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--- user:kurser:ham_vt2023_l7 [2023/04/22 15:30] – Added segment on driven and parasitic elements. user
+++ user:kurser:ham_vt2023_l7 [2023/04/22 18:30] – Added segment on antenna gain and efficiency. user
@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
   * Directivity, D, dBi, dBd
   * Antenna gain
-  * Far-field distance = d_f > 2*D^2/lambda, given d_f >> D, d_f >> lambda
+  * Far-field distance = d_f > 2*D^2/λ, given d_f >> D, d_f >> λ
-  * Radiation efficiency, eta
+  * Radiation efficiency, η
   * Radiation pattern, E & H patterns
   * Polarisation and x-pol suppression
@@ Line 93: / Line 93: @@
 ==Direction==
-The most ideal antenna is a single charge floating in free space, radiating as a sphere in all directions. Such a single charge is known academically as an //isotropic radiator//. Practically, antennas are real objects and thus not single charges, meaning that the "radiation sphere" (made-up word) is very much not a sphere. Most antennas only //illuminate// (actual term) a smaller part of that hypothetic sphere, meaning that most of the EM field is sent/recieved from/to the antenna at that specific direction in space.
+The most ideal antenna is a single charge floating in free space, radiating as a sphere in all directions. Such a single charge is known academically as an //isotropic radiator//. Practically, antennas are real objects and thus not single charges, meaning that the "radiation sphere" (made-up word) is very much not a sphere. Most antennas only //illuminate// (actual term) a smaller part of that hypothetic sphere, meaning that most of the EM field is sent/recieved from/to the antenna at that specific direction in space. The illuminated area is known as the //beam area// (SE: ??).
-How small that illuminated segment of the sphere is, is known as the //antenna directivity//. The directivity is often given in dB with respect to that ideal //isotropic radiator//. The unit is thus **dBi**. A very large part of an antenna's design specification, is its directivity. Different types of antennas have very different directivities.
+How small that illuminated segment of the sphere is as opposed to size the entire sphere, is known as the //antenna directivity//. The directivity is often given in dB with respect to that ideal //isotropic radiator//. The unit is thus **dBi**. A very large part of an antenna's design specification, is its directivity. Different types of antennas have very different directivities.
 A higher directivity means that more of the emitted/recieved field is sent through a smaller portion of that sphere around the antenna. The antenna is in a way "pointing more" towards one direction. A high directivity thus means that the antenna is very good as emitting/receiving to that specific direction. And as a drawback, the antenna become worse at emitting/receiving in every other direction.
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 The direction with the highest directivity of the antenna, is known as the //main lobe// (SE: huvudloben). Thus, the smaller lobes are known as //sidelobes// (SE: sidolober). The main lobe in practice defines which way the antenna is pointing.
-Simple antennas, like a monopole antenna, only have a single lobe. Very complex antennas, may have lobes that are shaped practically in any way imaginable. Example: an antenna in a satellite orbiting above a nation, might have an antenna with a lobe pattern that is shaped according to the borders of that nation. The antenna is thus good at transmitting/receiving to/from that nation, and worse at transmitting/receiving to/from locations outside of that nation's borders. In practice, it is very hard to design an antenna with such a complicated lobe pattern. Companies approach this problem for instance using evolutional AI algorithms that brute-force designs until the lobe pattern is achieved. Another very common approach, is to make a very large array of antennas, and control the phase of the signal reaching each antenna, in order to achieve a more complicated lobe pattern.
+Simple antennas, like a monopole antenna, only have a single lobe. Very complex antennas, may have lobes that are shaped practically in any way imaginable. Example: an antenna in a satellite orbiting above a nation, might have an antenna with a lobe pattern (SE: strålningsdiagram) that is shaped according to the borders of that nation. The antenna is thus good at transmitting/receiving to/from that nation, and worse at transmitting/receiving to/from locations outside of that nation's borders. In practice, it is very hard to design an antenna with such a complicated lobe pattern. Companies approach this problem for instance using evolutional AI algorithms that brute-force designs until the lobe pattern is achieved. Another very common approach, is to make a very large array of antennas, and control the phase of the signal reaching each antenna, in order to achieve a more complicated lobe pattern.
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 In practice, reflectors are usually checkerboard-shaped meshes of wires.
+\\
+==A stricter definition of directivity==
+The directivity of an antenna, is the maximum transmitted power in the main lobe, divided by the average power transmitted across the entire sphere. From this ratio, we may derive that the directivity D = (4*pi) / (beam area).
+\\
+==Gain and antenna efficiency==
+In a datasheet, you will typically find an entry for //gain// (SE: antennvinst). Different sources will have different opinions on what is the gain of the antenna. Here, we choose to define the antenna gain as the //power gain// of the antenna. The power gain G is related to the directivity of the antenna as\\
+G = η * D
+... where η is the so-called efficiency factor of the antenna. In practice, there will be unexpected ohmic losses in the antenna, leading to an η that is smaller than 1.
+It is thus useful to discuss a real antenna in terms of its gain, rather than in terms of its theoretical directivity.
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 TODO
+\\
+==Far-field==
+All commonly used formulas related to antennas, assume simplifications that happen once we are standing at a large distance away from the antenna. The far-field distance = d_f > 2*D^2/lambda, given d_f >> D, d_f >> lambda.
+Meaning, that for very high frequencies, our simplifications and thus our formulas, are valid already fairly close to the antenna. The opposite of the far-field is known as the near-field, where most of our formulas stop being valid, and in practice the behaviour of the antenna has to be numerically simulated.