Necessity Of Antennas

Telecom Business Review | Thursday, June 03, 2021

Antennas are basic electrical circuit components that provide interconnecting links between transmitter and free space or between free space and receiver.

Fremont, CA: In this modern era of wireless communication, many engineers are interested in specialization in communication fields, but this needs basic knowledge of fundamental communication concepts like types of antennas, electromagnetic radiation, various phenomena about propagation, etc.

Before we discuss antenna types, a few properties need to be understood. Antennas are basic electrical circuit components that provide interconnecting links between transmitter and free space or between free space and receiver.

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For wireless communication systems, antennas play a prominent role as they efficiently convert electronic signals into electromagnetic waves. Aside from these properties, we also cover different types of antennas in a wireless communication system.

What is an Antenna?

An antenna is a metallic structure employed to transmit or capture radio electromagnetic signals. These are available in various sizes as well as shapes. The small antennas can be found on the roofs to watch television, whereas the big ones are utilized to capture signals through satellites.

The antennas that SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) mainly include a specific antenna with bowl-shaped that concentrates signals at a particular end, known as a parabolic antenna. This antenna enables the transmitting and capturing of electromagnetic signals, which can move vertically and horizontally to transfer and capture the signal.

From a transmission line, a signal is provided to an antenna. After that, this signal can be transformed into electromagnetic energy broadcasted throughout space. Occasionally, an electrical device like an antenna or an aerial is employed to change electrical power to electromagnetic signals & vice-versa.

The antenna plays an essential role in transmitting and receiving electromagnetic radiation.

In a transmitting antenna, an antenna accommodates electrical signals from a transmission line & changes them into radio waves. In receiving antenna is quite the opposite because it allows radio signals from space & changes them into electrical signals & offers them to a transmission line. Regular antenna parameters are bandwidth, polarization, gain, radiation pattern, impedance & beamwidth.

Why do we need Antennas?

There are many grounds to use antennas, but the main reason is that they offer an easy way to transmit signals wherever other techniques are impossible.

For instance, an airplane's pilot must frequently converse with ATC personnel. Hence the communication between them can be done using wireless communication & antennas, which are the entry for that. So, there are many conditions otherwise applications wherever cables are picked over wireless communication using antennas.

Fundamental Parameters of Types of Antennas

Under a wireless communication system, the antenna is an important component. So the important thing to know is that the wireless communication system characteristics depend on the antenna's characteristics used within the system.

For example, the communication system's operational characteristics will trace its origins to the antenna's directional characteristics. In several applications of antennas, antennas are associated with some basic parameters. Sometimes, these are called characteristics or properties of the antenna.

Some of the characteristics of an antenna incorporate the following.

• Radiation Pattern of Antenna

• Polarization of Antenna

• Intensity of Radiation

• Effective Aperture

• Gain & Directivity

• Bandwidth

• Power Gain & Radiation Efficiency

• Effective Length

• Input Impedance

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