How Does An Antenna Works?

Antenna are widely used in the field of telecommunications, it receive an electromagnetic wave and convert it to an electric signal, or receive an electric signal and radiate it as an electromagnetic wave. In this article, we are going to focus at the science behind antennas. We have an electric signal so how do we convert it to an electromagnetic wave? You might have a simple answer in your mind.

 That is to use a closed conductor and with the help of the principle of electromagnetic induction, you will be able to produce a fluctuating magnetic field and an electric field around it. However, this fluctuating field around the source is of no use in transmitting signals. The electromagnetic field here does not propagate, instead it just fluctuates around the source. In an antenna, the electromagnetic waves need to be separated from the source and they should propagate. Before looking at how an antenna is made, let's understand the physics behind the wave separation. Consider one positive and one negative charge placed distance apart.

This arrangement is known as a dipole, and they obviously produce an electric field as shown in above picture, assume that these charges are oscillating as shown, at the midpoint of their path, the velocity will be at the maximum and at the ends of their paths the velocity will be zero. The charged particles undergo continuous acceleration and deceleration due to this velocity variation. 

The challenge now is to find out how the electric field varies due to this movement. Let's concentrate on only one electric field line.The wave front formed at time zero expands and is deformed as show after one eighth of a time period. This is surprising. You might've expected a simple electric field as shown at this location. Why has the electric field stretched and formed a field like this? This is because the accelerating or decelerating charges produce an electric field with some memory effects. The old electric field does not easily adjust to the new condition.We need to spend some time to understand this memory effect of the electric field or kink generation of accelerating or decelerating charges. 


At one quarter of a time period, the wave front ends meet at a single point. After this, the separation and propagation of the Wave front happens. Please note that this varying electric field will automatically generate a varying magnetic field perpendicular to it. If you draw electric field intensity variation with the distance, you can see that the wave propagation is sinusoidal in nature. It is interesting to note that the wavelength of the propagation so produced is exactly double that of the length of the dipole. We will come back to this point later. This is exactly what we need in an antenna. In short, we can make an antenna if we can make an arrangement for oscillating the positive and negative charges. In practice, the production of such an oscillating charge is very easy. 


Take a conducting rod with a bend in its centre and apply a voltage signal at the centre. Assume this is the signal you have applied a time-varying voltage signal. Consider the case at time zero.Due to the effect of the voltage the electrons will be displaced from the right of the dipole and will be accumulated on the left. This means the other end which has lost electrons automatically becomes positively charged. This arrangement has created the same effects the previous dipole charge case that is positive and negative charges at the end of a wire. With the variation of voltage with time the positive and negative charges will shuttle. 


The simple dipole antenna also produces the same phenomenon. We have now to discuss how the antenna works as a transmitter. The frequency of the transmitted signal will be the same as the frequency of the applied voltage signal. Since the propagation travels at the speed of light, we can easily calculate the wavelength of the propagation. For perfect transmission, the length of the antenna should be half of the wavelength. The operation of the antenna is reversible and it can work as a receiver if a propagating electromagnetic field hits it. Let's discuss this phenomenon in detail. Take the same antenna again and apply an electric field. 


At this instant, the electrons will accumulate at one end of the rod. This is the same as an electric dipole. As the applied electric field varies the positive and negative charges accumulate at the other ends. The varying charge accumulation means a varying electric voltage signal is produced at the centre of the antenna. This voltage signal is the output when the antenna works as a receiver. The frequency of the output voltage signal is the same as the frequency of the receiving EM wave. It is clear from the electric field configuration that for perfect reception the size of the antenna should be half of the wavelength. In all these discussions, we have known that the antenna is an open circuit. Now let's check a few practical antennas and how they work.

In the past, dipole antennas were used for TV reception. The coloured bar acts as a dipole and receives the signal. A reflector and director are also needed in this kind of antenna to focus the signal on the dipole. This complete structure is known as a Yagi antenna.

The dipole antenna converted the received signal into electrical signals, and these electrical signals were carried by coaxial cable to the television unit.

Nowadays we have moved to dish TV antennas. These consists of two main components, a parabolic shaped reflector and the low-noise block down converter. The parabolic dish receives electromagnetic signals from the satellite and focuses them onto the LNBF.

The shape of the parabolic is very specifically and accurately designed. The LNBF is made up of a feed horn, a wave guide, a PCB, and a probe. The incoming signals are focused onto the probe via the feed horn and wave guide. The signal so generated is fed to a PCB for signal processing such as filtration conversion from high to low frequency and amplification. 

After signal processing, these electrical signals are carried down to the television unit through a coaxial cable. If you open up an LNB, you will most probably find two probes instead of one. The second probe being perpendicular to the first one. The two probe arrangement means the available spectrum can be used twice by sending the waves with either horizontal or vertical polarisation. One probe detects the horizontally polarised signal and the other, the vertically polarised signal.

The cell phone in your hand uses a completely different type of antenna called a patch antenna. A patch antenna consists of a metallic patch or strip placed on a ground plane with a piece of dielectric material in between. The metallic patch acts as a radiating element. The length of the metal patch should be half of the wavelength for proper transmission and reception. 


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