FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

DEGREE PROGRAMME IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING

ANTENNA
Design Exercise

Diluna Adeesha Warnakulasuriya (2200114)

Sahani Thennakoon (131875)

May 2022
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ABSTRACT
In here, we will discuss about how to design single element half wave length dipole antenna and half
wave length dipole antenna array using CST software. After that we will try to reach the resonance
frequency in between the target bandwidth of 2.40 - 2.485 GHz by adjusting the length of the dipole
antenna, changing the radius of the arms of the antenna and the gap between the arms of the
antenna.
We will develop 4 elements antenna array and try to get the results for total efficiency, radiation
efficiency, axial ratio, E field, radiation patterns, gain, directivity and will compare those parameters
between single element and dipole antenna array.

Key words: dipole, antenna array, gain, efficiency, directivity

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... 3
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS....................................................................... 4
1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 5
2 DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................................. 6
3 SINGLE ANTENNA RESULT ANALYSIS ................................................................... 8
I. Efficency of the Antenna .......................................................................................... 9
II. Polarization of the antenna ..................................................................................... 9
III. Radiation Patern ................................................................................................... 11
IV. Realation between gain,directivity and efficiency ................................................. 12
4 ANTENNA ARRAY ...................................................................................................... 13
V. Efficency of the Antenna Array ............................................................................. 16
VI. Polarization of the antenna array ......................................................................... 16
VII. Radiation Patern of the antenna array.................................................................. 17
VIII. Realation between gain,directivity and efficiency ................................................. 17
IX. Beam Steering........................................................................................................ 18
5 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 19
6 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 20
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

CST - Computer Simulation Technology

λ – wavelength
L – Total Length
g- Antenna’s feeding gap
R – Radius of the dipole
L – Length of the dipole antenna
F - Length of feed
AR -Axial Ratio
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1 INTRODUCTION

Transmission and reception of radio electromagnetic waves are done by utilizing antennas,
which are made of conducting materials. Antennas can be of different types based on the
necessary conditions of the system. In general, antennas can be divided into the following types:

• Lens antenna
• Array antenna
• Aperture antenna
• Reflector antenna
• Micro strip antenna
• Wire antenna

A variety of these types of antennas are often merged to form antennas according to our
requirements. Simulations were run on CST software to create and evaluate antennas. Single
and array of half wavelength dipole antenna were both designed and simulated with the
bandwidth of 2.40 - 2.485 GHz.

Single half wavelength dipole antennas are used to form antenna arrays. If we consider half
wavelength dipole antennas, gain is equal in all directions which means radiation in H-plane is
omnidirectional. If you properly choose the excitation amplitude and progressive phase dipole
antenna array (Ex: 4 elements are parallel to each other and arranged side by side),
electromagnetic waves become more directive and the gain increases in a particular direction.
It is possible for single antennas to have different gain in every direction (Ex: patch antennas
have different radiation property). If you use isotropic antenna or H-plane of the symmetric
dipole, then you can see same gain in every direction.

Figure 1. Real halfwave dipole antenna

In order to reach the resonance frequency what we want, the antenna’s length, particularly
dipole antenna arm’s length, gap between the arms, radius of the arms was adjusted. A dipole
arm’s length can be calculated by λ/2 which is radio wave’s half wavelength and using the
frequency we can calculate wavelength. S – parameter can be used to examine resonance
frequency, return loss and so on.

One of the benefits of dipole antennas is that they can receive balanced signals essential for
wireless communication. The antenna's two-pole nature allows a device to transmit signals from
a wide range of frequencies. It also enables the system to resolve signal conflicts without
sacrificing transmission efficiency [1].
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2 DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Our aim was to obtain the given frequency band in -6dB range. Initially we started with some
of standard values for parameters given in [1,2]. Then we adjusted these parameters to satisfy
our requirements. Basic geometry of a halfwave dipole antenna as follows.

Figure 2. Geometry of a Halfwave Dipole Antenna

We started do the calculation taking 2.45 GHz as our antenna resonance frequency. CST
calculator can be then use to calculate the wavelengths based on the resonance frequency.

Figure 3. Calculation of Wavelength

Then the total length of the antenna was calculated as described in section 1. Using this value
of the total length, L, the antenna's feeding gap, g was calculated by using the following
equation. Radius of the dipole, R, was calculated using the wavelength.
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Figure 4. Designed Antenna

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3 SINGLE ANTENNA RESULT ANALYSIS

After we successfully designed our antenna, we did the simulation and looked for S11 return
loss results. We found that resonance frequency was not in our expected value of 2.45. Hence,
we tuned the values of designed parameters to obtain the resonance frequency In the range. It
was found that resonance frequency can be affected by only length of the antenna. Other
parameters may have some effects but can not considerable. We could obtain the current
resonance by changing the value of L from 61.18 mm to 56.90 mm.

Figure 5. Graph of resonance frequency

We tried to narrow the bandwidth by changing the above-mentioned parameters. Impact of

changing parameter values on the bandwidth depicted in figure 6.

Figure 6. Bandwidth at -6dB return loss

Red curve of the above graph represents the S11 plot, after we decreased the gap of the
antenna and radius of the arm by 2. It has really small impact on the bandwidth. If we want to
change the bandwidth more accurately, we need to use a matching network for this designing.
Since our CST software had no license to use schematic for designing, we did not consider such
a matching network in this report. Anyway, we have already obtained the needed frequency
band as we can see from figure 6.

Following table shows the values of the parameters used to obtain our expectations.
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Table 1. Parameter values of the designed dipole antenna

0.12236
0.2845

56.90

122.36

I. Efficency of the Antenna

Figure 7. Total and Radiation efficiency of the antenna

As we can see from above figure, efficiency of the designed antenna at frequency of interest is
very close to the radiation efficiency. Radiation efficiency tell us that the maximum possible
efficiency we can achieve from the antenna. Difference between red and green curves at 2.446
GHz, is very small and we can say that antenna is perfectly matched at resonance frequency.
At lower frequencies it has worst behavior than higher frequencies. Radiation efficiency
depends on dielectric loss and conductor loss while total efficiency depends on mismatch at the
antenna input terminal, the dielectric loss and conductor loss. Also, radiation efficiency
multiplied by the reflection efficiency (mismatch) is called as total efficiency. Because of
reflection efficiency is always smaller than one for most of the situations, total efficiency is
always less than the radiation.

II. Polarization of the antenna

We know that single dipole antenna has a linear polarization. We can get an idea about the
polarization from axial ratio. If the axial ratio has a very high constant value (>3dB), we can
say that it is linearly polarized. Using polarization, it is possible to assess how time-varying E-
field vector vary with time as it propagates. The receiving antenna has vertical linear
polarization if the transmitting antenna uses vertical linear polarization so that the polarization
is matched with the incident waves and there won’t be any polarization loss when receiving.
You can determine the components of E-filed vector radiating in all directions, if you know the
E-filed vector expression of the dipole, after that you can find the polarization in all directions.
Generally, people interested in the polarization of the main propagation.
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Figure 8. Axial ratio of the antenna

From above figure we can see that axial ratio when phi = 180 is 40dB at resonance frequency.
It is constant over the direction of phi. This figure confirmed that it has a linear polarization in
phi direction. With change of direction phi or theta, polarization was not changed.

Figure 9. E field of the Antenna

Linear polarization can be happened either vertically or horizontally depending on the direction
of E fields. As we can see from figure 9, this antenna has a horizontal linear polarization. If we
change the direction of antenna, it may change the linear polarization direction.
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III. Radiation Patern

Figure 10. Dipole elevation plane pattern

Figure 11. Dipole Azimuth plane pattern

As we can see from elevation plane, no radiation going upward or downward. The radiation
pattern of a dipole resembles a donut and is often referred to as the donut-shaped radiation
pattern. Figure 11 shows that, rotational symmetry of the radiation outwards on XY plane.
Further figure 10 shows that at any angle, this antenna has maximum 2 dBi gain over an
isotropic antenna. It is called "omni-directional" because it is the same from any angle. In
Azimuth plane we can see that at 270 degrees above the horizontal plane gain becomes zero.
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IV. Realation between gain,directivity and efficiency

As we mentioned above we have obatined a perfectly matched antenna at resonance frequency.

Total effeciency was very close to the radiation effeciency. If it is perfectly matched difference
between directivity and gain should be very less. We checked this and it was only 0.157 dB
loss.

Figure 12. Gain and directivity at resonance

Gain and directivity explain about how directive the beam is. Gain consider loss while
directivity does not take into account the loss. Efficiency depends on losses of the antenna and
matching at input terminal and inside the antenna. (Ex: dissipation in heat)
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4 ANTENNA ARRAY

Four element antenna array was creatted using the above designed singale dipole antenna. We
follow the steps in [3]. By selecting both port and arms of the dipole antenna we can make
number of copies of whole antenna. Then we introduce new parameter for the distance bwteen
each antenna. Our final view of antenna array was as follows. The array factor is related to
array geometry (ex: spacing between elements, shape of array, orientation of antenna and so
on), excitation amplitude and progressive phase between elements. Therefore spacing,
excitation amplitude and progressive phase are most important parameters to design half wave
length dipole antenna array. Spacing, excitation amplitude and progressive phase parameters
all together will determine the gain, side lobe level, beam directions.

Figure 13. Antenna Array

Figure 3. modified python script with given specifications

Following figure shows the resonance frequency of the antenna array. To get the resonance
close to the previous value, we had to increase the length of each antenna from 56.90 mm to
58.10 mm. Changing distance between each antenna has big impact on both bandwidth and the
resonance. Hence, we used a constant value of lambda/2 as the distance between each antenna.
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Figure 14. Resonance frequency of Antenna Array

Figure 15. Bandwidth at -6dB

Figure 16. S11, S22, S33, S44 curves

Figure 16 shows, S parameters of each single antennas separately. In here, environment of 1st
and 4th elements is dissimilar to the environment of 2nd and 3rd elements. Simply that means
there are 2 neighboring elements for 2nd and 3rd elements while 1st and 4th elements having only
one neighboring element. We can see that S11 and S3 curves have overlapped each other and
in the same way S22 and S33 have overlapped. It because middle two antennas’ radiations have
same radiation pattern and all of these are overlapped and radiate only some waves. First
antenna and fourth antenna also radiate only some waves lost due to 2nd and 3rd antennas
radiations. In short, this is because mutual coupling between elements. This is clearer in the
following figure.
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Figure 17. Electric field of the Array

3D plot is simply a visualization of a particular radiation pattern or field property (radiation

patterns, E-fields, H-fields, or surface current distributions) which is more intuitive and
informative. Polar plot illustrates the radiation characteristics in a particular plane such as phi
= 0 degree or theta=90 degree and sometimes it is way easier to study polar plots compared to
3D plots. That is because 3D plots are very complex and complicated to get the information
what we want. In the end, it depends on your needs and applications whether you select 3D or
polar plot.

Figure 17. S12 and S13 curves

We can see that S12 has very high value which is receive too much power by the neighbor
elements 1 and 2. But if we consider element 1 and 3 there is no such a high value. This means
we should increase the distance between elements to save the power.
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V. Efficency of the Antenna Array

Figure 18. Efficiency of the Antenna Array

According to the Figure 18, we can see that antenna array also perfectly match at resonance as
single antenna.

VI. Polarization of the antenna array

Even though we used four elemnts antenna array polarization did not changed. Antenna array
also have a linearized polarization. It was also found that polarization did change when
changing phi/theta direction.

Figure 19. AR of the Antenna Array

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VII. Radiation Patern of the antenna array

Figure 20. Elevation plane pattern

Figure 21. Azimuth plane pattern

From figure 21 we can see that when increasing number of elements, it has narrower main
beam. Gain also significantly increased.

VIII. Realation between gain,directivity and efficiency

We checked the gain and directivity difference at resonance frequency. It was around 0.128 dBi
loss. Even in figure 18, we can see that it is perfectly matched at resonance frequency where
has a good efficiency.
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IX. Beam Steering

We can do beam steering to any direction using post processing in CST microwave studio.

Figure 22. Directivity before beam steering

Figure 22. Directivity after beam steering

As we can see from above two figures, main lobe has shifted from 90 degree to 234 degree.
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5 CONCLUSION

We realized that a higher resonance does not automatically lead to a extensive bandwidth.
When we increase the dimension of the antenna, it will lead the way to increase bandwidth
also. Bandwidth depends on geometry of antenna, feeding techniques and other factors.
The polarization is linear when Axial Ratio is massive enough. That is because according to the
ratio of major axis to minor axis, trace of vector of E-field is resembling a line. Smaller Axial
Ratio results in elliptic polarization that is because major axis and minor axis are closer to each
other. A key reason for having an array is that we can obtain lot of gain and beam direction
steerability.
The resonance perhaps offset, and matching alter slightly due to the mutual coupling of the
elements in the antenna array compared to single element. If not S-parameter of array and
single element should be equal to each other. E-field lines elongate from one to the other that
is because having mutual coupling in antenna array. But in the single element, the lines start
from one of polarity and finished with other polarity or elongate to infinity.
You can understand that varying the progress phase between elements, direction of the beam
can be changed according to the array factor which is a function with combination of the
spacing, excitation amplitude and phase. By increasing the number of elements or increasing
the wavelength, we can make the antenna more directive in nature.
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6 REFERENCES

1. Islam, R., Mahbub, F., Akash, S. B., & Kadir Al-Nahiun, S. A. (2021). Design of a
half-wave dipole antenna for Wi-Fi & WLAN system using ISM band. 2021 IEEE
International IOT, Electronics and Mechatronics Conference (IEMTRONICS).
https://doi.org/10.1109/iemtronics52119.2021.9422495
2. Singh, P., Sharma, A., Uniyal, N., & Kala, R. (2012, December 6). Half-Wave
Dipole Antenna for GSM Applications. nternational Journal of Advanced Computer
Research (ISSN (print): 2249-7277 ISSN (online): 2277-7970) Volume-2 Number-4
3. Markus Berg. (2022). Lectures Notes and Videos. Antenna Course. University of
Oulu.