Sunday, April 28, 2024

Antenna Design Principles for PCB Designers

antenna design

An antenna pattern, or radiation pattern, is a 2D (or 3D contour) plot which shows the angular variation in an antenna parameter such as  the relative field strength in the far-field. Boresight error (BSE)The maximum radiation intensity is supposed to occur at boresight, but nothing works perfectly in the analog world, and often it is slightly skewed. The angle that the physical or optical boresight differs from the electromagnetic boresight is the boresight error. BoresightThe direction in which you are physically pointing the antenna, with the intention of maximum electromagnetic illumination. The word comes from the early military applications of microwaves, when radar was perfected to help shoot stuff down.

Array Antennas

Cord-cutting has become synonymous with dropping cable and satellite subscriptions in favor of video streaming services. That leaves a lot of live television on the table, much of which you can get for free. All you need is an antenna to tune into TV stations the old-fashioned way (in high-definition with digital signals, of course). If you want to keep up with local programming or just want some more variety beyond what you can stream, setting up an antenna for your TV is the way to do it. Here are the products we recommend along with how to choose the best antenna for your needs. This image shows the emission pattern of a quarter-wavelength antenna standing above a GND plane.

"No-Name" Amazon Digital Antenna

On the other hand, antennas with low directivity have a more omnidirectional radiation pattern. A radio wave is a combination of a magnetic field at a right angle to an electric field. Both oscillate at a specific frequency, and they travel together in a direction perpendicular to both fields (Fig. 1). These electromagnetic fields move at the speed of light (about 300 million meters per second or about 186,400 miles per second) through free space. According to Maxwell’s well-known equations, they support and regenerate one another along the way, but weaken over distance.

antenna design

Antennas Direct ClearStream Flex Amplified UHF/VHF Indoor HDTV Antenna

antenna design

The simple answer is “no”, some antennas need the ground plane and some do not. The ground plane used in a PCB or below a large standing antenna acts like an opposite polarity emitter (image antenna) when the emitting antenna is excited. This causes the electric field to terminate at the ground plane and creates a half-plane emission pattern above the ground plane as shown in the quarter-wavelength example below. The feedline needs to be designed such that the return loss along the feedline is minimized at the antenna’s input port. The feedline and matching network design can limit the bandwidth if not implemented correctly, so the designer needs to select the appropriate matching method for their particular antenna. The table below outlines some possible antenna impedance matching methods and when they can be used.

Transmission lines are very strongly resistive in their characteristic impedance, but antennas can have a reactive component in their input impedance. Therefore, an impedance matching method is needed; this can be implemented with a set of discrete components in a filter circuit, or using transmission line sections. RFID readers are devices that emit radio waves to communicate with RFID tags.

Measurements and Discussions

The designer will only need to place an impedance matching network and feedline into the antenna. In higher-power systems that do not use an off-the-shelf processor, the analog front-end may be built from discrete components. Antennas can be designed to pick up an electric field or magnetic field, depending on its geometry.

Determine the wire length.

Millimeter-wave frequencies, ranging from 30 to 300 gigahertz, hold tremendous potential for high-speed wireless communication. Antennas designed for millimeter-wave applications require innovative techniques to overcome the challenges posed by the shorter wavelengths, such as beamforming, phased arrays, and advanced materials. Geostationary satellites orbit the Earth at the same rotational speed as the planet, allowing them to remain fixed relative to a specific location on the Earth’s surface. Antennas designed for geostationary satellites need to provide high gain and directivity to establish reliable communication links over long distances. These antennas often utilize parabolic reflectors to achieve the required performance.

Selection of metallic liquid in sub-6 GHz antenna design for 6G networks Scientific Reports - Nature.com

Selection of metallic liquid in sub-6 GHz antenna design for 6G networks Scientific Reports.

Posted: Thu, 23 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

The numbers printed above are the best results with or without amplification. They usually look like fins, arrows, or tubes, and require you to point them directly at a station's broadcast center. They offer a much greater range than multidirectional antennas and thus let you tune into more distant stations. Almost all indoor antennas are multidirectional, and many outdoor antennas are as well. They’re easy to set up and don’t require you to know the exact location of each station. The Mohu Leaf 50 might look unassuming as a flat, indoor multidirectional antenna, but its USB-powered amplifier adds 15dB of signal strength, giving it a range of over 60 miles.

This radiation pattern is greatly influenced by nearby conductive and nonconductive objects. If more precisely controlled, the polarization can be used to multiplex two signals on the same frequency. In some satellites, a vertically polarized antenna can transmit one signal while simultaneously transmitting or receiving on a separate horizontally polarized antenna on the same frequency. If polarization is a problem in an application, circular polarization may offer a solution.

The elements may be extruded from the wire form to a planar form to realize an increase in impedance and gain bandwidth, but with a small degradation in gain. The antenna gain expression can be expanded further to reveal other factors that contribute to the overall antenna gain. The radiation intensity for the antenna is a function of the antenna efficiency, ?

The length and shape of the wire influence the frequency at which the antenna resonates. Examples of wire antennas include dipole antennas, monopole antennas, and loop antennas. The job of the analog front-end is to form the signal and ensure it transmits between the antenna and the transceiver. In some smaller systems like IoT products, the central processor (MCU) will often have the front-end built into it.

It's worth noting that some of these antennas -- the Btfdreem, Gesobyte and the Ultra Vizion Plus -- included gain-boosting amplifiers. Based on our experiences in several locations over the years, amplifiers can affect signal strength in wildly unpredictable ways. The Ultra Vizion wouldn't work at all with the amp attached, while the others did.

This form of energy consists of electric and magnetic fields that propagate through space in the form of waves. It encompasses a wide range of frequencies, from radio waves to gamma rays. When it comes to antenna design, understanding electromagnetic radiation is crucial because antennas rely on the ability to transmit and receive these waves.

But, a few years ago, the ATSC 3.0 standard arrived (ATSC 2.0 never rolled out). This latest version introduced the ability for broadcast stations to transmit in 4K. Directional antennas typically require an outdoor setup, so they are better for houses than apartments.

Multiband antenna design with enhanced radiations using characteristic mode analysis Scientific Reports - Nature.com

Multiband antenna design with enhanced radiations using characteristic mode analysis Scientific Reports.

Posted: Thu, 19 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

However, a brief review of the essentials can help allay any design worries. Several antennas in our list include a powered amplifier, but use thoughtfully, as these may actually make a strong signal worse. We situated each antenna in the same spot each time and connected it to the TiVo Edge, which gives signal strength data as well as a total channel count. We used two different metrics to determine which TV antenna performed best.

Obviously, then, the range of the signal has a lot to do with the height of the antenna. Before you start shopping for an antenna, you should check to see which channels are available near you. AntennaWeb has a helpful tool that lets you enter your location to see what the nearest TV stations are. It even provides a map that shows the distance from each station and the type of antenna you need to get a strong signal.

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