Sqn Ldr Sajia 1

RADAR ANTENNA
◦ ANTENNA PARAMETERS
◦ RADIATION PATTERN
◦ APERTURE DISTRIBUTION
◦ TYPES OF ANTENNA
◦ ANTENNA ARRAY

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 An antenna is a transducer that converts radio frequency (RF) fields into
alternating current or vice versa.
 It is an arrangement of aerial electrical conductors designed to transmit or
receive radio waves .

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Functions of the RADAR Antenna
 Acts as a transducer between propagation in space and guided wave propagation in
the Tx & Rx.
 Concentrates the radiated energy in the direction of the target.

 Collects the echo energy scattered back to the radar from a target.

 Measures the angle of arrival of the received echo signal so as to provide the
location of a target in azimuth or elevation or in both.
 Acts as a filter to separate targets & rejects undesired signals from directions other
than the main beam.
 Provides the desired volumetric coverage of the radar.

 Usually establishes the time between radar observations of a target.

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 Directive Gain
 Power Gain
 Antenna Radiation Pattern
 Effective Aperture
 Beam width
 Polarization

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 Gain is the measure of the ability of an antenna to concentrate the transmitted
energy in a particular direction.
There are two types of Antenna Gain:
 Directive Gain or Directivity
 Power Gain or Gain.
Directive Gain or Directivity
Sometimes called directivity. The directive gain is descriptive of the nature of the
antenna radiation pattern. The Directive Gain of a transmitting antenna may be
defined as:

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 Directive Gain or
Directivity
Where, the radiation
intensity is the power
per unit solid angle
radiated in the
direction (θ,φ) and is
denoted P (θ,φ). Its
units are watts per
steradian.

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 The average radiation intensity over the entire solid angle of 4π steradian is equal
to the total power radiated by the antenna divided by 4π.The Directive Gain can be
written as:

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Power Gain
Power gain is similar to the directive gain except that it takes the account of
dissipative losses in the antenna. So Power Gain ‘G’ can be defined as:

G= maximum radiation intensity from subject antenna/ radiation intensity from

a lossless isotropic radiator with the same power input.

Where,
ρR is the radiation efficiency.
GD is Directive Gain

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Antenna Radiation Pattern
The energy radiated by an antenna is represented by the Radiation pattern of the
antenna.

Radiation Patterns are

diagrammatical representations of
the distribution of radiated energy
into space, as a function of
direction.

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Antenna Radiation Pattern
 A practical antenna cannot radiate energy in all directions with equal strength.
Radiation from an antenna is usually found to be maximum in one direction
whereas it is minimum or almost zero in other directions.
 Field Strength is the quantity that is used to represent the radiation pattern of an
antenna. It is usually measured at a point located at a particular distance from the
antenna.

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Antenna Radiation Pattern
 In the fig a simple reflector antenna radiation pattern is shown where main
beam is shown at zero degrees.
 The reminder of the pattern outside the main beam is the side lobe region.

 As the angle increases from the direction of maximum gain, there is an

irregularity in this particular radiation pattern at about 22 dB below the peak.
This is called vestigial lobe or shoulder.
 Side lobes are usually radiation in undesired direction which can never be
completely eliminated.
 The side lobe level is an important parameter used to characterize radiation
patterns.
 One side lobe is called back lobe. This is the portion of radiation pattern that is
directed opposing the main beam direction.

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Antenna Beamwidth
Beam width is the angle from which the majority of the antenna’s power, as
illustrated on the radiation pattern's main lobe, radiates. More particularly, the
angular range of the antenna pattern in which at least half of the max power is
emitted is described as beam width.

It may be measured in the horizontal or vertical planes and is the distance between
two points where the power is less than half of the maximum.

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Effective Aperture
 The effective aperture of a receiving antenna is a measure of the effective area
presented to the incident wave by the antenna.
 The transmitting gain ‘G’ and receiving effective area ‘Ae’ ,physical area ‘A’ of a
lossless antenna are related by

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Polarization
 Orientation of the electric field of the radio wave with respect to the Earth's
surface.
 For the electromagnetic wave the polarization is effectively the plane in which the
electric wave vibrates. This is important when looking at antennas because they are
sensitive to polarization, and generally only receive or transmit a signal with a
particular polarization.
 A simple straight wire antenna will have one polarization when mounted vertically,
and a different polarization when mounted horizontally .

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 Types of Polarization
a. Linear polarization:
i)vertical ,
ii)horizontal
b. Circular polarization
c. Elliptical Polarization

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 The fields surrounding an antenna are divided into 3 primary regions:
a. Reactive Near Field
b. Radiating Near Field or Fresnel Region
c. Far Field or Fraunhofer Region

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 The far field region is the most important, as this determines the antenna's radiation
pattern. Since antennas are used to communicate wirelessly from long distances,
this is the region of operation for most antennas.
 The Fraunhofer region far from an antenna compared to the dimensions of the
antenna and the wavelength of the radiation. Also known as far field.

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 Figure :Typical changes of antenna
amplitude pattern shape from reactive near
field toward the far field.
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Aperture Efficiency
 The aperture efficiency is based on the maximum radiation intensity, which
usually occurs at the center of the main beam.
 An aperture efficiency less than unity means that the radiated energy is
redistributed in angle rather than be dissipated.

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HANDNOTES

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 Wire Antennas
 Aperture Antennas
 Micro strip Antennas
 Array Antennas
 Reflector Antennas

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 Wire antennas are used in automobiles, buildings, ships, aircraft, spacecraft, and so
on.
 There are various shapes of wire antennas such as a straight wire (dipole), loop, and
helix .
 Loop antennas need not only be circular. They may take the form of a rectangle,
square, ellipse, or any other configuration. The circular loop is the most common
because of its simplicity in construction

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 Aperture antennas may be more familiar today than in the past because of the
increasing demand for more sophisticated forms of antennas and the utilization of
higher frequencies.
 Antennas of this type are very useful for aircraft and spacecraft applications,
because they can be very conveniently flush-mounted on the skin of the aircraft or
spacecraft.
 In addition, they can be covered with a dielectric material to protect them from
hazardous conditions of the environment

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 Micro strip antennas became very popular in the 1970s primarily for space borne
applications. Today they are used for government and commercial applications.
 These antennas consist of a metallic patch on a grounded substrate. The metallic
patch can take many different configurations, as shown in Figure.
 the rectangular and circular patches, are the most popular because of ease of
analysis and fabrication, and their attractive radiation characteristics, especially low
cross-polarization radiation.
 The micro strip antennas are low profile, comformable to planar and nonplanar
surfaces, simple and inexpensive to fabricate using modern printed-circuit
technology, mechanically robust when mounted on rigid surfaces, compatible with
MMIC designs, and very versatile in terms of resonant frequency, polarization,
pattern, and impedance.
 These antennas can be mounted on the surface of high-performance aircraft,
spacecraft, satellites, missiles, cars, and even mobile devices.

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 Many applications require radiation characteristics that may not be achievable by a
single element. It may, however, be possible that an aggregate of radiating elements
in an electrical and geometrical arrangement (an array) will result in the desired
radiation characteristics.
 The arrangement of the array may be such that the radiation from the elements adds
up to give a radiation maximum in a particular direction or directions, minimum in
others, or otherwise as desired.
 Usually the term array is reserved for an arrangement in which the individual
radiators are separate.
 However the same term is also used to describe an assembly of radiators mounted
on a continuous structure.

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 The success in the exploration of outer space has resulted in the advancement of
antenna theory. Because of the need to communicate over great distances,
sophisticated forms of antennas had to be used in order to transmit and receive
signals that had to travel millions of miles.
 A very common antenna form for such an application is a parabolic reflector.
 Antennas of this type have been built with diameters of 305 m or even larger. Such
large dimensions are needed to achieve the high gain required to transmit or receive
signals after millions of miles of travel.
 Another form of a reflector, although not as common as the parabolic, is the corner
reflector.

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 Focus-The focus is where all the incoming radio waves are concentrated.
 Vertex-The vertex is the innermost point at the center of the parabolic reflector.
 Focal length, f -The focal length of a parabola is the distance from its focus to its
vertex.

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 Antennas that are designed to reflect the incident electromagnetic waves
originating from a separate source are known as reflector antennas.
 The parabolic surface is illuminated by a source of radiated energy called the Feed,
which is placed at the focus of the parabola.

PARABOLIC REFLECTOR ANTENNA 36

 A Parabolic Antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface
with the cross-sectional shape of parabola, to direct the radio waves.
 The simplest reflector antenna consists of two components: a reflecting surface
and a much smaller feed antenna at the reflector’s focal point. Constructions
that are more complex involve a secondary reflector (a sub reflector) at the
focal point, which is illuminated by a primary feed.

PARABOLIC ANTENNA 37
  The operating principle of a parabolic antenna is that a point source of radio waves
at the focal point in front of a paraboloidal reflector of conductive material will
be reflected into a collimated plane wave beam along the axis of the reflector.

 Conversely, an incoming plane wave

parallel to the axis will be focused to
a point at the focal point.

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The general Equation of a parabola in terms of its length ‘f’ is,
Y = a𝑥 2
1
Where, a =
4𝑓
Depth of a parabolic reflector
In designing a parabolic reflector, it is often convenient to use its depth d instead of
its focal length. The formula for obtaining the depth is
𝐷2
d=
16𝑓
Similarly,
𝐷2
f= 16𝑑

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 The f/D ratio of a reflector antenna is the focal length ‘f’ divided by the aperture
diameter ‘D’.
 The matching f/D ratio of a parabolic reflector is easily Calculated using

f/D = ¼ tan (𝜃/4)

Where ‘𝜃’ is the beam width in degrees.

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 Advantages
• It can be used both as transmitting antenna and receiving antenna due to principle
of reciprocity.

• High gain: Parabolic reflector antennas are able to provide very high levels of
gain. The larger the 'dish’ in terms of wavelengths, the higher the gain.

• High directivity: the parabolic reflector or dish antenna is able to provide

high levels of directivity. The higher the gain, the narrower the beam width.

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Disadvantage

 Requires reflector and drive element : the parabolic reflector itself is only part of the
antenna. It requires a feed system to be placed at the focus of the parabolic reflector.

 Cost : The antenna needs to be manufactured with care. A paraboloid is needed to

reflect the radio signals which must be made carefully. In addition to this a feed
system is also required. This can add cost to the system

 Size: The antenna is not as small as some types of antenna, although many used for
satellite television reception are quite compact.

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Applications:
 Direct Broadcast Television

 Microwave links

 Satellite communications

 Radio astronomy

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 Dual reflector antenna, with the feed at or near the vertex of the antenna.
 The real focal point is located at the feed.
 The feed does not need long transmission lines, it allows greater flexibility in the size of
the feed system.

CASSEGRAIN ANTENNA 44
 Low noise temperature, important for radio astronomy or space communication.
 The hyperbolic sub reflector of the cassegrain antenna causes aperture blocking.
 This design is used for antennas with bulky and complicated feeds. Aperture
efficiency 65-70%.

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 Similar to the cassegrain antenna design except that the secondary reflector is
concave in shape. Aperture efficiency over 70% can be achieved.

Cassegrain and Gregorian

Antenna
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 The secondary reflector surface edge curvature enhances the diffraction and lessens
the control of the incoming electromagnetic wave incident upon the surface of the
main reflector.
 It also need a larger support for secondary reflector surface because it is placed
more away from the primary reflector surface compared to cassegrain reflector
antenna.

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An antenna, when individually can radiate an amount of energy, in a particular
direction, resulting in better transmission, how it would be if few more elements
are added it, to produce more efficient output. It is exactly this idea, which led to
the invention of Antenna arrays.

 An antenna array is a set of 2 or more antennas. The signals from the antennas are
combined or processed in order to achieve improved performance over that of a
single antenna.

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Simple antennas can be combined to achieve desired directional effects. Individual
antennas are called elements and the combination is an array .
 Arrays arrange several antennas so that their radiated energy is reinforced in some
directions and cancelled out in others
• Constructive interference
 -sine waves of energy add together

 -radiation is stronger than noise

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 Destructive interference
-sine waves of energy cancel out each other.
-the sum is nothing due to one sine wave being at its peak combined with the other at
its lowest point.

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 A phased array antenna is an array antenna whose single radiators can be fed
with different phase shifts.
 As a result, the common antenna pattern can be steered electronically.

PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA 51

• Arrange multiple dipole antennas so
that their radiated energy is
reinforced in same directions and
canceled in others.
• Total field of the array elements is
determined by vector addition of the
fields radiated by individual
elements.
• Ideally the antenna array is supposed
to produce a major lobe without any
minor/back lobe but practically
complete cancellation of radiation in
unwanted direction is not possible.
Though side lobe will be considerably
reduced compared to single element
antenna.
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 Geometrical Configurations (linear, circular, triangular, rectangular, spherical
etc).
 Relative spacing or displacement of the individual elements.
 Excitation amplitude of the individual element.
 Excitation phase of the individual element.

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Based on geometrical
configurations
-Linear Array, Planner Array,
Triangular Array, Rectangular Array
etc
-Square arrangement of elements
produces a pencil beam.
-Rectangular arrangement
produces an elliptical beam.
-By electrically turning elements on
or off any beam shape can be
created

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Based on radiation Pattern
Broadside Antenna Array
-The principal radiation or the
maximum radiation is normal to the axis
of the array.
- Equally spaced.
-Feed with equal magnitude.
- Each element is fed with same
phase.
-Usually the elements are placed
perpendicular to array axis.
- The pattern may be bidirectional.
-To avoid grating lobes the spacing is
kept less than λ.

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Ordinary End Fire Array
- The maximum radiation is along the array axis.
- Elements are equally spaced.
- Excited with equal magnitude but phase varies progressively along the line.

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BROADSIDE VS ENDFIRE
ARRAY

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• Collinear Array
- Antennas are arranged coaxially.
-Stacked over each other.
-Feed with equal in phase current.

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 Introduction to Radar Systems by Merill L Skolnik chapter 9 The Radar Antenna

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