term of resonant frequency,
polarization pattern, impedance. Microstrip patch antenna can operate at frequency band of
100 MHz to 100 GHz and at multiple band frequencies.
Microstrip patch antenna has wide range of application due to its greater bandwidth. Micro
strip patch antennas have the property of wide band, narrow band as well as ultra wide
band on the basis of frequencies ranges. It also has the property of different feeding
techniques.

 Equations for Rectangular Patch Antenna:

Following are the formulas for calculating Length and Width of the microstrip patch antenna.
  Advantages and disadvantages:
Micro strip patch antennas have certain advantages and disadvantages which we discussed
below.

 Advantages.
Advantages of microstrip patch antennas are,

• Easy to handle and inexpensive (small and light).

• Reduction in size: Printed circuits are thin and thus require less volume
than waveguides or coaxial lines.
• Large scale fabrication.
• Can be dual band or dual polarized.
• Compatible with MMIC designs.
• Ability of polarization diversity (Linear or circular).
• Versatile in terms of frequency.
• Low profile antennas

• Disadvantages:
Disadvantages of microstrip patch antennas are,

• Narrow bandwidth.
• Low gain and efficiency.
• Low polarization purity.
• Large ohmic loss in large feed network.
• Radiation from feeds contributes to the radiation pattern.
• Excitation of surface waves.
• Poor scan performance.

• Applications:

Nowadays, microstrip patch antennas are used in many government and commercial
sector applications. It is inexpensive, easy to install and fabricate. They are low profile
antennas used in wireless communication, satellites and many other microwave
applications. These antennas can be used in high performance aircraft, spacecraft, and
missile. It is also practically used in satellites, mobile applications, base stations and in
cars. These antennas are also used in radars and as well as in security systems by the
government.
4. Array Antennas.
Array antennas are usually consists of many radiating elements combine together to form a
radiation pattern in the required direction. Array shows maximum radiation pattern in a
particular direction and minimum in the rest or otherwise whatever is required.
Array antennas can provide high gain and directivity that is very efficient in wireless
communication. Array antennas are used for very long distance communication for better
directivity and coverage. Examples of array antennas are yagi-uda array, micro strip patch
array, and slotted waveguide type arrays etc. These examples are also shown in Figure 3.4.

(a) Micro strip patch array (b) Yagi-Uda array

Figure 2.4: Array Antennas

5. Reflector Antennas.

Reflector antennas have reflectors used to converge or diverges the electromagnetic

radiation. These types of antennas are used in long distance communications.
The most well-known reflector antenna is the parabolic reflector antenna, commonly known as a
satellite dish antenna. Examples of this dish antenna are shown in the following Figures.
 Figure 2.5: The Big dish Antenna.

Figure 2.6: A random direct TV dish antenna on a roof .

Parabolic reflectors typically have a very high gain (30-40 dB is common) and low cross
polarization. They also have a reasonable bandwidth, with the fractional bandwidth being at
least 5% on commercially available models, and can be very wideband in the case of huge
dishes (like the Stanford "big dish" above, which can operate from 150 MHz to 1.5 GHz).
The smaller dish antennas typically operate somewhere between 2 and 28 GHz. The large
dishes can operate in the VHF region (30-300 MHz), but typically need to be extremely large at
this operating band.
The basic structure of a parabolic dish antenna is shown in Figure. It consists of a feed antenna
pointed towards a parabolic reflector. The feed antenna is often a horn antenna with a circular
aperture.

2.7: Components of a dish Antenna.

6. Lens Antenna.
Lens antennas operate at very high frequencies. This antenna uses a microwave lens,
which is very much similar to an optical lens to straighten the spherical wave fronts. Lens is
used to focus energy in a single point and prevents it to spreading at undesired locations.
Lens antennas are classified according to their material from which they are classified or
their geometrical shape. The Figure 2.8 shows the lens antenna.

Figure 2.8: The lens antenna.

 Advantages of lens antenna:

In lens antenna, the rays are transmitted away from the feed system, hence the
aperture is not obstructed due to the feed and feed support.
In lens antenna, as the waves enter from one side and leaves out from other
end, greater extent of wrapping and twisting is possible without disturbing
electrical path length.
Lens antenna can be used to feed at a point off the axis; so it is most extensive
used in applications where beam is needed to be moved angularly with respect
to axis.

 Disadvantages of lens antenna :

The disadvantages of lens antennas are as follows.

1. Lens antennas are bulkier.

2. Design of lens antenna is complicated.
3. Compared with reflectors, lens antennas are expensive for the same gain and
bandwidth requirements.

 Applications of lens antenna:

1. As lens antenna is a microwave antenna, it is most widely used at a

microwave frequency above 3000 Mhz.
2. For larger bandwidth requirements.
3. For narrow bandwidth applications.