Reflection Co-Efficient

• The reflection coefficient is a parameter that describes how much of an

electromagnetic wave is reflected by an impedance discontinuity in the
transmission medium.
• The reflection coefficient is a very useful quality when determining
VSWR or investigating the match between, for example, a feeder and a
load.
• In the context of antennas and feeders, the reflection coefficient is
defined as the figure that quantifies how much of an electromagnetic
wave is reflected by an impedance discontinuity in the transmission
medium.
• The reflection coefficient is equal to the ratio of the amplitude of the
reflected wave to the incident wave.
• The reflection coefficient is different to the VSWR.
• The reflection coefficient is a figure that quantifies the level of the incident
waveform that is reflected
• The standing wave ratio, be it a current standing wave ratio or a voltage
standing wave ratio looks at the ratio of the peak and minimum voltage or
current levels within the feeder arising from the forward and reflected
power.
VSWR
• VSWR is equal to the maximum voltage on the line divided by the
minimum voltage.
• The voltage fluctuations come about as a result of the voltage components
from the forward power and the reflected power summing together.
 Return Loss
• Return loss is the loss of power in the signal returned/reflected by a
discontinuity in a transmission line or optical fibre.
• Return loss is a quantity often used within RF circuits where
impedance matching is important. The return loss is the proportion of
a signal that is reflected as a result of an impedance mismatch.
• Return loss is that it is the loss of power in the signal returned /
reflected by a discontinuity in a transmission line or optical fibre. This
is normally expressed in decibels.
• The return loss is normally calculated as follows:

• Then as the reflection coefficient Γ is the ratio of the forward and

reflected voltages, and power is proportional

• Return loss is a figure which is widely used for assessing items like
the input characteristics of an RF component, or when measuring the
characteristics of a network using a vector network analyzer.
 Bandwidth
• The bandwidth of an antenna is defined as “the range of frequencies
within which the performance of the antenna, with respect to some
characteristic, conforms to a specified standard.”
• Most commonly, the VSWR is chosen as the parameter for bandwidth
considerations and this bandwidth is called the impedance bandwidth.
• The lower and upper frequencies conforming to the desired VSWR set
the frequency band over which the antenna meets the VSWR
specification. 
• A VSWR specification commonly adopted is a 2:1 VSWR, which
means that the range of frequencies over which the VSWR is less than
2 is chosen as the bandwidth of operation.
• As you can see from the plot, the absolute bandwidth over which the antenna
meets the 2:1 VSWR specification is 2.66 GHz – 2.38 GHz = 0.28 GHz = 280
MHz.
Percentage Bandwidth
• According to the standard definition, “The ratio of absolute bandwidth to the
center frequency of that bandwidth can be termed as percentage bandwidth.”
• The particular frequency within a frequency band, at which the signal strength is
maximum, is called as resonant frequency. It is also called as center frequency
(fC) of the band.
• To know how wider the bandwidth is, either fractional bandwidth or percentage
bandwidth has to be calculated.
Mathematical Expression
• The Percentage bandwidth is calculated to know how much frequency variation
either a component or a system can handle.
• It requires specifying the center frequency of operation, which in this case is 2.5
GHz. For this antenna, the percentage bandwidth is:
Polarization
Polarization Loss Factor and Efficiency
• In general, the polarization of the receiving antenna will not be the
same as the polarization of the incoming (incident) wave. This is
commonly stated as polarization mismatch.
• The amount of power extracted by the antenna from the incoming
signal will not be maximum because of the polarization loss.
 Friis Transmission Equation
The Friis Transmission Equation relates the power received to the power
transmitted between two antennas separated by a distance R > 2D2/λ, where D
is the largest dimension of either antenna.

Geometrical orientation of transmitting and receiving antennas for Friis transmission equation.
• If the input power at the terminals of the transmitting antenna is Pt ,
then its isotropic power density W0 at distance R from the antenna is

• For a non isotropic transmitting antenna, the power density in the

direction θt, φt can be written as

• Since the effective area Ar of the receiving antenna is related to its

efficiency er and directivity Dr by
• The amount of power Pr collected by the receiving antenna can be
written as,

or the ratio of the received to the input power as

• For reflection and polarization-matched antennas aligned for

maximum directional radiation and reception, the above equation
reduces to

• The above equations are known as the Friis Transmission Equation, and it
relates the power Pr (delivered to the receiver load) to the input power of
the transmitting antenna.