EC630 (ANTENNAS AND WAVE PROPAGATION) SEMINAR

TITLE:

A BRIEF DISCUSSION ON LOOP ANTENNAS AND HORN ANTENNAS

SRI JAYACHAMARAJENDRA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, MYSORE 570 006

(Autonomous) Department of Electronics and Communication SJCE, Mysore-06

SUBMITTED BY NAME M. ABHISHEK M. VENKATESH MADHAVA VENKATESH MADHU BHARADWAJ H.N ROLL NO. 23 24 25 26 USN 4JC09EC046 4JC09EC047 4JC09EC049 4JC09EC050

LOOP ANTENNAS

Introduction to loop antennas and their construction

A loop antenna is a loop (or loops) of wire (electrical conductor) with its ends connected to a balanced transmission line. Within this physical description there are two very distinct antenna designs: the small loop (or magnetic loop) with a size much smaller than a wavelength, and the resonant loop antenna with a circumference approximately equal to the wavelength.

Fig: Different types of loop antennas triangular, circular and square

 A loop antenna is made of a loop of copper or another conductive metal that has both ends connected to the same capacitor. As the user adjusts the loop antennas capacitance, the frequency is inversely adjusted. Therefore, if a user increases the loops capacitance, the frequency decreases. On the other hand, if a user decreases the loops capacitance, the frequency increases. This is because the loops capacitor holds an electric voltage and releases it after a specified amount of time. This means that the longer the capacitor holds a charge, the more the antennas radio waves spread out and the lower the frequency will be. A lower frequency will not travel as far, but the signal will be stronger.

Fig: Equivalent circuit of an electrically small loop

Advantages
The main advantages of loop antennas are their size and directivity. Often a single turn small loop antenna is much smaller than a wavelength by its definition. Loop antennas have several important advantages that others do not . For example, loop antennas broadcast and receive a wide range of radio frequencies. They are also portable and small enough to be integrated into many wireless devices without the user seeing it. Loop antennas are also very affordable and are the most common type of antenna used for domestic purposes.

Disadvantages
There are naturally disadvantages when loop antennas are used in RF antenna design. The first is that this type of antenna can have a very low radiation resistance and this results in very high levels of current flowing in the antenna. In turn this means that even small levels of DC resistance can result in significant levels of power being lost as heat. It is for this reason that single turn small loop antennas are made of very thick wire, or more often made of a tubular conductor. Additionally this means that they must have an effective form of antenna matching if the energy is to be efficiently transferred to and from the antenna.

Design considerations of small loop antennas

The field relations for small loop antennas are Electric field:

Magnetic field:

Where A = area within loop = wavelength of radiation In the above relations, the point of observation and thus angle of observation are kept constant. The condition to be satisfied for a small loop antenna is A<< The above relations give rise to the field pattern shown below

Fig: Field pattern of small loop antenna

Important parameters for small loop antenna design are i) Radiation resistance

where n = number of turns ii) Directivity D = 1.5

iii)

Radiation efficiency

where RL = loss resistance of small loop

where C = circumference of loop, m fMHz= frequency, MHz d = conductor diameter, m It can be observed that as frequency of operation increases, efficiency increases. So far, small loop antenna (i.e A<<2) has been discussed. We will now extend this discussion to the general case of loop antennas wherein the loop area is comparable to 2.

LOOP ANTENNA: GENERAL CASE

Consider a general case of uniform current and in phase. The size of loop is not very small compared to . Consider a circular loop of radius a placed along xy- plane with centre at the origin O, consider an observation point P at a far off distance r with an angle from z axis where the fields are to be obtained. The current is uniform and in phase around the loop given by I. The vector magnetic potential is obtained for a combination of 2 elemental lengths a d diagonally opposite as shown .Integrating this around the loop, the total potential and hence the fields can be obtained. Since the loop is along xy plane the only potential component that can be obtained is dA for each element dA = dAr = 0 dA = dM/4r where dM is the current moment due to one pair of elements as shown. .......(1)

The component of retarded current moment due to one element is [I]a d cos where [I] = I0
( )

is being the peak current.

Referred to XZ plane, the resultant moment dM at a large distance due to a pair of diagonally opposite dipoles is

dM = 2j[I]a d cos sin(/2)

where = 2a cos sin dM = 2j[I]a cos sin(a cos sin) d substituting (2) in (1) and integrating [ ] [ [ ] Where J1(a sin)is a Bessel function of first order and argument (a sin) given by [ ] ]
........(2)

The far electric field has only one component given by Er=E=0 E=-jA Substituting A , [ ] Or

[]

Since

[ ]

the above expressions give instantaneous field components at a far off distance r , from a loop of any radius a.

Applications of Loop Antennas:

An array of loops of different dimensions can be used for line of sight communication. A small loop antenna can be used as a source for paraboloid. Large loop antenna can be used as a direction finder. Loops mounted at the top of a huge tower can be used as an Omni-directional system. They are used as radio receivers. They are also used for aircraft receivers.

HORN ANTENNAS
Introduction:
A horn antenna or microwave horn is an antenna that consists of a flaring metal waveguide shaped like a horn to direct radio waves in a beam. Horns are widely used as antennas at UHF and microwave frequencies, above 300 MHz. One of the first horn antennas was constructed in 1897 by Indian radio researcher Jagadish Chandra Bose in his pioneering experiments with microwaves. An advantage of horn antennas is that since they don't have any resonant elements, they can operate over a wide range of frequencies, a wide bandwidth. The useable bandwidth of horn antennas is typically of the order of 10:1, and can be up to 20:1 (for example allowing it to operate from 1 GHz to 20 GHz). The input impedance is slowly-varying over this wide frequency range, allowing low VSWR over the bandwidth. Horn antennas have a directional radiation pattern with an antenna gain, which can range up to 25 dB in some cases, with 10-20 dB being typical.

Types of horn antennas:

These are the common types of horn antenna. Horns can have different flare angles as well as different expansion curves (elliptic, hyperbolic, etc.) in the E-field and H-field directions, making possible a wide variety of different beam profiles. Pyramidal horn - a horn antenna with the horn in the shape of a four-sided pyramid, with a rectangular cross section. They are a common type, used with rectangular waveguides, and radiate linearly polarized radio waves.

Sectoral horn - A pyramidal horn with only one pair of sides flared and the other pair parallel. It produces a fan-shaped beam, which is narrow in the plane of the flared sides, but wide in the plane of the narrow sides. E-plane horn - A sectoral horn flared in the direction of the electric or E-field in the waveguide.

H-plane horn - A sectoral horn flared in the direction of the magnetic or H-field in the waveguide.

Conical horn - A horn in the shape of a cone, with a circular cross section. They are used with cylindrical waveguides.

Exponential horn-Exponential tapering can be done to reduce the reflections.

Optimum dimensions of rectangular horn

Consider a cross sectional view of a rectangular horn as shown.

Basic operation:
A horn antenna is used to transmit radio waves from a waveguide (a metal pipe used to carry radio waves) out into space, or collect radio waves into a waveguide for reception. It typically consists of a short length of rectangular or cylindrical metal tube (the waveguide), closed at one end, flaring into an open-ended conical or pyramidal shaped horn on the other end. The radio waves are usually introduced into the waveguide by a coaxial cable attached to the side, with the central conductor projecting into the waveguide to form a quarter-wave monopole antenna. The waves then radiate out the horn end in a narrow beam. However in some equipment the radio waves are conducted between the transmitter or receiver and the antenna by a waveguide, and in this case the horn is just attached to the end of the waveguide. In horns installed outdoors, such as the feed horns of satellite dishes, the open mouth of the horn is often covered by a plastic sheet which is transparent to the radio waves, to keep out moisture. A horn antenna serves the same function for electromagnetic waves that an acoustical horn does for sound waves in a musical instrument such as a trumpet. It provides a gradual transition structure to match the impedance of a tube to the impedance of free space, enabling the waves from the tube to radiate efficiently into space. If a simple open-ended waveguide is used as an antenna, without the horn, the sudden end of the conductive walls causes an abrupt impedance change at the aperture, from the wave impedance in the waveguide to the impedance of free space, (about 377 ohms). When radio waves travelling through the waveguide hit the opening, this impedance-step reflects a significant fraction of the wave energy back down the guide toward the source, so that not all of the power is radiated. This is similar to the reflection at an open-ended transmission line or a boundary between optical mediums with a low and high index of refraction, like at a glass surface. The reflected waves cause standing waves in the waveguide, increasing the SWR, wasting energy and possibly overheating the transmitter. In addition, the small aperture of the waveguide (less than one wavelength) causes significant diffraction of the waves issuing from it, resulting in a wide radiation pattern without much directivity. To improve these poor characteristics, the ends of the waveguide are flared out to form a horn. The taper of the horn changes the impedance gradually along the horn's length. This acts like an impedance matching transformer, allowing most of the wave energy to radiate out the end of the horn into space, with minimal reflection. The taper functions similar to a tapered transmission line or an optical medium with a smoothly varying refractive index. In addition, the wide aperture of the horn projects the waves in a narrow beam. The horn shape that gives minimum reflected power is an exponential taper. Exponential horns are used in special applications that require minimum signal loss, such as satellite antennas and radio telescopes. However conical and pyramidal horns are most widely used, because they have straight sides and are easier to design and fabricate.

Equation for Gain of horn antennas:

Horns have very little loss, so the directivity of a horn is roughly equal to its gain. The gain G of a pyramidal horn antenna (the ratio of the radiated power intensity along its beam axis to the intensity of an isotropic antenna with the same input power) is:

For conical horns, the gain is:

Where A is the area of the aperture, d is the aperture diameter of a conical horn is the wavelength eA is a dimensionless parameter between 0 and 1 called the aperture efficiency The aperture efficiency ranges from 0.4 to 0.8 in practical horn antennas. For optimum pyramidal horns, eA = 0.511, while for optimum conical horns eA = 0.522. So an approximate figure of 0.5 is often used. The aperture efficiency increases with the length of the horn, and for aperture-limited horns is approximately unity.

Radiation pattern theory:

The radiation pattern is a graphical representation of the strength of radiation of an antenna as a function of direction. The strength of radiation is usually measured in terms of field strength although sometimes radiation intensity (power radiated per unit solid angle) is also used. For the purpose of radiation pattern, one considers the given antenna to be located at the origin of spherical polar coordinates systems (r, , ) and the variation in the field strength at different points on an imaginary concentric spherical surface of radius r is noted. For sufficiently larger r, as explained later on, the field variation or the pattern is independent or r and also the fields are tangential to the hypothetical spherical surface. In general, separate patterns are plotted for and polarization. Usually the radiation pattern is shown in principal planes of interest. Further, for linearly polarized antennas, patterns may be plotted in E plane or H plane E- plane is defined as the plane passing through the antenna in the direction of beam maximum and parallel to the far field E vector. One defines the H plane similarly. It is quite common to plot the pattern by normalizing the field values with respect to the field strength in the direction of maximum radiation. The radiation pattern of typical microwave antennas consists of a main lobe and a few minor or sidelobes. Beam-width of an antenna is defined as the angular separation between 3 dB points with respect to the maximum field strength. Side lobes represent a loss and leakage of information in the transmit mode. In the receive mode, side lobes may cause an uncertainty in determining the angle of arrival of a signal. However, side lobes are very sensitive to the surroundings in which the radiation pattern is measured. The wave fronts in the vicinity of an antenna have a small radius or curvature but after traveling some distance the radius of curvature increases to such an extent as to make the wave front practically a plane wave. A receiving antenna is considered to be in the far-field of the test antenna if the wave front across it is practically plane. Most measurements are carried out in the far field region since; otherwise, when the receiving antenna is kept in the region of curved wave front, there will be a phase difference across the receiving aperture. It can be shown that the phase variation over the receiving aperture is less than one sixteenth of a wavelength if it is at a distance R from the transmitting antenna, where

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In which D = largest dimension of the larger of the receiver and transmitter antennas.

Radiation pattern for Horn Antennas:

The waves travel down a horn as spherical wave fronts, with their origin at the apex of the horn. The pattern of electric and magnetic fields at the aperture plane of the horn, which determines the radiation pattern, is a scaled-up reproduction of the fields in the waveguide. However, because the wave fronts are spherical, the phase increases smoothly from the edges of the aperture plane to the center, because of the difference in length of the center point and the edge points from the apex point. The difference in phase between the center point and the edges is called the phase error. This phase error, which increases with the flare angle, reduces the gain and increases the beam width, giving horns wider beam widths than similar-sized plane-wave antennas such as parabolic dishes. At the flare angle, the radiation of the beam lobe is down about -20 dB from its maximum value. As the size of a horn in wavelengths is increased, the phase error increases, giving the horn a wider radiation pattern. Keeping the beam width narrow requires a longer horn (smaller flare angle) to keep the phase error constant. The increasing phase error limits the aperture size of practical horns to about 15 wavelengths; larger apertures would require impractically long horns. This limits the gain of practical horns to about 1000 (30 dB) and the corresponding minimum beam width to about 5 - 10. The radiation pattern of a horn antenna will depend on B and A (the dimensions of the horn at the opening) and R (the length of the horn, which also affects the flare angles of the horn), along with b and a (the dimensions of the waveguide).These parameters are optimized in order to tailor the performance of the horn antenna, and are illustrated in the following figures.

Figure 1. Cross section of waveguide, cut in the H-plane.

Figure 2. Cross section of waveguide, cut in the E-plane.

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Observe that the flare angles (

and

) depend on the height, width and length of the horn antenna.

To give an idea of the radiated fields from a horn antenna, a specific example will be given. The waveguide dimensions are given by a=3.69 inches, b=1.64 inches, inches, A=30 inches, and B=23.8 inches. This horn is somewhat large, and will work well above roughly 2 GHz. Horns made for higher frequencies are smaller. This horn antenna, with a waveguide feed is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Horn antenna described above.

This antenna is simulated using a commercial solver, FEKO (which runs method of moments). The radiation pattern at 2 GHz is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Horn radiation pattern at 2 GHz.

The gain of the horn is 18.1 dB in the +z-direction. The half-power beam width is 15 degrees in the xz-plane (H-plane) and 11 degrees in the yz-plane (E-plane). The gain at 1.5 GHz is -2.54 dB, approximately 20 dB lower than at 2 GHz. The waveguide feed acts as a high-pass filter; it blocks energy below its 'cutoff' frequency and passes energy above this level. At 2.5 GHz, the gain increases slightly to 18.8 dB.

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Advantages of Horn Antennas:

1. Their advantages are moderate directivity (gain), low SWR, broad bandwidth, and simple construction and adjustment. 2. An advantage of horn antennas is that since they don't have any resonant elements, they can operate over a wide range of frequencies, a wide bandwidth. The useable bandwidth of horn antennas is typically of the order of 10:1, and can be up to 20:1 (for example allowing it to operate from 1 GHz to 20 GHz). 3. The input impedance is slowly-varying over this wide frequency range, allowing low VSWR over the bandwidth. The gain of horn antennas ranges up to 25 dBi, with 10 - 20 dBi being typical. 4. A horn reflector consists of a horn antenna with a reflector mounted in the mouth of the horn at a 45 degree angle so the radiated beam is at right angles to the horn axis. The reflector is a segment of a parabolic reflector, and the focus of the reflector is at the apex of the horn, so the device is equivalent to a parabolic antenna fed off-axis. The advantage of this design over a standard parabolic antenna is that the horn shields the antenna from radiation coming from angles outside the main beam axis, so its radiation pattern has very small side lobes. Also, the aperture isn't partially obstructed by the feed and its supports, as with ordinary front-fed parabolic dishes, allowing it to achieve aperture efficiencies of 70% as opposed to 55-60% for front-fed dishes.

Disadvantages of horn antennas:

1. The disadvantage associated with a horn reflector antenna is that it is far larger and heavier for a given aperture area than a parabolic dish, and must be mounted on a cumbersome turntable to be fully steerable. The optical system asymmetry degrades polarization purity performance in linearly polarized antennas. 2. The disadvantage of the horn antenna in general is that the antenna gain is subject to major fluctuations, particularly at low frequencies. Furthermore, the antenna gain drops to less than 0 dBi at low frequencies, such as frequencies around 1 GHz for example. 3. A further disadvantage of horn antenna consists in the fact that the voltage standing wave ratio in the lower frequency range is very unfavorable, with values of between 2 and 5, since it is scarcely possible to operate the horn antenna from a VSWR of about 3. 4. In order to function properly, a horn antenna must be a certain minimum size relative to the wavelength of the incoming or outgoing electromagnetic field. If the horn is too small or the wavelength is too large (the frequency is too low), the antenna will not work efficiently.

Applications of horn antennas:

1. Horns are widely used as antennas at UHF and microwave frequencies, above 300 MHz 2. They are used as feeders (called feed horns) for larger antenna structures such as parabolic antennas. 3. They are used as standard calibration antennas to measure the gain of other antennas, and as directive antennas for such devices as radar guns, automatic door openers, and microwave radiometers. 4. The corrugated horn invented by Kay in 1962 has become widely used as a feed horn for microwave antennas such as satellite dishes and radio telescopes. 5. Horn antennas are used in short-range radar systems, particularly those used by law-enforcement personnel to measure the speeds of approaching or retreating vehicles. 13

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