SUB: ANTENNA & RADIOWAVE PROPOGATION

EXPERIMENT NO.2
STUDY OF THE STRUCTURE AND OPERATION OF WIRED,
APERTURE, PLANAR AND ARRAY ANTENNAS
Dipole antenna
In radio and telecommunications a dipole antenna or doublet is the simplest and most
widely used class of antenna. The dipole is anyone of a class of antennas producing a
radiation pattern approximating that of an elementary electric dipole with a radiating
structure supporting a line current so energized that the current has only one node at each
end. A dipole antenna commonly consists of two identical conductive elements such as
metal wires or rods, which are usually bilaterally symmetrical.
The driving current from the transmitter is applied, or for receiving antennas the output
signal to the receiver is taken, between the two halves of the antenna. Each side of the
feedline to the transmitter or receiver is connected to one of the conductors. This contrasts
with a monopole antenna, which consists of a single rod or conductor with one side of the
feedline connected to it, and the other side connected to some type of ground. A common
example of a dipole is the t1 rabbit ears" television antenna found on broadcast television
sets.
The most common form of dipole is two straight rods or wires oriented end to end on the
same axis, with the feedline connected to the two adjacent ends, but dipoles may be fed
anywhere along their length This is the simplest type of antenna from a theoretical point of
view. Dipoles are resonant antennas, meaning that the elements serve as resonators, with
standing waves of radio current flowing back and forth between their ends. So the length of
the dipole elements is determined by the wavelength of the radio waves used.
The most common form is the half-wave dipole, in which each of the two rod elements is
approximately 114 wavelength long, so the whole antenna is a half-wavelength long. The
radiation pattern of a vertical dipole is omnidirectional; it radiates equal power in all
azimuthal directions perpendicular to the axis of the antenna. For a half-wave dipole the
radiation is maximum, 2.15 dBi perpendicular to the antenna axis, falling monotonically
with elevation angle to zero on the axis, off the ends of the antenna.

Advantages:
I. It receives balanced signals.
2. Receives signals from a variety of frequencies.
3. Loss is less.
Disadvantages:
I. The outdoor antennas are large and wide.
2. This type of antenna is not used for space communication.
3. Installation of outdoor antennas is difficult.
Applications:
1. Set-top TV antenna.
2. FM broadcasting antenna.
3. Dipole towers and dipole arrays.
Monopole antenna
A monopole antenna is one half of a dipole antenna, almost always mounted above some
sort of ground plane.
The case of a monopole antenna of length L mounted above an infinite ground plane. The
radiation pattern of monopole antennas above a ground plane are also known from the
dipole result. The only change that needs to be noted is that the impedance of a monopole
antenna is one half of that of a full dipole antenna. For a quarter-wave monopole (L=O.25*
A. ), the impedance is half of that of a half-wave dipole, so Zin = 36.5 + j21.25 Ohms. This
can be understood since only half the voltage is required to drive a monopole antenna to the
same current as a dipole (think of a dipole as having + V 12 and -V /2 applied to its ends,
whereas a monopole antenna only needs to apply +V/2 between the monopole antenna and
the ground to drive the same current). Since Zin = V fl, the impedance of the monopole
antenna is halved.
Monopole antennas are half the size of their dipole counterparts, and hence are attractive
when a smaller antenna is needed. Antennas on older cell phones were typically monopole
antennas, with an infinite ground plane approximated by the shell (casing) of the phone .

Folded dipole
A folded dipole is a dipole antenna with the ends folded back around and connected to each
other, fanning a loop. Typically, the width d of the folded dipole antenna is much smaller
than the length L. Because the folded dipole fonns a closed loop, one might expect the input
impedance to depend on the input impedance of a short-circuited transmission line of length
L. However, you can imagine the folded dipole antenna as two parallel short-circuited
transmission lines of length L/2 (separated at the midpoint by the feed in Figure). It turns
out the impedance of the folded dipole antenna will be a function of the impedance of a
transmission line of length L/2.
Also, because the folded dipole is "folded" back on itself, the currents can reinforce each
other instead of cancelling each other out, so the input impedance will also depend on the
impedance of a dipole antenna of length L.

Advantages:
I. Reception of balanced signals.
2. Receives a particular signal from a band of frequencies without losing the quality.
3. A folded dipole maximizes the signal strength.
Disadvantages:
I. Displacement and adjustment of antenna is a hassle.
2. Outdoor management can be difficult when antenna size increases.
Applications:
I. Mainly used as a feeder element in Vagi antenna, 'parabolic antenna, turnstile antenna,
log periodic antenna, phased and reflector arrays, etc.
2. Generally used in radio receivers.
3. Most commonly used in TV receiver antennas.
Yagi Uda antenna:
The Yagi-Uda antenna or yagi Antenna is simple to construct and has a high gain, Typically
greater than 10 dB. The Yagi-Uda antennas typically operate in the HF to UHF bands
(about 3 MHz to 3 GHz), although their bandwidth is typically small, on the order of a few
percent of the center frequency. The elements of yagi antenna are Directors, Reflector and
Driven element. It is used as a TV receiving antenna.

Advantages:
I. High gain is achieved.
2. High directivity is achieved.
3. Ease of handling and maintenance.
4. Less amount of power is wasted.
5. Broader coverage of frequencies.
Disadvantages:
I. Prone to noise.
2. Prone to atmospheric effects.
Applications:
I. Mostly used for TV reception.
2. Used where a single-frequency application is needed.
Log periodic dipole array
The log periodic dipole array consists of a number of dipole elements. These progressively
reduce in size from the back to the front - the direction of maximum radiation is from the
smaller front. Each dipole element of the LPDA is fed, but the phase is reversed between
adjacent dipole elements - this ensures that the signal phasing is correct between the
different elements. It also means that a feeder is required along the length of the antenna .
Advantages:
I. The antenna design is compact.
2. Gain and radiation pattern are varied according to the requirements.
Disadvantages:
I. External mount.
2. Installation cost is high.
Applications:
I. Used for HF communications.
2. Used for particular sort of TV receptions.
3. Used for all round monitoring in higher frequency bands.
Slot antenna:
The slot antenna consists of a radiator formed by cutting a narrow slot in a large metal
surface. The slot length is a half wavelength at the desired frequency and the width is a
small fraction of a wavelength. The antenna is frequently compared to a conventional half-
wave dipole consisting of two flat metal strips. When energy is applied to the slot antenna,
currents flow in the metal sheet. These currents are not confined to the edges of the slot but
rather spread out over the sheet. Radiation then takes place from both sides of the sheet.

Advantages:
• It can be fabricated and concealed within metallic objects • It can provide covert
communications with a small transmitter Disadvantages:
• Higher cross-polarization levels
• Lower radiation efficiency Applications:
• Usually for radar navigational purposes
• Used as an array fed by a wave guide Microstrip antenna:
Microstrip antenna is one of the most popular types of printed antenna. It plays a very
significant role in today's world of wireless communication systems. Microstrip antennae
are very simple in construction using a conventional microstrip fabrication technique.
Microstrip patch antenna consists of a radiating patch on one side of a dielectric substrate
(FR4) that has a ground plane (eu) on the other side as shown in Fig.
The patch is generally made up of a conducting material such as copper or gold and can
take any possible shape like rectangular, circular, triangular, elliptical or some other
common shape. The radiating patch and the feed lines are usually photo-etched on the
dielectric substrate.
Microstrip patch antennae radiate primarily because of the fringing fields between the
patch edge and the ground plane. For good antenna performance, a thick dielectric substrate
having a low dielectric constant «6) is desirable since it provides higher efficiency, larger
bandwidth and better radiation. However, such a configuration leads to a larger antenna
size.
Advantages:
1. Ease of manufacturing
2. It has a very low fabrication cost.
3. Microstrip patch antennas are efficient radiators.
4. It has a support for both linear and circular polarization.
5. Easy in integration with microwave integration circuits.
Disadvantages:
I. Low impedance bandwidth.
2. Low gain.
3. Extra radiation occurs from its feeds and junctions.
4. Excitation of surface waves.
5. Size of micro strip antenna comes in both advantages and disadvantages but there are
some applications where the size of microstrip antenna is too large to be used.
Applications:
I. Mobile and satellite communication.
2. Global Positioning System, RFID, Wimax, Radar, rectenna and telemedicine
applications.
Conclusion:
In this experiment we learnt the structure and operation of wired, aperture,planar and
array antennas.
QUESTIONS:
1.Discuss merits and demerits of rhombic antenna.
Ans- Advantages- The following are the advantages of Rhombic antenna − .Input
impedance and radiation pattern are relatively constant , Multiple rhombic antennas can be
connected , Simple and effective transmission

Disadvantages:- The following are the disadvantages of Rhombic antenna −

. Wastage of power in terminating resistor
.Requirement of large space
.Reduced transmission efficiency

2. What is Cassegrain type feed of a parabolic antenna?

Ans- In telecommunications and radar, a Cassegrain antenna is a parabolic antenna in
which the feed antenna is mounted at or behind the surface of the concave main parabolic
reflector dish and is aimed at a smaller convex secondary reflector suspended in front of
the primary reflector.

3. Find out the beamwidth between first null and power gain of a 2 m parabolic reflector
operating at 6000MHz.
Ans- Casse grain is another type of feed given to the reflector antenna. In this type, the feed
is located at the vertex of the paraboloid, unlike in the parabolic reflector. A convex shaped
reflector, which acts as a hyperboloid is placed opposite to the feed of the antenna. It is also
known as secondary hyperboloid reflector or sub-reflector. It is placed such that its one of
the foci coincides with the focus of the paraboloid. Thus, the wave gets reflected twice

4. Explain why electrically short antennas have low efficiency.

Ans- The difficulties of designing an electrically small antenna includes: impedance
matching, insertion loss from high current density flowing on a non-perfect conductor,
resulting in joule heating, and. a small radiation aperture with low radiation efficiency

5. Give basic idea about direction finding antenna (RDF).

Ans- An Adcock antenna uses two crossed loop antennas. The bearing of the RF signal is
determined using the level of the signals received at each antenna. The method to process
the information from a Adcock array is referred to as Watson-Watt. This is the best-known
method of radio direction finding .