Radiation mechanism of an

Antenna
UNIT-1
Radiation mechanism-single wire, two wire, dipole and current distribution on
thin wire.

• Spectrum
• Antenna Properties
• Radiation from Electricity
• Types of antenna
• Current distribution

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 SPECTRUM
• The radio, microwave, infrared and visible light portions of the
electromagnetic spectrum can all be used to transmit information.

• The range of the electromagnetic spectrum from 300 MHz to 300 GHz is
commonly referred to as the microwave range.

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 Antenna Properties
• An Antenna is transducer which converts electrical signals into
electromagnetic waves and vice versa. So, if an antenna is excited
with a voltage/current it generates electromagnetic waves, and if placed
in front of an electromagnetic wave, it extracts power from the wave
and delivers to the load connected to it.

• The phenomenon of electromagnetic radiation is related to the

acceleration of electric charges. An accelerated charge corresponds to
the time-varying current (a steady flow of charge gives the DC current
and the AC current requires acceleration of charges).

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 Antenna Properties
• In principle, every time-varying current can give EM radiation no
matter how small the frequency of the current is.

• An antenna however is a structure which generates EM radiation

with high efficiency. Also it will be seen subsequently that the
antennas do not generate EM waves uniformly in all direction.
Every antenna preference for certain directions and no preference
for other directions.

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• Antenna is Fundamentally a Transmission Line
– Electrical energy is converted to Electromagnetic
Radiation

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 Antenna as a transition device
Primarily, Antenna can be defined as a “Radiating device”, an one
terminal device which shall radiate (convert the guided signal to
free space signal) the maximum power given to it.

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 Transmission-line Thevenin equivalent of antenna in transmitting mode.

The load resistance RL is used to represent the conduction and

dielectric losses associated with the antenna structure
Rr ,is the radiation resistance, which is used to represent
radiation by the antenna.
The reactance XA is used to represent the imaginary part of the
impedance associated with radiation by the antenna.
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 Antenna as a matching device
• Antenna can also be modeled as a “Matching device”.
• An antenna is perfectly act as a matching device to match the
characteristic impedance (120Ω) of a guided medium to
impedance of unguided medium (377Ω)

unguided medium
377Ω

guided medium
Say “120Ω”

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 When radiation occurs?
• Single Wire:
Current in a wire can be defined as a vector
I z   s . z
if the current is time varying, then
dI z d
  s . z   s . Az
dt dt
This equation is defining the condition for radiation along with Maxwell's
4th equation

That, Radiation is possible

- Time varying signal
- an acceleration (change or disturbance in velocity of charges)

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 Creating radiation from single wire

1. If a charge is not moving, current is not created and there is no

radiation.
2. If current is steady in nature:
a. There is no radiation if the wire is straight, and infinite in
extent.
b. There is radiation if the wire is curved, bent, discontinuous,
terminated, or truncated.
3. If charge is oscillating in a time-motion, it radiates even if the
wire is straight.
• Loosely Speaking, Radiation Occurs Anywhere There is a Change in
Electric Current’s Velocity (Speed and/or Direction)
– Consequently, antennas come in all forms of curved, bent and folded
metal shapes designed to alter current velocity or density

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How we can achieve radiation
• Two possible methods
– Time varying signal
– Bending, discontinuities and
truncation in the wire (single and two )
• In most of the cases, both the methods
are combined to achieve maximum
radiation

Single Wire configurations for radiation.

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 Two wire system
• Tapering in two wire transmission line will create “Radiation”

tapering

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 Vertical tapering

• By vertical tapering, the electric fields will have a curvature

shape.

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 Launching of EM wave from Antenna

During the fist T /4

The charge has reached a maximum.
Lines have traveled outwardly a radial distance λ/4.

During T /4 to T /2
The original three lines travel an additional λ/4.
The lines created by the opposite charges travel a distance λ/4.
The charge density begins to diminish, leading to neutralization.
At T /2
There is no net charge on the antenna.
The lines must have been forced to detach themselves from the
conductors and to unite together to form closed loops.

Beyond T /2
The process repeats.

After T/2 At T
Till T/2
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 Launching of EM wave

Open up the cable and Open and flare up

separate wires wave guide

Dipole antenna Horn

antenna

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Antenna Types by Physical Structure
A good antenna would radiate almost all the power delivered to it
from the transmitter in a desired direction or directions.
• Wire antennas
• Aperture antennas
• Microstrip antennas
• Antenna arrays
• Reflector antennas
• Lens antennas

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Aperture Antenna

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Historical Advancement

1842, First radiation experiment, J. Henry

1872, Improvement in telegraphing (patent), M.Loomis
1873, Maxwell’s equations
1875, Communication system (patent), T. Edison
1886, Hertz’s experiment ( dipole)
1901, Marconi’s success
1940, UHF antennas
1960, Modern antennas

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 Types of Antenna
Before WW II : Wire types
During WW II : Aperture types
Before 1950 : BW – Z , 2 : 1
In the 1950 : LP (Frequency Independent)
In the 1970 : Microstrip (or Patch antennas) : MM wave antennas
(Monolithic forms)
Later : Arrays

•Electrically Small (Dipole, Loop)

•Resonant ( Dipole, Patch, Yagi)
•Broadband (Spiral, Log Periodic)
•Aperture (Horn, Waveguide)
•Reflector and Lens

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 Current Distribution on a Thin Wire Antenna
• Let us consider the geometry of a lossless two-wire transmission line.

• The movement of the charges creates a traveling wave current, of magnitude

I0 /2, along each of the wires.

• When the current arrives at the end of each of the wires, it undergoes a complete
reflection (equal magnitude and 180± phase reversal).

• The reflected traveling wave, when combined with the incident traveling wave,
forms in each wire a pure standing wave pattern of sinusoidal form.

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 Current Distribution on a Thin Wire Antenna
• For the two-wire balanced (symmetrical) transmission line, the
current in a half-cycle of one wire is of the same magnitude but 180
deg out-of-phase from that in the corresponding half-cycle of the
other wire.
• If s is also very small , the two fields are canceled.

• The net result is an almost ideal, non-radiating transmission line.

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 • When the line is flared, the fields do not cancel each other, and therefore
ideally there is a net radiation by the transmission line system.

• When the line is flared into a dipole, if s not much less than ¸λ, the phase of the current
standing wave pattern in each arm is the same throughout its length. In addition,
spatially it is oriented in the same direction.

• Thus the fields radiated by the two arms of the dipole (vertical parts of a flared
transmission line) will primarily reinforce each other toward most directions of
observation.
Distribution on a Thin Wire Antenna

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Current Distribution in different dipole antennas

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 Free space electromagnetic wave

Electric
Field [V/m]
x Electric
field

Direction of Time [s]

propagation
y z
Magnetic
field Magnetic
Field [A/m]

•Disturbance of EM field
•Velocity of light (~300 000 000 m/s) Time [s]
•E and H fields are orthogonal
•E and H fields are in phase
•Impedance, Z0: 377 ohms
 EM wave in free space

 2 Ex 1  2 Ex
 Ex  E0e j (t  z )
t 2 0 0 z 2

 Hy
H y  H 0 e j ( t   z )
1  Hy
2 2


t 2 0 0 z 2

frequency f 
2
x Electric 1
field wavelength  
 0 0 f
Direction of 2
propagation Phase constant   

y z Z0 
E0 0
Z0 
Magnetic H0 0
field
 Wave in lossy medium

Ex  E0ez e jt  E0  ez  e jz  e jt

Attenuation Phase varies Periodic time

increases with z with z variation

    j Propagation constant

 Attenuation constant

 Phase constant
 Power flow

  
Poynting vector S  EH

1 2 1 1 2
Average power density S av  E x  H y Z0
2 Z0 2
 Propagation Basics
• Electromagnetic wave in the frequency spectrum of 0.001 to 1016
Hertz are arbitrarily termed as radio waves.
• By attaching an antenna of the appropriate size to an electrical
circuit, the electromagnetic wave can be broadcasted efficiently
and received by a receiver some distance away.
• Information can be sent by modulating the amplitude, frequency
or phase of the waves.

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 Radio Propagation Properties
• Are easy to generate.
• Can travel long distance.
• Can penetrate buildings.
• May be used for both indoor and outdoor communications.
• Are omni – directional, can travel in all directions.
• Can be narrowly focused at high frequencies (>100 MHz) using
parabolic antennas (like satellite dishes).
• Frequency dependence.
Behave more like light at higher frequencies
Behave more like radio at lower frequencies

• Subject to interference from other radio wave sources.

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2D and 3D radiation patterns

Top view Cross-sectional view

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