Design Analysis and Manufacturing of

Compact UHF Wideband Slot Antenna

for Microwave Imaging of Steel Fiber
Reinforced Concrete
Performed at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)
SAFWAT IRTEZA BUTT
Master of Science Thesis
Barcelona, Spain 2008
Design Analysis and Manufacturing of
Compact UHF Wideband Slot Antenna
for Microwave Imaging of Steel Fiber
Reinforced Concrete
Performed at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)
SAFWAT IRTEZA BUTT
Master of Science Thesis performed at
Antenna Lab Group, UPC.
September 2008
Supervisor: Prof. Lluis Jofre(UPC)
Co-Supervisor: Gemma Roqueta (UPC)
Examiner: Prof. Peter Handel (KTH)
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Department of Signal Theory and Communications (TSC)
TSC/UPC 2008-X
c Safwat Irteza Butt, September 2008
Abstract
Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete(SFRC) has received considerable attention in
Modern Civil Engineering constructions. In order to attain required strength
and structural integrity in concrete, uniform distribution of steel ber content
is mandatory. Non-visibility inside concrete makes it dicult to assure uniformity
of steel bers. In the scope of this thesis, a non-destructive method as compared
to a destructive method of crushing and counting steel ber content to ensure its
uniform density in concrete is studied. Non-destructive approach involves the use
of microwaves which provide ease of penetrability, and enough resolution allow-
ing the discrimination of foreign materials inside concrete. A compact UHF wide
impedance matched microstrip antenna against concrete medium is designed and
analyzed. Microwave measurements are taken with concrete surface in contact
with antennas aperture to avoid environment ambiguities in measurement. This
solution of designing in-medium antenna provides greater penetrability into host
medium, isolation of unwanted noisy signals and a lighter measurement device.
Mathematical formulation based on Maxwell-Garnetts equation is used to derive
relationship between steel ber density and real eective permittivity of a hetero-
geneous medium. Homogenous medium of a concrete wall with a real permittivity
of 4.5 is depicted in Radiographic images. Detection of metal objects in concrete
wall has led to authenticity and verication of the measurement techniques. In
the end, a novel insight into the SFRC slab has provided an image of distribution
of steel bers, depicting an overall strength of the SFRC slab.
i
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Prof. Lluis Jofre for providing me an opportunity to perform my
Masters Research Thesis in his Antenna group. As a supervisor, his support and
guidance has always been a valuable asset for my thesis. His keen interest and
discussions over the work always provided a ray of hope in dicult times. I am
really thankful to his valuable contributions in my thesis work.
I would like to specially thank and express my heartily gratitude to my co-
supervisor Gemma Roqueta. I think most of the things in my work would not
have been possible without her mature and professional support. She has been a
true guidance in dicult times and always providing insightful comments. I am
really obliged to her help and support during my stay in Spain. I am thankful
for her corrections and editing of this report. I would like to pay all my gratitude
to the people of Department of Signal Theory and Communications at UPC for
providing me a congenial environment. I am obliged to their support in under-
standing ocial procedures. I have found people here very co-operative and fun to
work with. I am greatly thankful to Santiago for his help in understanding many
theoretical problems. His knowledge really eased out problems during simulations
and measurements. I would also like to thank Beatriz for her help during the
project and providing support during measurements in Antenna Lab.
In the end, I would like thank my family specially my mother for hearing me
out during this time. I always found encouraging remarks from my father which
always provided motivation during dicult times. I am also thankful to my brother
for his help over various issues back home.
iii
Table of Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 State of the Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Problem Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Initial Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing 7
2.1 Why Microstrip Wideband antennas? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Ground-Plane Slot Antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 A Single Microstrip Feedline Slot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 Design Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4.1 Use of Reector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4.2 Use of Resistive Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6 Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.7 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.7.1 Impedance Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.7.2 Radiation Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.7.3 Radiation Eciency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 Measurement Techniques 23
3.1 What is a Reection Approach? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2 What is a Transmission Approach? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.1 Time Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.2 Phase Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4 Microwave Imaging 29
4.1 Why Microwave Imaging? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 Concrete Wall Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2.1 Object Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.3 Concrete Slab Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
v
vi Table of Contents
5 Conclusions 37
References 39
A Aperture Theory 43
B Stepwise Guideline for Positive Photo Chemical Machining 47
List of Figures
2.1 A single microstrip feedline slot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Circuit model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Antenna Design - Top View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4 HFSS Model - Exploded View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5 Manufactured Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6 Impedance Bandwidth (S11) - measured and simulated . . . . . . . 16
2.7 Measurement Setup - computing attenuation constant . . . . . . . . 17
2.8 Hplane 350-450MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.9 Hplane - 550-650MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.10 Hplane 700-800MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.11 Eplane 350-450MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.12 Eplane - 550-650MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.13 Eplane 700-800MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.14 Radiation Eciency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1 Lab Measurement Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 Impulse Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Real Permittivity vs SF Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.4 Phase variation as a function of frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.5 Real Permittivity vs Frequency using Phase Analysis . . . . . . . . 28
3.6 Real Permittivity vs SF Density using Phase Analysis . . . . . . . . 28
4.1 Lab setup for Wall imaging with a metallic object . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2 Image of Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Time Analysis) . . . 30
4.3 Image of Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Phase Analysis) . . . 31
4.4 Metal Object Detection in Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Time
Analysis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.5 Metal Object Detection in Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Phase
Analysis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.6 A Specimen of Concrete Slab used in Tunnel Construction . . . . . 33
4.7 Pixel Image of Concrete Slab using Time Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.8 Pixel Image of Concrete Slab using Phase Analysis . . . . . . . . . 34
vii
List of Figures 1
4.9 Contour Image of Concrete Slab using Time Analysis . . . . . . . . 35
4.10 Contour Image of Concrete Slab using Phase Analysis . . . . . . . . 35
A.1 Rectangular aperture over an innite ground plane . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Problem Statement
Civil engineering structures mainly rely on concrete as a construction material.
Mechanical properties of concrete depend on the ingredient of mixture and drying
process. Mixture normally comprises of cement, water, gravel or stone and sand.
Dierent ratios of the mixture contents are used according to their applications
such as garden walls, motorways, subway tunnels etc. Drying or curing process
takes few months to completely dehydrate and desiccate concrete. Over the years
these processes have been rened and improved so as to achieve greater shear
strength and durability in the nal concrete block.
One of the revolutionary improvements is to use steel bers instead of sand as
mixture ingredient to achieve greater shear strength [1]. It results to provide
greater exibility and a less expensive solution than the conventional hand-tied
rebars, while still increasing the tensile strength many times. Regular sizes for
European shotcretes use are 1mm diameter and 50 mm length. The conglomerate
need to have a certain volumetric density of bers (normally around 40Kg/m
3
) ho-
mogenously distributed over the structure to ensure a prescribed tensile strength,
and this has to be inspected during and after the pouring process. Therefore, the
pouring process needs to be carefully carried out so that a denite distribution is
achieved in concrete.
There are dierent methods to determine the ber content in the concrete af-
ter drying. Nowadays the steel ber density is inspected by crushing a piece of the
complete block and counting the number of bers [2, 3]. This can be classied as a
destructive method for determining the ber content in concrete. A study on de-
termining the ber concentration using a nondestructive microwave method [4, 5]
1
2 Chapter 1. Introduction
is inspected here. Microwave technique will be fast and will provide radiographic
images of the big concrete block which can be approximately of any dimension.
Thus, an image of volumetric density of steel bers can be obtained to ensure a
certain strength level of the concrete block before or after the drying process.
In this chapter, formulation of steel ber content is discussed along with initial
studies using dierent types of antennas for obtaining real permittivity of SFRC.
In the next chapter an improved and light weighted antenna is designed based on
the pragmatic studies of previous section. In Chapter III sample SFRC blocks are
analyzed against microwave measurements techniques using Reection and Trans-
mission approaches. These measurement techniques are formalized in time and
phase analysis to obtain real eective permittivity of SFRC. In Chapter IV, mi-
crowave imaging is employed to obtain Radiographic pixel and contour images of
a concrete Wall and a SFRC Slab used in constructions. In the last chapter of
this thesis study, conclusions based on merits and demerits of dierent microwave
techniques along with future work have been discussed.
1.2 State of the Art
As mentioned earlier, in past destructive methods have been mostly used for analy-
sis of SFRC. These destructive methods mainly consist of two techniques supported
by UNE 83512-1:2005. Both of these techniques involve a magnetic approach. In
rst a sample SFRC block is crushed and steel bers are separated using a mag-
net, count of the steel bers give density value in the sample. Second technique
measures magnetic induction around a SFRC block. These methods have been
used extensively in concrete manufacturing. But these methods severally suer
from global information of the whole concrete. As the measurement indicates a
local density value and assumption is made for the whole SFRC slab.
Modern advancements in acoustics and microwaves have led to rened non-destructive
methods of analyzing SFRC slab. Drawbacks such as providing global informa-
tion of SFRC slabs have also been addressed. The focus of these schemes have
been mainly damage analysis of civil structure and monitoring hidden materials
inside concrete. Available techniques used recently their application and current
drawbacks is given below
Acoustic Inspection: Acoustic Emission Testing (AET) is a method for
determining damage of materials such as pipes inside concrete. This method
provides results which are highly dispersive and sensitive to interference [4,
6, 7, 8].
1.3. Problem Formulation 3
Electric Inspection: This method involves an Impedance electroscope [9,
10, 11, 12] to detect bers. Also the moisture level and dierent relaxation
levels ascribed to the concrete and the bers. It has a drawback related to
the coupling of reected signal with oor, and interferences with structural
metallic re-bars.
Magnetic Inspection: Use of magnetic coils is a robust system to retrieve
accurate information about the orientation of the bers. However, this is a
destructive method and so it deviates from the initial objectives.
Ground Penetrating Radars: Ground Penetrating Radars are used for
the damage detection of civil structures [13, 15], providing information about
big irregularities with high penetrability. Nevertheless, this method presents
some inconveniences at the near eld, and is highly aected by the multipath
reections.
Open-Ended Coaxial Transmission Line: The open-ended coaxial trans-
mission line (OCTL) [1, 14] can give information about the ber density but
it severely suers from penetrability.
Time Domain Reectometry: Time Domain Reectometry (TDR) is
also used by means of coplanar lines [16, 17], but also has poor penetrability
due to the strong connement of the elds.
1.3 Problem Formulation
Steel ber reinforced concrete consists of a heterogenous mixture content. Mi-
crowaves due to their penetrability capability can easily distinguish between steel
ber from concrete. But if the incident microwave wavelength is much larger than
the longest dimension of ber which is length l
fib
in our case, a SFRC slab can
be categorized as a homogenous medium with an eective permittivity of
eff
and
the presence of steel ber is not detected. Electromagnetic modeling of these steel
bers is being carried out in [18] and an implementation in [1].
In electromagnetic theory, A metallic steel ber can be considered as a prolate
spheroid with length l
fib
and diameter d
fib
. A randomly placed steel ber induces
dipole moments accounting for the additional polarization density to host medium
concrete. An average polarization value for these metallic wires is given by
P =

n
4
_
2
0
_

0
Esin dd (1.1)
4 Chapter 1. Introduction
with being the polarizability dyadic of the individual ber. An approach using
popular Maxwell-Garnett formula for randomly oriented conducting spheroids
in a homogenous host medium can be applied to obtain the eective permittivity.
This method has been used in [19], such that eective permittivity is given by

eff
=
con
+

n
3

3
i=1

i
1

n
3
con

3
i=1

i
N
i
(1.2)
An expression for polarizability of an object with a dielectric permittivity
o
placed
inside a homogenous medium with a uniform incident static electric eld as given
in [20]

i
= v
con
1

con
(
con

o
)
+N
i
(1.3)
which for a conducting object as steel ber (
o
) in our scenario can be ap-
proximated as

i
= v
con
1
N
i
(1.4)
where v is the volume d
2
fib
l
fib
/4 of steel ber Using the depolarizing factors for a
given metallic spheroid as stated in [1]
N
1
=
(d
fib
/l
fib
)
2
2(1 (d
fib
/l
fib
)
2
)
3
2
_
ln
(1 +
_
1 (d
fib
/l
fib
)
2
)
(1
_
1 (d
fib
/l
fib
)
2
)
2
_
1 (d
fib
/l
fib
)
2
_
(1.5)
N
2
= N
3
=
(1 N
1
)
2
(1.6)
Using equation 1.4 and putting in equation 1.2 we can obtain the steel ber density
in the host concrete medium, knowing the mass m of the steel ber used in the
concrete mixture by the following expression.
=
v
m(1 +

con
3(
eff

con
)

3
i=1
1
N
i
)
(1.7)
1.4 Initial Study
In order to determine specications of the antenna to be used for measurements an
initial study was carried out. In order to achieve better penetrability, resolution
and discrimination, a compromise between high and low frequencies was made. In
the experimental investigations and a theoretical explanation by [21] a criteria for
the frequency of antenna can be estimated as:
=

2
(1.8)
1.4. Initial Study 5
where is the longest dimension of the steel ber in the host medium (concrete)
and is the eective wavelength. In our case length is the longest dimension of
steel ber.
An initial free space measurement setup for SFRC blocks with UHF Horn antennas
was prepared. Due to mismatching and poor impedance bandwidth of antennas
with concrete, measurements suered from reliability, accuracy and repeatability.
It requires more accurate and complex calibration methods. Also the weight and
big size of the antennas presented an unappealing solution. A next step towards
the analysis of concrete slabs was a monopole patch antenna. This was designed
with wide impedance matching in concrete material. But due to the omnidirec-
tional pattern of the antenna, measurements for real permittivity suered from the
back lobe radiation. Therefore, a more compact, directional and wide impedance
bandwidth antenna at UHF was proposed for further measurements.
Chapter 2
Antenna Design, Analysis and
Manufacturing
2.1 Why Microstrip Wideband antennas?
A wideband antenna is required to achieve a narrow transmitting pulse in time
domain. Narrow pulse provides better resolution in microwave imaging and also
minimizes measurements sensitivity against frequency dependent material proper-
ties. Wideband antenna designs are mainly inspired from a monopole or dipole
antenna. As explained in [22], they can be tapered slot or loop antennas. Printed
circuit antennas due to their low form factor and practical applicability has at-
tracted many researches for their use in modern applications. On the other side,
PCB or microstrip antennas severely suer from narrow bandwidth as for a sim-
ple patch antenna the maximum achievable bandwidth is around 1%. A simple
relation for PCB antennas taking height h of dielectric substrate and its relative
permittivity
r
is given as [23].
BW
kh

r
(2.1)
Thus in order to increase the bandwidth, we can decrease dielectric substrates

r
but this is hard to achieve beyond a certain value and also an expensive solu-
tion. It also increases the size of the antenna which overshadows the advantage
of compactness inherited with these antennas. Increasing height can also pro-
vide wideband properties, which includes multilayered substrate antennas. It is
technologically dicult and expensive to manufacture multilayered or large height
substrate printed circuit boards. Also adding substrate layers and increasing sub-
strate height compromises the advantage of low form factor aliated to these
antennas.
7
8 Chapter 2. Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
2.2 Ground-Plane Slot Antennas
Keeping intact the merits inherited to microstrip antennas, use of slot in ground
plane provide wide impedance bandwidth along with reduction of the size of an-
tennas. This conguration has received greater attention over the past three and
a half decades due its compactness and wideband features. First Microstrip slot
antenna was proposed by Yoshimura in 1972 [24]. Later Pozar , Das and Kim in
[25] employed a reciprocity method to provide a theoretical and electromagnetic
explanation for microstrip fed and aperture coupled slot antennas.
Initially, a practical implementation of slot antennas was considered to be short-
ing of the slot with a feeding line using a via wire. This was later replaced by a
design where an extension of feeding line to /4 length realized a short circuit to
the slot. This gave an ease of manufacturing and applicability to the antenna. A
circuit model for a radiating and broadband slot has been explained in [26, 27],
whereas a more design oriented study has been carried out in [28]. In recent years,
due to demands of low transmit power, high throughput eciency and high data
rates in wireless communications several designs using printed slot are considered
in current research topics [34].
2.3 A Single Microstrip Feedline Slot
In order to develop relationship for a tuning fork shaped microstrip line fed slot
antenna, it is necessary to study modeling of a single microstrip line fed slot
antenna. An approximate model for centered microstrip fed slot has been discussed
in [29]. Normalized admittance of the radiating slot can be given as [33]
Figure 2.1: A single microstrip
feedline slot
Figure 2.2: Circuit model
Y
s
= G+jB (2.2)
2.3. A Single Microstrip Feedline Slot 9
where G and B are the slot radiation conductance and susceptance respectively.
B is stated in [29] as
B = (
2
Z
cs
) cot
L

s
(2.3)
where Z
cs
is the characteristic impedance of the slot, and L

s
is the eective length
of the slot i.e. L
s
W
t
, W
t
being the width of the transmission line. In above
equation
s
=

o

rs
,
o
being the free space wavelength and
rs
is the eective
permittivity of the slot. This is an important factor in determining the resonant
frequency of the slot as discussed in [33]. G slot radiation conductance can be
obtained using [29]
G =
Total Power Radiated by Slot
(V oltage Across the Centre of Slot)
2
G =
_

0
sin
2
(
L

cos ) tan
2
sin d
120
2
(2.4)
where for asymptotic values derived given in [32] when L

s
<<
o
this can approx-
imated as
G =
1
90
(
L

o
)
2
(2.5)
Self inductances of the slot and the transmission line can be found using following
equations
L
1
=
Z
ct

rt
W
t
c
(2.6)
L
2
=
Z
cs

rs
W
s
c
(2.7)
c is equal to 3 10
8
m/s speed of light in vacuum and Z
ct
is the characteristic
impedance of feeding transmission line. Mutual inductance between the slot and
feeding line can be obtained using [30]
M =
W
s
ln sec(tan
1
(Ls

/2h))
2
(2.8)
where h is the height of the substrate In a similar manner equivalent admittance
of open-circuit stub can be found using [29] derivation
Y
o
= G
o
+B
o
(2.9)
where B
o
open ended susceptance can be found using open ended capacitance C
o
due to the extra length of fringing elds which can be computed using [32]
L
o
= 0.412h
(
ro
+ 0.3)(W
t
+ 0.264h)
(
ro
0.258)(W
t
+ 0.8h)
(2.10)
10 Chapter 2. Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
C
o
=
L
o

ro
cZ
co
, B
o
= C
o
(2.11)
here
ro
is the eective permittivity of open ended stub of length L
o
. Radiation
conductance of the stub is given by [30]
G
o
= 160(
h
Z
co

ro
)
2
(2.12)
Thus nding the input impedance for a single microstrip fed slot can be concluded
as [29]
Z
in
= 1/Y
s
+ 1/Y
o
(2.13)
In our case antenna requirement is to have wide impedance matching when con-
tacted with concrete. Dry concrete can be modeled as a dielectric medium with a
real permittivity reported to be 4 <
rcon
< 7 in [36]. Slot aperture is sandwiched
between a dielectric layer of concrete and Fr-4 substrate. If the eect of thickness
of concrete is ignored, the eective permittivity of slot can be approximated as an
average of relative permittivities of substrate and concrete as shown in equation
below. Therefore matching antenna to a x wide band impedance in a concrete
medium, slot eective permittivity has to be approximated as

rs
=

con
+
r
2
(2.14)
Electric eld lines are mainly conned inside the dielectric substrate for these kind
of structures so the eective permittivity for transmission lines is calculated using

rt
=

r
+ 1
2
+

r
1
2W
(W + 12h)

1
2
(2.15)
A slot aperture antenna has a Qausi-Omni directional radiation pattern discussed
in appendix A. Use of an aperture as a radiating element results in a high level of
coupling, which must be controlled reduced to properly achieve wide impedance of
slot. This can be achieved by varying the size of aperture or using complex feeding
topologies. As discussed in [28] an oset feedline can achieve greater impedance
bandwidth as compared to center feedline topology. But this method suers from
increased cross polarization. A method to overcome this problem and achieve
greater impedance bandwidth is an approach of dual-oset feedline as shown in
gure 2.3. This also provides multiple resonant modes in the structure in order to
achieve wide impedance bandwidth of antenna.
2.4 Design Parameters
In order to achieve compactness and greater impedance bandwidth, a FR-4 sub-
strate with dielectric permittivity of
r
= 4.4 is used with a thickness of h =
2.4. Design Parameters 11
1.6mm. In this section antenna design parameters are calculated, keeping in con-
sideration the requirement of operating frequency from 350-650MHz at-least indi-
cated in [18].
Slot resonant frequency is dependent mainly on the slot length which should be
approximately half of an eective wavelength. In this design slot length S
l
is taken
to be
g
/2 where
g
=

o

rs
at 400MHz.
rs
is calculated using equation [above]
with
rcon
= 6. Self inductance of the slot is controlled by the slot width S
w
and
is taken to be 0.16 S
l
. Many authors have shown that increasing the width of
slot can result in greater impedance bandwidth [31]. As in PCB antennas, orien-
tation of eld lines is from transmission line towards slot plane (ground plane).
Therefore, ground plane width G
w
=

o
/2

rt
and ground plane length is taken to be
slightly smaller than width G
w
= 0.83 G
l
. This results in an eective size of
the ground plane to be 0.3
o
0.25
o
which is the smallest size reported at UHF
band compared to the antennas designed previously. Feedline structure consists
Figure 2.3: Antenna Design - Top View
of a 50 impedance line divided into dual-oset 100 lines. In order to achieve
the specied characteristic impedance on Fr-4 substrate width of the transmission
12 Chapter 2. Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
line is calculated using
Z
ct
=
60

rt
ln[
8h
W
t
+
W
t
4h
]
W
t
h
1 (2.16a)
Z
ct
=

rt
[
W
t
h
+ 1.393 + 0.667 ln(
W
t
h
+ 1.444)]
W
t
h
> 1 (2.16b)
Transmission Feeding line length of 100 as suggested in [28] is selected such that
it is.
F
l
=

o
4

rt
. Oset distance between the two feeding line is critical and quite
sensitive to impedance bandwidth. It is chosen to be F
off
=

g
4
where
g
is guide
wavelength of slot.
2.4.1 Use of Reector
A drawback related to this antenna is equal amount of power radiated in upper
and lower hemispheres. A traditional approach towards reducing the backward
radiation is a use of metallic reector below the feeding line. Reector cancels
the backward radiation and provides gain in end-re lobe, but at the same time it
also reduces the impedance bandwidth if separation distance S between reector
and feeding structure is less than quarter of a free space wavelength. Therefore,
reector dimensions and separation distance play an important role in volumetric
dimensions of a complete antenna.
One approach to reduce separation distance S is to ll a high dielectric mate-
rial in between. Therefore distance between reector is reduced by a factor of
1

rmat
. If epoxy (currently available) is used which has a relative permittivity of
3.15 separation distance is reduced by almost half. But at the same time weight
of the epoxy ( = 1kg/dm
3
) becomes a big contributor to the total weight of the
system.
To achieve greater front-to-back ratio with minimal impedance bandwidth lost,
reduction in reectors width R
w
is proposed in [34] such that coupling aect to
feedline is avoided. In this way, reector separation distance can be decreased
and reduction in the total weight of antenna. In simulations separation distance
between reector and feeding line is optimized to achieve maximum impedance
bandwidth along with Front-to-Back(FBR) ratio greater than 10dB.
Reector length is taken to be R
l
=

o
2
, increasing this increases the front to
back ratio. Reducing reector width increases impedance bandwidth whereas it
2.5. Simulations 13
has inverse eect on FBR ratio. Reector width is adjusted to achieve maximum
impedance bandwidth while maintaining FBR ratio greater than 10dB.
2.4.2 Use of Resistive Loading
A technique to enhance antenna impedance bandwidth is to absorb the capacitive
eects using resistor specially used in Ground Penetrating Radar antennas. This
is also benecial in removing ringing eects and obtain a smooth sharp impulse in
time domain. As we are interested in time domain analysis of a transmitted pulse
use of resistor is recommended.
It is observed that resistor greatly increases the impedance bandwidth. There
is no signicant change in the directional pattern of the antenna. But it is impor-
tant to mention here that it come at cost of low radiation eciency. Radiation
eciency is reduced to almost 60%. Bandwidth increases from 32% to almost
75% with use of a 1 kilo Ohm but at a cost of eciency reduction. As concrete
measurements are taken in near-eld where radiation eciency does not inuence.
Therefore signicance of high radiation eciency is not signicant in this study.
2.5 Simulations
Numerical techniques are required to solve big structures which have complex
and irregular geometries and can not be solved manually. These numerical tech-
niques for electromagnetic problems are known as Computational Electromag-
netic(CEM). The most common methods used these days are Finite-Dierence
Time Domain method(FDTD), the Finite Element method(FEM) and the Method
of Moments(MoM). Currently available softwares at UPC are Ansoft HFSS and
CST Microwave Studio.
HFSS employs a FEM technique to solve for electromagnetic behavior of a struc-
ture. HFSS computes E-eld in frequency domain directly and calculates H-eld
using Maxwell equations indirectly. Time domain parameters are calculated using
inverse fourier transform. Instead, CST uses a FDTD approach and solves for
E-eld in time domain, it obtains the H-eld indirectly using Maxwell equations
in time domain. Frequency dependent parameters are calculated using the Fourier
transformation.
Both numerical techniques use a volumetric based solution therefore simulation
parameters for example mesh size, density etc. can be optimized to achieve accu-
rate results and is used in this study to achieve a robust modeling of the antenna
14 Chapter 2. Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
design.
The antenna structure is modeled in HFSS and a concrete block of 40 40 30
is placed above the antenna. An exploded view of the antenna is shown in the
gure 2.4. Optimized parameters for the antenna dimensions are shown in table
2.1. The antenna is modeled and simulated in Ansoft HFSS v11 on a machine
Figure 2.4: HFSS Model - Exploded View
Design parameters Optimized Values Dimension
Ground plane length (G
l
) 22.4 cm
Ground plane width (G
w
) 18.9 cm
Slot length (S
l
) 16.6 cm
Slot width (S
w
) 2.75 cm
Fork arm length (St
1
+St
2
) 11.6 cm
Fork arm oset (F
off
) 11.6 cm
Reector length (R
l
) 37.5 cm
Reector width (R
w
) 8 cm
Reector separation distance (S) 10 cm
Substrate height (h) 0.16 cm
Substrate
r
4.4
Resistor (R) 1.1k ohms
Table 2.1: Model Design Parameters
with a processor speed of 1.8GHz, RAM size of 512 Mbytes and Hard disk size
2.6. Manufacturing 15
of 60Gbytes. A single simulation over a frequency of 300-700MHz with discrete
8 sampling points takes an average of 70,000 tetrahedral mesh cells to converge.
Completion time for a simulation varies from 11-12 hours approximately which
has been a limiting factor in simulating such kind of structures. Due to bigger
structure, multiple dielectric materials and broadband analysis of the antenna
processing machine memory size plays a critical role.
2.6 Manufacturing
Manufacturing of modeled antenna is carried out using a positive Photo Chemical
Machining(PCM) process. This process is carefully performed at Antenna Lab
in UPC. A stepwise approach towards manufacturing is explained in appendix B.
Manufactured antenna is shown in gure 2.5
Figure 2.5: Manufactured Antenna
2.7 Results
2.7.1 Impedance Bandwidth
In gure 2.6 measured and simulated S
11
or impedance bandwidth of the antenna
is shown. It was required to achieve an wide impedance bandwidth with criteria
S
11
10dB. Measured results of the antenna has shown an impedance band-
width of approximately 75%. Greater bandwidth in frequency domain results in
16 Chapter 2. Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
a narrow transmission pulse in time domain which in terms of imaging provides
better resolution inside host medium.
Figure 2.6: Impedance Bandwidth (S11) - measured and simulated
2.7.2 Radiation Pattern
It is dicult to measure radiation pattern (D()) for this antenna in anechoic
chamber because medium of propagation is air. The antenna is designed with
concrete being the medium of propagation. To overcome this problem a setup
is made along with a uniform concrete wall without any metallic objects inside.
Receiving antenna is mounted on a PC-controlled positioner and transmitting
antenna is placed on the opposite of the concrete wall mounted on a stationary
Tripod-stand. Forward transmission S
21
is recorded using a Personal Network
Analyzer(PNA) at every scanning step. If Far-eld condition (d <
2D
2

) where is
the eective wavelength in the medium, is fullled then S
21
can be approximated
as
S
21
= D()

4r
21
e
r
12
e
jr
21
(2.17)
Here is the attenuation constant and the unknown parameter. For relative
permittivity of concrete is taken to be 4.5. is determined using the reection
parameter S
11
of concrete. A metallic object assuming it to be a perfect reector
is placed on one side of concrete wall and its reection is measured using antenna
on other side. This is more like a radar approach as transmitter and receiver is
the same antenna. In time domain reection is gated to isolate other reections.
This gated pulse is converted to frequency domain and recorded. This measured
S
11
is given as 2.18 and a measurement setup in gure 2.7.
S
11
= D( = 0)

42d
e
2d
e
j2d
(2.18)
2.7. Results 17
Using equation 2.18 and putting relative permittivity given above attenuation
constant is obtained for respective frequencies. Putting the values obtained in
equation A.3 and solving for D() gives the radiation pattern shown in gures
below. This method considers far-eld assumption which is a strict assumption.
Also the environment reection may eect the measurement as readings are not
taken in a perfect isolated environment like anechoic chamber.
Figure 2.7: Measurement Setup - computing attenuation constant
It is seen in the radiation plots that FBR 10dB. Being a rectangular slot
aperture width is smaller than its length therefore radiation pattern is better in
Hplane than Eplane. As discussed in appendix A Eplane radiation pattern depends
on width of aperture slot whereas Hplane is dependent on length of aperture slot.
Side lobes are also strong in Eplane due to the same fact discussed in appendix
A. As the reector used is not exactly a broadband reector so the separation dis-
tance plays an important role in achieving directionality at dierent frequencies.
Antenna is more directional at higher frequencies, greater than 350MHz.
18 Chapter 2. Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
Figure 2.8: Hplane 350-450MHz
Figure 2.9: Hplane - 550-650MHz
2.7. Results 19
Figure 2.10: Hplane 700-800MHz
Figure 2.11: Eplane 350-450MHz
20 Chapter 2. Antenna Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
Figure 2.12: Eplane - 550-650MHz
Figure 2.13: Eplane 700-800MHz
2.7. Results 21
2.7.3 Radiation Eciency
As discussed before that resistor is used in order to remove the ringing eects
at higher frequencies but radiation eciency is dropped in this case. The eect
of using resistor is shown in gure2.14 in terms of radiation eciency which is
determined through simulations. It can be seen that radiation eciency is dropped
to approximately 60% in operating bandwidth. As measurements are taken in near
eld therefore we are not concerned about eciency due to the fact that we have
enough received power from the point of view of signal-to-noise ratio.
Figure 2.14: Radiation Eciency
Chapter 3
Measurement Techniques
In order to characterize dierent densities of concrete materials, sample concrete
blocks were prepared by the Civil Engineering Department at Universitat Politec-
nica de Catalunya (UPC). These blocks of dimension 0.15 0.15 0.15m
3
contained
variable steel ber densities 0kg/m
3
, 20kg/m
3
, 40kg/m
3
and 60kg/m
3
. A mea-
surement setup was established consisting of Agilent Personal Network Analyzer
E8362B (20 MHz - 20GHz), microwave low loss cables with SMA connectors on
each end and a stand for holding the blocks and the antennas. In gure 3.1 test
setup for lab measurements is shown In order to determine real permittivity value
Figure 3.1: Lab Measurement Setup
of SFRC blocks, two types of methods are considered here
Reection
Transmission
23
24 Chapter 3. Measurement Techniques
3.1 What is a Reection Approach?
It comprises of an antenna attached to Material Under Test (MUT) with a metal-
lic reector on opposite side. When a transmitted signal experiences a medium
change not whole of the signal is transmitted and some portion of the signal is
reected back known as the reected signal. In this method this reected signal
from MUT is measured using S
11
scattering parameter in PNA. This approach
requires complex calibration and also removal of the undesired signals such that a
reection coecient of MUT is extracted. This technique can be performed in
both time domain (reected pulse) or frequency domain (phase shift) to acquire
real permittivity
con
of concrete.
=
1

con
1 +

con
(3.1)
3.2 What is a Transmission Approach?
Material Under Test is placed between two antennas as shown in gure 3.1. It
determines S
21
transmitted signal through MUT. It is like a free-space transmission
technique employed in [35] in past. Due to its simplicity, many authors have
previously used this technique and have dened simpler calibration procedures
such as TRL, TRM and LRL. This technique can also be performed in time domain
(transmitted pulse) or frequency domain (phase shift) to acquire concretes real
permittivity value
con
. These approaches are discussed next in detail along with
practical measurements.
T =
(1
2
)
1
2
e
2d
(3.2)
3.2.1 Time Analysis
In time domain wave propagation time is dependent on the distance d and eective
velocity in the medium, considering c = 3 10
8
m/s as the velocity of light then
t =
d

r
c
(3.3)
This time delay can be measured with the help of a modern Personal Network
Analyzer E8362B by recording the S
21
orS
12
measurement in frequency and then
post processing it using IFFT algorithm to determine the time domain response.
In this measurement Port Extension feature of the network analyzer is utilized so
as the measurement reference plane is in the center of xture in air. This will
perform the phase shift and zero the time delay for air. Now time delay seen due
3.2. What is a Transmission Approach? 25
to a material placed between the transmitting and receiving antenna will be the
absolute time delay due to the material. In other words t t
mut
for 3.4
t = t
mut
t
air
=
d
air
d
mut

r
c
(3.4)
It can be clearly seen in 3.2.1 time delay is increased as the density of steel ber is
increased in the concrete. This clear distinction in the delay can help us developing
a relation between the ber density and the real permittivity. Therefore solving
3.4 and assuming feeding line length in air i.e. d
air
d
mut
and concrete to be
constant real permittivity can be obtained as
Figure 3.2: Impulse Response

r
= (1 +
ct
d
)
2
(3.5)
A drawback in using the time domain analysis for permittivity measurements is
multiple path reection. Due to multiple path reection main pulse received cannot
be due to shortest path available. It can be due to reections within the medium.
It has been proposed in [35] to avoid this ambiguity a path length should be such
that a 10dB one way attenuation exists.
3.2.2 Phase Analysis
A ratio of complex amplitude of electromagnetic wave at the source to the am-
plitude at a distance d is known as the propagation constant . Propagation
26 Chapter 3. Measurement Techniques
Figure 3.3: Real Permittivity vs SF Density
constant depends on the attenuation constant of the material and phase constant
by relation.
= +i (3.6)
The forward transmission scattering parameter S
21
measured using PNA is related
to propagation constant
S
21
e
d
(3.7)
Therefore phase angle in radians of material under test, measured is equal to
d.
= d (3.8)
where = 2

r
/. Taking derivative of the phase angle can lead to the real
permittivity value of material under test (concrete).
d
df
=
2d

r
c
(3.9)
Due to greater number of unknown and ambiguous parameters absolute phase
constant is dicult to measure. A relative approach is adopted here such that a
relative phase change due to material as compared in air is used to calculate real
permittivity value of concrete. This can be achieved by extending the measurement
reference plane to the center in air. In this case change of phase angle measured
when concrete block is placed, is related to real permittivity by

=
_
1 +

o
2d
_
2
(3.10)
3.2. What is a Transmission Approach? 27
Instead of having a frequency as a function permittivity, an approximate value of
the permittivity can be obtained using the phase derivative approach mentioned
above which makes equation 3.10 as

=
_
1 +
d
df
1
2d
_
2
(3.11)
In gure 3.6 it can be seen that both approaches result in approaches same

values except for 20kg/m

3
SFRC block which might be due to uncertainties of
multi-path reection associated to time domain readings.
Figure 3.4: Phase variation as a function of frequency
28 Chapter 3. Measurement Techniques
Figure 3.5: Real Permittivity vs Frequency using Phase Analysis
Figure 3.6: Real Permittivity vs SF Density using Phase Analysis
Chapter 4
Microwave Imaging
4.1 Why Microwave Imaging?
A growing requirement of the modern world is to have cheap, less hazardous, and
conformal imaging technologies. Microwave imaging is helpful in providing the
properties and shape of hidden objects. This technique is commonly used in in
Ground Penetration Radars (GPR) or breast cancer detection these days due to
its penetrability, good resolution and harmless property inside skin.
Strength of the concrete slab is proportional to uniform distribution of steel bers.
It is shown in equation 1.7 and concluded in previous chapter that density of steel
bers is proportional to real permittivity. Therefore, using real permittivity values
measured at several points of SFRC slab are converted into approximate volumet-
ric densities of steel bers which is represented by radiographic image to depict an
approximate overall strength of the SFRC slab. Eect of imaginary part of real
permittivity is assumed to be negligible in this derivation. SFRC slab of dimension
shown in gure 4.6 is segmented into a matrix.
4.2 Concrete Wall Imaging
Before moving towards microwave imaging of actual construction SFRC slabs an
investigation of imaging is applied on a homogenous medium i.e. a Concrete Wall
(thickness 14.5cm)to gain condence on proposed measurement system. This study
involves the transmission approach mentioned in previous chapter with both time
and phase analysis. Receiving antenna is mounted on a linear positioner, which
can scan a linear distance of 1.3m. Transmitted antenna is mounted on a
Tripod-Stand and is moved manually. A computer controls the movement of the
motor and recording of the S
21
parameter from PNA. This setup is shown in
29
30 Chapter 4. Microwave Imaging
gure 4.1. It is necessary to mention here that motor step in x-direction is 8 cms
comprising of approximately 17 positions in the scan. In y-direction antennas are
elevated by a step of 10-15 cms and there are total of 3 discrete positions in this
direction. Images of concrete wall has shown a homogeneous medium with a
Figure 4.1: Lab setup for Wall imaging with a metallic object
Figure 4.2: Image of Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Time Analysis)
4.2. Concrete Wall Imaging 31
Figure 4.3: Image of Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Phase Analysis)
relative permittivity to be uniform. Small variation in the permittivity value is
may be due to the air gaps left during wall construction. These air gaps decrease
the relative permittivity value as it is averaged. This is specially seen in second
row of gure 4.2,4.3 where relative value is slightly smaller than upper and lower
rows. This behavior is consistent in both time and phase analysis.
4.2.1 Object Detection
In gures 4.4,4.5 a metallic object of length 27cms and height of 14cms is placed
in the detected in scan area of antenna. Radiographic pixel imaging has revealed
the exact position of the metallic object. But due to mechanical step resolution
dimensions of the object is elongated. It is again seen in these images that relative
permittivity of second row is smaller than other rows. This shows repeatability in
dierent measurements.
32 Chapter 4. Microwave Imaging
Figure 4.4: Metal Object Detection in Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Time
Analysis)
Figure 4.5: Metal Object Detection in Concrete Wall - Permittivity values (Phase
Analysis)
4.3. Concrete Slab Imaging 33
4.3 Concrete Slab Imaging
A microwave image of a concrete slab shown in gure 4.6 is performed using
transmission measurements. A grid of 14 rows and 7 columns is made on the slab.
Each block in the grid has a dimension of 20 20cm
2
which is approximately the
same size as of antenna. At each grid point time and phase measurements were
recorded. It is important to mention here that in microwave imaging, a general rule
for image resolution is related to half of eective wavelength in medium which in
our case /2 17cm @ 400MHz. Relative permittivity for steel bers is converted
Figure 4.6: A Specimen of Concrete Slab used in Tunnel Construction
into its volumetric densities. An image is obtained by converting the respective
densities into a colormap. In gure 4.7,4.8 a pixel image is shown of each grid
point. A contoured image is shown in gure 4.9,4.10 which indicates that strength
lies in the center of concrete block as ber density is greater. These images indicate
that SF density is lesser at the edges of the block. The edges permittivity seems
to decrease, it may be due to a smaller ber concentration or the border eects.
34 Chapter 4. Microwave Imaging
It can also be seen that small air holes made in the SFRC slab to lift the structure
are indicated in the contour images as small permittivity values in the center.
Figure 4.7: Pixel Image of Concrete Slab using Time Analysis
Figure 4.8: Pixel Image of Concrete Slab using Phase Analysis
4.3. Concrete Slab Imaging 35
Figure 4.9: Contour Image of Concrete Slab using Time Analysis
Figure 4.10: Contour Image of Concrete Slab using Phase Analysis
Chapter 5
Conclusions
A slot cut in ground plane with a dual oset feedline microstrip antenna of
size 0.3x0.25 at 400MHz is proposed for non-destructive microwave analysis
of SFRC. This design is optimized for a compact, directional and wide impedance
bandwidth (S
11
10dB) solution. PCB technology provides a compact, light
weight and low conformal antenna. Impedance bandwidth of 75% with criteria of
S
11
10dB using a resistive loading is realized. This increased comes at cost of
reduction in radiation eciency. The radiation eciency is an important factor
when measurements are made in far eld but not in the near eld. Front-to-back
ratio (FBR) requirement of greater than 10dB is achieved by a metallic reector
below the feeding line. Dimensions of reector and its separation distance plays
an important role in achieving a greater FBR alongwith wide impedance band-
width. Its width is reduced to increase the impedance bandwidth and to decrease
separation distance. In order to compensate for this decrease reector length is
increased. In this design, reector is the major contributor of the antenna weight
which is less than 1 Kg.
Lab testing of various steel ber density concrete slabs was carried out in or-
der to characterize the antenna behavior and also performance of time and phase
analysis techniques using transmission mode for permittivity measurements. Time
analysis is straight forward but has a limitation of multiple path reections. Some
researchers have shown in order to avoid multiple path reection one way atten-
uation should be at least 10dB but in our case as steel bers density is changed
permittivity is also changed which eects the mismatching thus aecting the at-
tenuation in one direction. This method is normally not employed due to the
above mentioned ambiguity.
Phase analysis which is a more traditional method in this kind of scenario is also
inspected. This provides more detailed analysis over the whole frequency region.
37
38 Chapter 5. Conclusions
This can be helpful in also nding the cuto frequency regions for dierent density
concrete slabs. In order to nd the absolute real permittivity of the concrete slabs
a linear regression approach is used which is a slope tting method and is sensitive
to considered number of valid points in the complete bandwidth. Another limi-
tation attached to this kind of method is the phase ambiguity. Specially in the
case of changing density where the eective distance between the two antennas in
transmission mode is extended beyond an eective wavelength.
In the last chapter imaging is used to convert the permittivity values obtained
into radiographic images. These images have shown quite promising results. As
a uniform concrete wall reveals a homogeneous permittivity distribution over a
scan area. A metallic object is also detected in its exact location. But due to
physical limitations of setup antenna resolution is compromised. Therefore, im-
age dimensions of the object are elongated. In the last section of this chapter a
novel insight is imaged. Radiographic images of actual construction SFRC slabs
has shown distribution of steel ber content in terms of its density. These images
can certainly provide a landmark towards analysis of SFRC slabs. In future this
method can help in determining strength of large SFRC with a non-destructive
manner.
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[27] M. Kahrizi, T. K. Sarkar, and Z. A. Maricevic, Analysis of a wide radiating
slot in the ground plane of a microstrip line IEEE Transaction Microwave
Theory Technology, vol. 41, pp. 2937, January 1993.
[28] L. Zhu, R. Fu, and K. Wu, A Novel Broadband Microstrip-Fed Wide Slot
Antenna With Double Rejection Zeros IEEE Antennas and Wireless Pro-
pogation Letters, VOL. 2, pp. 194-196, 2003
[29] H.G. Akhavan and D. Mirshekar-Syahkal, Approximate model for mi-
crostrip fed slot antennas IEEE Electronics Letter, vol. 30, issue 23,
pp.1902-1903, Nov 1994
[30] J.R. James and A. Henderson, High-Frequency Behavior of Microstrip
Open-circuit Terminations IEEE Journal of Microwaves. Optics and
Acoustics, pp. 205-218, 1979
42 References
[31] A. S. Abdallah Liu Yuan-an, Y. E. Mohammed, Wide-Band Wide-Slot
Microstrip Antenna Radio Science Conference, 2004. Proceedings. 2004
Asia-Pacic , Issue , 24-27, pp. 27 - 30 August 2004
[32] C. A. Balanis Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design Edition 2
nd
2002
[33] B. Das ,K. Joshi, Impedance of a radiating slot in the ground plane of a
microstripline IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 30,
Issue 5, pp. 922 - 926, Sep 1982
[34] M. Klemm, I. Z. Kovcs,G. F. Pedersen and G. Troster, Novel Small-
Size Directional Antenna for UWB WBAN/WPAN Applications IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 53, Issue 12, pp. 3884-
3895, December 2005
[35] A. W. Kraszewskl, S. Trabolsi and,S. O. Nelson Grain Permittivity Mea-
surements in free space European Microwave Conference, 1995. 25th Pub-
lication Date: Oct. 1995 Volume: 2, pp. 840-844, Bologna, Italy, March,
2007
[36] Measurement of Dielectric Properties Manual by Agilent
Appendix A
Aperture Theory
A procedure for nding radiation problem of a rectangular aperture is explained
in [32]. An approximation for far-eld to nd the radiated elds is given by
R = r r

cos : phase (A.1a)

R r : amplitude (A.1b)
The vector potentials A and F generated due to electric current source J and
electric magnetic source M respectively are computed rst.
F
e
jkr
4r
_ _
s
M
s
(r)e
jkr

cos
ds

(A.2)
A
e
jkr
4r
_ _
s
J
s
(r)e
jkr

cos
ds

(A.3)
introducing variables N and L
L =
_ _
s
M
s
(r)e
jkr

cos
ds

(A.4)
N =
_ _
s
M
s
(r)e
jkr

cos
ds

(A.5)
In far-eld for TEM waves only and components of E and H are dominant.
Radial components are negligible in comparison and can be approximated to to
be zero [32]
E

= E

A
+ E

F
jA

+jF

(A.6)
E

= E

A
+ E

F
jA

+jF

(A.7)
43
44 Appendix A. Aperture Theory
Likewise equations for H

and H

can be derived. This will ultimately lead to

derive the following total eld equations.
E
r
0 (A.8a)
E

jk exp
jkr
4r
(L

+N

) (A.8b)
E

+jk exp
jkr
4r
(L

+N

) (A.8c)
H
r
0 (A.8d)
H

jk exp
jkr
4r
(N

+
L

) (A.8e)
H

jk exp
jkr
4r
(N

+
N

) (A.8f)
The components are derived in [32] for a general aperture. Here next we will only
give the rectangular apertures derived components. In a rectangular aperture
shown in gure A with dimensions of length a and width b on an innite ground
plane is assumed to have a uniform electric eld distribution over aperture opening
which is given as
E
o
= a
y
a/2 x a/2, b/2 y b/2 (A.9)
Electric eld is zero elsewhere. Using Babinets principle [32] for apertures magnetic
and electric current densities over the aperture can be approximated as:
M
x
= 2a
z
a
y
E
o
= +a
x
2E
o
: a/2 x a/2, b/2 y b/2 (A.10a)
J
x
= 0 (A.10b)
These assumptions lead to derivation of N and L for rectangular opening in an
innite ground plane as
L

= 2abE
o
_
cos cos
_
sin(
ka
2
sin cos )
ka
2
sin cos
__
sin(
kb
2
sin sin )
ka
2
sin sin
__
(A.11)
Similarly L

can be derived and substituting. whereas derivation of N

and N

lead to zero simplifying the solution. Putting all these derived components into
equation A.12 to A.17 lead to the elds radiated by a rectangular aperture.
E
r
0 (A.12)
E

jabkE
o
e
jkr
2r
_
sin
_
sin(
ka
2
sin cos )
ka
2
sin cos
__
sin(
kb
2
sin sin )
ka
2
sin sin
__
(A.13)
45
Figure A.1: Rectangular aperture over an innite ground plane
E

jabkE
o
e
jkr
2r
_
cos cos
_
sin(
ka
2
sin cos )
ka
2
sin cos
__
sin(
kb
2
sin sin )
ka
2
sin sin
__
(A.14)
H
r
0 (A.15)
H

(A.16)
H

(A.17)
For the rectangular aperture discussed it will be important to derive E-plane and H-
plane which is measured in section radiation pattern of this report. Using equations
46 Appendix A. Aperture Theory
for E elds above we can conclude
E plane; = /2 (A.18a)
E
r
= E

= 0 (A.18b)
E

j
abkE
o
e
jkr
2r
_
sin(
kb
2
sin )
kb
2
sin
_
(A.18c)
Hplane; = 0 (A.19a)
E
r
= E

= 0 (A.19b)
E

j
abkE
o
e
jkr
2r
_
cos
_
sin(
ka
2
sin )
ka
2
sin
__
(A.19c)
Appendix B
Stepwise Guideline for Positive
Photo Chemical Machining
Print antenna design layout on A4 size transparent sheet with black as metal
(copper) and white (transparent) as non metal part.
Sharpen the black portion of the print with marker (black ink) so that all
white tiny spots seen under microscope are removed.
Cut the plaque according to maximum dimensions of the antenna.
Remove the upper protective layer of the plaque such that photographic layer
is exposed.
Align the printed sheet of antenna layout on the plaque.
Open the tray of photographic synthesizer and place the plaque along with
antenna sheet on it.
Close the tray and rotate the timer knob to 2-2.5 minutes.
Press the layer (upper or bottom or both) button according to designing
conditions.
Plaque will be exposed to bright light for specied time.
Plaque is then taken out of the tray and placed in liquid called developer to
develop the image of antenna layout. It takes 2-3 minutes approximately.
Plaque is washed with tap water to remove the developer layer.
47
48
Appendix B. Stepwise Guideline for Positive Photo Chemical
Machining
Make a highly metal corrosive solution of oxygenated water, sulfomate and
distilled water with a ratio of 1:1:2 e.g. 200:200:400 mL. Wear protective
gloves during this process.
Dip the exposed metallic layer of plaque in the solution so that it is etched
away. This will take 5-10 minutes if the solution is not saturated. Please
remove the solution and add new one if etching of the metal is stopped and
the solution is saturated.
When all the metal is removed from the plaque, antenna layout and substrate
layer is clearly visible. Antenna is ready to use!