Scribd
Upload
17 views16 pages

UnderstandingandMeasuringCircularpolarization

Uploaded by

agj18
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
17 views16 pages

UnderstandingandMeasuringCircularpolarization

Uploaded by

agj18
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 16

Understanding and Measuring

Circular Polarization
Reference :
B. Y. Toh, R. Cahill, and V. F. Fusco, “Understanding
and measuring circular polarization,” IEEE- Trans. on
Education, Vol. 46, No. 3, Aug. 2003.
Outline

 Introduction

 Definition And Measurement Techniques

 Experiments With Circularly Polarized Dipole Antennas

 Conclusions
Introduction

 In an undergraduate electromagnetics syllabus, an introduction


to the topic of circular polarization is necessary to promote an
understanding of the propagation aspects of modern
communications system design.

 Students new to the antennas and propagation discipline often


have difficulty in grasping the concept of CP; therefore, in this
paper, the essential aspects of this topic are reinforced by a
tutorial description of CP in terms of wave propagation,
antenna properties, and measurement techniques.
Definition and Measurement Techniques

A. Definitions
 The polarization of an electromagnetic wave is defined by
the shape and orientation of the tip of the E vector as it
varies with time.

 In this paper, this situation is defined in a frame of reference


from an observation point at the source looking in the
direction of propagation in the axis, as shown in Fig. 1.

 The sense of a circularly polarized wave is determined by


the rotation direction of the vector E as it describes a circle.
Definition And Measurement Techniques

A. Definitions
 A practical antenna usually generates an imperfect circularly
polarized field; therefore, the E vector traces out an ellipse,
instead of a circle, as shown in Fig. 1(c).

 The ratio of the major to minor axes defines the AR of the


polarized wave.

 For perfect CP wave propagation, where only one hand of


polarization is generated, the AR will have a value of 1.
Definition And Measurement Techniques

A. Definitions
 In the extreme case where the magnitude of the RHCP and
LHCP components are the same, the circle formed by the tip
of the E vector degenerates into a line, the polarization
becomes linear, and the AR value becomes infinite.

 If the complex voltage terms in the horizontal and vertical


planes (or any two orthogonal cuts) EH and EV are of equal
amplitude and in phase quadrature (±90o), these terms may
be combined to express either the RHCP or LHCP wave
components
1 1
𝐸𝑅𝐻𝐶𝑃 = 𝐸𝐻 + 𝑗𝐸𝑉 ，(1) and 𝐸𝐿𝐻𝐶𝑃 = 𝐸𝐻 − 𝑗𝐸𝑉 ，(2)
2 2
Definition And Measurement Techniques

(a) (c)

(b)

Fig. 1. (a) Left-hand circular polarization. (b) Right-hand circular polarization.


(c) Polarization ellipse.
Definition A\and Measurement
Techniques
B. Measurement Techniques

Fig. 2. Antenna range setup for determining the gain of an elliptically polarized antenna .
Definition And Measurement Techniques

B. Measurement Techniques
 Equations (1) and (2) may be expanded to give simple
expressions that can be inserted into data logging software
to provide a direct conversion from dual linear to RHCP and
LHCP power at each measurement angle. Let the real and
imaginary components of the horizontal and vertical
response be expressed as
𝐸𝐻 = 𝐸𝐻𝑟 + 𝑗𝐸𝐻𝑖 ，(3) 𝐸𝑉 = 𝐸𝑉𝑟 + 𝑗𝐸𝑉𝑖 ，(4)
𝐸𝐻𝑟 = 𝐻𝐴 cos(𝐻𝑃 ) 𝐸𝑉𝑟 = 𝑉𝐴 cos(𝑉𝑃 )
𝐸𝐻𝑖 = 𝐻𝐴 sin(𝐻𝑃 ) 𝐸𝑉𝑖 = 𝑉𝐴 sin(𝑉𝑃 )
Definition And Measurement Techniques

 Inserting into (1) and (2) gives the field in the two hands of
polarization
1
𝐸𝐿𝐻𝐶𝑃 = 𝐻𝐴 cos(𝐻𝑃 ) + 𝑉𝐴 sin(𝑉𝑃 ) + 𝑗 𝐻𝐴 sin(𝐻𝑃 ) − 𝑉𝐴 cos(𝑉𝑃 )
2
1
𝐸𝑅𝐻𝐶𝑃 = 𝐻𝐴 cos(𝐻𝑃 ) − 𝑉𝐴 sin(𝑉𝑃 ) + 𝑗 𝐻𝐴 sin(𝐻𝑃 ) + 𝑉𝐴 cos(𝑉𝑃 )
2
 In each hand of polarization, the power can be expressed by

𝐸2
𝑃 𝑑𝐵 = 10 log10
377
Definition and Measurement Techniques

 The ripples in the radiation pattern plotted in Fig. 3 are a


consequence of the beam ellipticity, which occurs when a
finite cross-polar component exists. The depth of the nulls
defines the AR, which is related to cross-polarization by the
expression

1+𝑒
𝐴𝑅 = 20 log10
1−𝑒

where 𝑒 = 10−𝑃𝑑𝐵 /20 and PdB is the cross-polar power.


Definition And Measurement Techniques

Fig. 3. Radiation pattern comparison of an elliptically polarized antenna and a standard gain antenna .
Definition and Measurement Techniques

Gain
𝐺0 dBil = 𝐺𝑠𝑡𝑑 − ∆
𝐺𝐴𝑈𝑇 dBi𝑐 = 𝐺0 + 3
𝐺𝑐 dB = 20 log10 0.5 1 + 10−AR/20
𝐺𝐴𝑈𝑇 dBi𝑐 = 𝐺0 + 𝐺𝑐 + 3
G0：Absolute gain of the AUT
Gstd：Gain of standard gain antenna
∆：Difference in the Measured power level
GAUT：Gain of AUT
Gc：Correction factor
Fig. 3. Radiation pattern comparison of an elliptically polarized antenna and a standard gain antenna .
Experiments With Circularly
Polarized Dipole Antennas

Fig. 4. Layout of a prototype 1.7-GHz CP dipole.


Fig. 5. Swept frequency measured return loss and impedance of 1.7-GHz CP dipole
Experiments With Circularly
Polarized Dipole Antennas

Fig. 6. CP radiation patterns of 1.7-GHz CP dipole.


Conclusions

 To promote a better understanding and visualization of the


physical principles, a laboratory-based project involving a
series of simple experiments has been designed to enable
students to observe the essential amplitude and phase criteria
associated with this mode of wave propagation.

 Reference : B. Y. Toh, R. Cahill, and V. F. Fusco,


“Understanding and measuring circular polarization,” IEEE-
Trans. On Education, Vol. 46, No. 3, Aug. 2003.

You might also like