Fundamental Parameters of

Antenna

Parameters of Antenna are:

Beam Area
Beam width
Half power beam

width
Full Null beam width
Polarization
Radiation Intensity
Beam Efficiency
Antenna field zones
Transmission formula
Directivity
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Directive Gain
Radiation Resistance
Radiation efficiency
Resolution
Antenna aperture

physical and effective

Effective height
Transmission loss as a
function of frequency
Antenna temperature and
signal to noise ratio

Co-ordinate system

Radiation Pattern
A mathematical or graphical representation

of the radiation properties of antenna such

as
Amplitude
Phase
Polarization, etc

As a function of the angular space co-ordinates

is called as radiation pattern.

FIELD PATTERN: The plot of field either

electric |E| or magnetic |H| on a linear scale

is called as field pattern.
POWER PATTERN : A plot of the power
( proportional to either |E|2 or magnetic |H|2
) on linear or decibel (dB) scale .

Directional pattern of Horn antenna

Omni-directional pattern

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Radian & Steradian

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Beam Area
The beam area or beam solid angle or A of an

antenna is given by the integral of the normalized

power pattern over sphere (4 sr).

The

Beam Area of an antenna can often be

describe approximately in terms of the angles
subtended by the half-power points of the main
lobe in the two principal planes.

Are the HPBW in the tow principal planes, minor

lobes being neglected.

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Radiation intensity
The power radiated from an antenna per unit solid

angle is called the radiation intensity U

(watts/steradian or /square degree).
The normalized power pattern can also be expressed
in terms of this parameter as the ration of the
radiation intensity
as a function of angle, to its
maximum value.

Whereas Poynting vector S depends on the distance

from the antenna (varying inversely as a square of

distance), the radiation intensity U is independent of
the distance, assuming in both cases that we are in
the far field of the antenna.
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Beamwidth
The angular separation between two identical points on

opposite side of pattern maximum is called as beamwidth.

Importance:
It is very important figure of merit
It is often used as a trade off between it and side lobe

level.
As beam width increases
& vice versa.

side lobe level decreases.

It is also used to describe the resolution capabilities of

the antenna to distinguish between two adjacent

radiating sources or radar targets.
The most important resolution criterion states that the
Resolution capability of an antenna to distinguish
between two sources is equal to half of the first-null
beamwidth.
2 sources separated by angular distance

antenna with a uniform distribution can be resolved.

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of an

Beamwidth
Half Power Beamwidth (HPBW):
In a plane containing the direction of the

maximum beam, the angle between the two

directions in which the radiation intensity is
value of beam is called as HPBW.
First Null Beamwidth (FNBW):
The angular separation between the first

nulls of the patterns is referred to as the

FNBW.

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Polarization
Polarization is the direction of the electric field and is

the same as the physical attitude of the antenna

A vertical antenna will transmit a vertically polarized

wave
The receive and transmit antennas need to possess the

same polarization

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Beam Efficiency
The (total) beam area A (or beam solid angle)

consists of the main beam area (or solid angle)

M plus the minor lobe area m.
The ratio of the main beam area to the (total)

beam area is called the (main) beam efficiency.

The ratio of the minor lobe area to the (total)

beam area is called the Stray Factor.

It follows that
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Directivity
The directivity of an antenna is equal to the ratio

of the maximum power density to its average

value over a sphere as observed in the far field of
an antenna.
Directivity from pattern :
The directivity is also the ratio of the area of a

sphere (4 sr) to the beam area A of the antenna.

Directivity from beam area:
The

smaller the beam area, the larger the

directivity D.

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HEMISPHERE

For an antenna that

ISOTROPIC

Radiation pattern of dipole =0.5

radiates over only half

a sphere the beam
area A = 2 sr,

dBi = decibels over

isotropic.
For, Ideal isotropic
antenna
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GAIN
Used as a figure of merit.
The

ability of an antenna or antenna system to

concentrate the radiated power in a given direction or
conversely to absorb effectively the incident power
from that direction is specified by various antenna
terms i.e. antenna gain or simply gain or directive gain
or power gain or directivity.
Definition of GAIN is:
Gain of antenna without involving the antenna
efficiency is defined as:
Reference antenna may be an isotropic antenna or

lossless antenna.
Often gain of an antenna is expressed in decibel ratio
i.e.
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Directive Gain
The

extent to which a practical antenna

concentrates its radiated energy relative to that of
some standard antenna is termed as directive gain.
Directive gain is the ratio of the radiation intensity
in that direction to the average radiated power.

Directive Gain solely depends on the distribution of

radiated power in space. It does not depend upon

the power input to the antenna, antenna losses or
the power consumed in a terminating resistance.
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Comparison between Directivity and Gain

The ratio of the gain to the directivity is the

antenna efficiency factor.

G=kD.
k = efficiency factor (0 k 1).

Dimensionless.
If an antenna has not any losses like ohmic,

dielectric mismatch i.e. 100% efficient,

then directivity and gain are same.
For an antenna with losses, gain will be less
than directivity by factor which corresponds
to efficiency.
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Resolution
Resolution of antenna may be defined as

equal to the half the beam width between

first null (FNBW)/2.
When the antenna beam maximum is
aligned with one satellite, the first null
coincides with the adjacent satellite.
Half the beam width between first nulls is
approximately equal to the half-power
beam width,

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Effective height
Effective height may be defined as the ratio

of the induced voltage to the incident field

Represents the effectiveness of an antenna

as radiator or collector of electromagnetic

wave energy.
It indicates how for an antenna is effective
in transmitting or receiving the
electromagnetic wave energy.
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Radiation Resistance
The radiation resistance (Rr) is thus defined as that

fictitious resistance which, when substituted in series

with the antenna will consume the same power as is
actually radiated.
The radiation resistance represents,
Total energy radiating form transmitting antenna
Current flowing in the antenna

The value of radiation resistance depends on

Configuration of antenna
The point where radiation resistance is considered
Location of antenna w.r.t. grounds and other objects, and
Ratio of length of diameter of the conductor used.
Corona discharge a luminous discharge round the

surface of antenna due to ionization of air etc.

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