Antenna aperture

In electromagnetics and antenna theory, antenna aperture or eective area is a measure of how eective an
antenna is at receiving the power of radio waves. The
aperture is dened as the area, oriented perpendicular to
the direction of an incoming radio wave, which would
intercept the same amount of power from that wave as
is produced by the antenna receiving it. At any point, a
beam of radio waves has an irradiance or power ux density (PFD) which is the amount of radio power passing
through a unit area of one square meter. If an antenna delivers an output power of Po watts to the load connected to
its output terminals when irradiated by a uniform eld of
power density PFD watts per square metre, the antennas
aperture Ae in square metres is given by:[1]

Aef f =

always be less than the area of the antennas physical aperture Aphys, as can be seen from the denition above. An
antennas aperture eciency, e is dened as the ratio of
these two areas:

ea =

Aef f
Aphys

The aperture eciency is a dimensionless parameter between 0 and 1.0 that measures how close the antenna
comes to using all the radio power entering its physical aperture. If the antenna were perfectly ecient, all
the radio power falling within its physical aperture would
be converted to electrical power delivered to the load attached to its output terminals, so these two areas would
be equal Ae = Aphys and the aperture eciency would
be 1.0. But all antennas have losses, such as power dissipated as heat in the resistance of its elements, nonuniform illumination by its feed, and radio waves scattered
by structural supports and diraction at the aperture edge,
which reduce the power output. Aperture eciencies of
typical antennas vary from 0.35 to 0.70 but can range up
to 0.90.

Po
PFD

So the power output of an antenna in watts is equal to the

power density of the radio waves in watts per square metre, multiplied by its aperture in square metres. The larger
an antennas aperture is, the more power it can collect
from a given eld of radio waves. To actually obtain the
predicted power available Po, the polarization of the incoming waves must match the polarization of the antenna,
and the load (receiver) must be impedance matched to the
antennas feedpoint impedance.

2 Aperture and gain

Although this concept is based on an antenna receiving

a radio frequency wave, knowing Ae directly supplies
the (power) gain of that antenna. Due to reciprocity, an
antennas gain in receiving and transmitting are identical.
Therefore Ae can just as well be used to compute the
performance of a transmitting antenna. Note that Ae is
a function of the direction of the radio wave relative to
the orientation of the antenna, since the gain of an antenna varies according to its radiation pattern. When no
direction is specied, Ae is understood to refer to its
maximum value, with the antenna oriented so its main
lobe, the axis of maximum sensitivity, is directed toward
the source.

The directivity of an antenna, its ability to direct radio

waves in one direction or receive from a single direction,
is measured by a parameter called its gain, which is the ratio of the power received by the antenna to the power that
would be received by a hypothetical isotropic antenna,
which receives power equally well from all directions.
It can be shown that the aperture of a lossless isotropic
antenna, which by denition has unity gain, is:

Aef f =

2
4

where is the wavelength of the radio waves. So the gain

of any antenna is proportional to its aperture:

Aperture eciency
G=

In general, the aperture of an antenna is not directly related to its physical size.[2] However some types of antennas, for example parabolic dishes and horns, have a physical aperture (opening) which collects the radio waves. In
these aperture antennas, the eective aperture Ae must

4Aphys ea
Aef f
=
2 /4
2

So antennas with large eective apertures are high gain

antennas, which have small angular beam widths. Most of
their power is radiated in a narrow beam in one direction,
1

7 SEE ALSO

and little in other directions. As receiving antennas, they

are most sensitive to radio waves coming from one direction, and are much less sensitive to waves coming from
other directions. Although these terms can be used as a
function of direction, when no direction is specied, the
gain and aperture are understood to refer to the antennas
axis of maximum gain, or boresight.

For antennas which are not dened by a physical area,

such as monopoles and dipoles consisting of thin rod
conductors, the aperture bears no obvious relation to the
size or area of the antenna. An alternate measure of antenna gain that has a greater relationship to the physical
structure of such antennas is eective length le measured in metres, which is dened for a receiving antenna
as:[5]

Friis transmission equation

lef f = V0 /Es

Main article: Friis transmission equation

The fraction of the power delivered to a transmitting antenna that is received by a receiving antenna is proportional to the product of the apertures of both the antennas.
This is given by a form of the Friis transmission equation:.[2]

At Ar
Pr = 2 2 Pt
r
where
Pr is the power delivered by the receiving antenna in watts

where
V0 is the open circuit voltage appearing across
the antennas terminals
Es is the electric eld strength of the radio signal, in volts per metre, at the antenna.
The longer the eective length the more voltage and
therefore the more power the antenna will receive. Note,
however, that an antennas gain or Ae increases according to the square of le, and that this proportionality also
involves the antennas radiation resistance. Therefore this
measure is of more theoretical than practical value and is
not, by itself, a useful gure of merit relating to an antennas directivity.

Pt is the power applied to the transmitting antenna in watts

Ar is the aperture of the receiving antenna in
m2
At is the aperture of the transmitting antenna
in m2
r is the distance between the antenna in m

[1] Bakshi, K.A.; A.V.Bakshi, U.A.Bakshi (2009). Antennas

And Wave Propagation. Technical Publications. p. 1.17.
ISBN 81-8431-278-4.

is the wavelength of the radio waves in m

[2] Narayan, C.P. (2007). Antennas And Propagation. Technical Publications. p. 51. ISBN 81-8431-176-1.

Thin element antennas

[3] Orfanidis, Sophocles J. (2010) Electromagnetic Waves and

Antennas chapter 15 page 609, retrieved 2011-04-05 from
http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/~{}orfanidi/ewa/

In the case of thin element antennas such as monopoles

and dipoles, there is no simple relationship between physical area and eective area. However, the eective areas
can be calculated from their power gain gures:[3]
This assumes that the monopole antenna is mounted
above an innite ground plane and that the antennas are
lossless. When resistive losses are taken into account,
particularly with small antennas, the antenna gain might
be substantially less than the directivity, and the eective
area is less by the same factor.[4]

6 References

Eective length

Main article: Antenna factor

[4] Weeks, W.L. (1968) Antenna Engineering, McGraw Hill

Book Company, chapters 8, pp. 297-299 and 9, pp. 343346.
[5] Rudge, Alan W. (1982). The Handbook of Antenna Design, Vol. 1. USA: IET. p. 24. ISBN 0-906048-82-6.

7 See also
Antenna (radio)

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