Unit-IV

Different Types of Antennas

Vertical Antennas above a Plane Ground
Yagi-Uda antenna
• Yagi-Uda antenna is the most commonly used type of antenna for TV
reception over the last few decades. It is the most popular and easy-to-use
type of antenna with better performance, which is famous for its high
gain and directivity.

• The frequency range in which the Yagi-Uda antennas operate is

around 30 MHz to 3GHz which belong to the VHF and UHF bands.
• The Yagi antenna design has a dipole as the main radiating or driven element.

• Further 'parasitic' elements are added which are not directly connected to the driven element.

• These parasitic elements pick up power from the dipole and re-radiate it.

• The phase is in such a manner that it affects the properties of the RF antenna as a whole,
causing power to be focused in one particular direction and removed from others.

• The parasitic elements of the Yagi antenna operate by re-radiating their signals in a slightly
different phase to that of the driven element.

• In this way the signal is reinforced in some directions and cancelled out in others. It is found
that the amplitude and phase of the current that is induced in the parasitic elements is
dependent upon their length and the spacing between them and the dipole or driven element.
• There are three types of element within a Yagi antenna:
(i) Driven element: The driven element is the Yagi antenna element to which power is
applied. It is normally a half wave dipole or often a folded dipole.

(ii) Reflector: The Yagi antenna will generally only have one reflector. This is behind the
main driven element, i.e. the side away from the direction of maximum sensitivity. Further
reflectors behind the first one add little to the performance.

(iii) Director: The director or directors are placed in front of the driven element, i.e. in the
direction of maximum sensitivity. Typically each director will add around 1 dB of gain in
the forward direction, although this level reduces as the number of directors increases
• The basic element used in Yagi antenna is half wave dipole which is placed
horizontally known as driven element or active element.

• In order to make the unidirectional, additional rod elements are placed on either side
of dipole antenna. These elements have no electrical connection with the dipole.
These are called as parasitic elements.

• The elements longer than dipole are placed behind it is called reflector.

• The elements having length less than driven element and is placed in front of a
driven dipole are called as directors. The director is always directed towards
transmitting antenna.
• The antenna parameters element lengths and spacing are given in terms of
wavelength, so an antenna for a given frequency can be easily designed
• Reflector length = 152/f (MHz)
• Driven element length = 143/f (MHz)
• First Director length = 137/f (MHz)
• Second Director length = 134/f (MHz)
• Length of the successive directors reduced by 2.5 %
• Spacing between reflector and dipole = 0.25𝛌
• Spacing between director and dipole = 0.13𝛌
• Spacing between director and director = 0.13𝛌
Applications
The following are the applications of Yagi-Uda antennas:
• Mostly used for TV reception.
• Used where a single-frequency application is needed.
Yagi-Uda Modifications
2. Landsdorfer shaped dipole antenna:
3. Square Corner Yagi-Uda Hybrid Antenna
Long wire Antennas

• Antenna length is more than Half wave long or its multiple , is called
as Long wire antennas.
V-Antenna
 RHOMBIC ANTENNA

• The Rhombic antenna is non-resonant antenna and capable of operating satisfactorily

over the entire range of frequencies of HF band (3 to 30 MHz) for either transmission
or reception. The highest development of the long wire is the rhombic antenna.

• It consists of four conductors joined to form a rhombus or diamond shape as shown

fig. (39). The four conductors are considered as non resonant antennas terminated in
its characteristics impedance R. The terminating resistance is often in the range of 800
Ω and the input impedance varies from 650 to 700 Ω.
Travelling Wave Antennas

Folded dipole antenna

• The basic dipole antenna or aerial is widely used in its basic form. However under a
number of circumstances a modification to this referred to as the folded dipole
antenna provides a number of advantages.
• The folded dipole antenna or folded dipole aerial is widely used, not only on its own,
but also as the driven element in other antennas like the Yagi antenna and various
other types of antenna.

• The folded dipole antenna consists of a basic dipole, but with an added conductor
connecting the two ends together. This makes a ‘loop’ of wire that is a short circuit
to DC. As the ends appear to be folded back, the antenna is called a folded dipole
antenna.
• A folded dipole is an antenna, with two conductors connected on both sides, and
folded to form a cylindrical closed shape, to which feed is given at the center. The
length of the dipole is half of the wavelength. Hence, it is called as half wave folded
dipole antenna.
• Let, both the conductors of dipole have the same diameter and the emf V appeared to
antenna terminals be divided between the two dipoles as shown in fig. (44b).

• The approximate value of the terminal impedance may be deduced in the following
way:

𝑉
• From figure (44b), = 𝐼1 𝑍11 + 𝐼2 𝑍12 ………..(1)
2
where 𝑍11 = self impedance of dipole 1
𝑍12 = mutual impedance of dipole 1 and 2
𝐼1 = current at terminal if dipole 1
𝐼2 = current at terminal if dipole 2
Advantages
The following are the advantages of half-wave folded dipole antenna −
• Reception of balanced signals.
• Receives a particular signal from a band of frequencies without losing the quality.
• A folded dipole maximizes the signal strength.
Disadvantages
The following are the disadvantages of half-wave folded dipole antenna −
• Displacement and adjustment of antenna is a hassle.
• Outdoor management can be difficult when antenna size increases.
Applications
The following are the applications of half-wave folded dipole antenna −
• Mainly used as a feeder element in Yagi antenna, Parabolic antenna, turnstile antenna, log periodic antenna,
phased and reflector arrays, etc.
• Generally used in radio receivers.
• Most commonly used in TV receiver antennas.
 THANK YOU

Reference: Antennas for all applications by John D. Kraus