Course syllabus

Jump to today

Course-PM

SSY100 SSY100 Antenna engineering lp4 VT23 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Electrical Engineering

Contact details

The student representative’s function is to be responsive to the student’s views and to participate in two very short sessions, which should be initiated by the teacher and be held during the course. You are also expected to attend in a final course evaluation meeting that will be held during the following study period when the course evaluation form has closed and been put together.

For participation in the final course evaluation meeting, you get a gift certificate for 200 kronor at Chalmers Student Union Book Store (STORE). An invitation for the course evaluation meeting will be sent to you in the beginning of the study period after the course has finished. For master program courses, the teacher is responsible to convene the meeting. 

Further information on the course evaluation process at Chalmers is available in the Student Portal:

https://student.portal.chalmers.se/en/chalmersstudies/courseinformation/courseevaluation/Pages/default.aspx

Eligibility

General entry requirements for Master's level (second cycle)

Specific entry requirements

English 6 (or by other approved means with the equivalent proficiency level)

Course specific prerequisites

The students need to have a basic theoretical knowledge of:

  • electric circuit theory
  • complex non-differential vector analysis
  • theory of electromagnetic fields and waves

Course purpose

This Antenna Engineering course gives an introduction to antenna theory and design for applications in both

a) traditional radar and communication systems based on Line-Of-Sight (LOS)
b) mobile communications systems with strong signal variations (fading) due to multipath propagation.

The course has a strong focus on system characterization for both these two applications, and treats the fundamental field theoretical part with compact engineering formulas that are easily interpretable and still well rooted in Maxwell's equations. These are applied to obtain classical formulas for the most common antenna types and thereby their basic principles of operation can be explained. Furthermore, the course contains lecture on materials for antenna design and fundamental limitations of antennas.

Schedule

TimeEdit

Content

  1. Introduction: Course information. Examples of antenna and antenna types. Applications and brief history. Some existing and future antenna systems and their frequencies and antenna types. About antenna terminology. Repetition of dB and basic vector formulas (cross and scalar products).
  2. Characterization of antennas for line-of-sight (LOS) systems: Plane waves. Linear and circular polarization. The radiation field function: Phase reference point, polarization, phase center, directivity, sidelobes, E- and H-planes. Rotationally symmetric antennas: BOR0 and BOR1 antennas (BOR = Bodies of Revolution). System characteristics: gain, efficiency, total radiated power, equivalent noise temperature and G/T. Equivalent circuits on transmit and receive. Antenna impedance and matching. Transmission between two antennas in free space. Antenna measurements.
  3. Characterization of antennas for multipath environments: Multipath environment and Rayleigh fading. Single antennas: Mean effective gain, radiation efficiency. Multiport antenna systems: Embedded element patterns, embedded element radiation efficiency, mutual coupling and correlation. Antenna diversity: Apparent, actual and effective diversity gain. Maximum Shannon capacity of MIMO systems (Multiple Input Multiple Output). Characterization of active terminals: Total radiated power, receiver sensitivity and bit error rate (BER), realized diversity gain, and user interaction (head loss and specific absorption rate). Measurements in reverberation chamber. Transmission between two antennas in multipath.
  4. Materials for antenna design: Theoretical materials and surfaces used in analysis: Perfect electric conductor (PEC), perfect magnetic conductor (PMC), PEC/PMC strip grids (soft and hard surfaces). Practical materials: Good conductors, poor conductors, dielectrics, foam. Artificial materials / periodic surfaces: Corrugations, strip-loaded surfaces, frequency selective surfaces (FSS), electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) surfaces.
  5. Incremental elementary sources of radiation: The incremental electric current (Hertz dipole). The incremental equivalent magnetic current. The directive incremental Huygens source
  6. Small antennas: Electric monopole and dipole. Yagi antennas. Log-periodic and other ultra wideband antennas. Electric loop antenna. Helical and spiral antennas. Slot antennas. Microstrip patch antennas. Inverted F-antennas or quarterwave patch antennas. Examples of practical small antennas for mobile terminals.
  7. Aperture antennas: Aperture theory: aperture distribution, directivity, sidelobes. Tolerances and fundamental gain limitations of large antennas. Horn antennas: Pyramidal horns, conical horns, corrugated horns. Reflector antennas: Paraboloidal antennas, Cassegrain antennas, feeds, phase center, aperture illumination taper, diffraction, blockage, subefficiencies, sidelobes. Examples of antennas used in radio telescopes
  8. Array antennas: Linear and planar phased arrays. Isolated and embedded element patterns. Array factor as element-by-element sum. Array factor as grating-lobe sum (aperture approach). Directivity, sidelobes and grating lobes. Mutual coupling, active antenna impedance and scan blindness. Fundamental efficiency and correlation limitations of multiport/multibeam arrays
  9. Fundamental limitations: Fundamental directivity limitations of small and large antennas (including supergain). Miniaturization of antennas and their fundamental bandwidth limitations.

Organization

Each double-hour lecture is followed by a double-hour tutorial class, in which the course assistants will show how to use the lectured principles, formulas and design curves to analyze and design antennas.

Three mandatory laboratory exercises: a) Measurements of diversity antenna, total radiated power and throughput of mobile phones by using reverberation chamber. b) Measurement of radiation pattern and gain for antennas in line-of-sight environment in anechoic chamber. c) Design of an array antenna with CST or HFSS. 

Assignments: Four voluntary home assignments will be given. They give bonus points for the final result of the course exam, if solved and handed in.

Two voluntary study visits will be organized. You get 2 bonus points added to your final result of the course for each visit if you participate the visit and submit the answers to several simple questions about the study visit.

Course literature

A PDF version of Prof Kildal's textbook "Foundations of Antennas - A Unified Approach for Line-Of-Sight and Multipath" can be downloaded for free from www.kildal.se: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qakcovdx2dpr9nw/Kildal-FoAE-2103-color-Cover.pdf?dl=0 (Links to an external site.). The paper version of the book can be bought at STORE. The notation in the book is compact, easily interpretable and well suited for this introductory course with emphasis on design and system performance of antennas.

Course design

The detailed course plan is available in Modules.

All students who read the course can contact us via Canvas or e-mail.

We have deadlines for all home assignments. If you miss the deadline, you wouldn't get bonus points.

Changes made since the last occasion

No significant changes made since the last occasion.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

The overall aim of the course is to provide an understanding of antennas for use in both traditional line-of-sight (LOS) systems and in modern wireless communication systems with multipath and Rayleigh fading, ranging from initial design with simple classical design formulas to numerical design and characterization with measurements, and to provide a critical view on how artificial materials can be used to improve antennas via an introduction to some fundamental limitations. With this understanding you should be able to:

  1. Describe how antennas for line-of-sight (LOS) systems work and are characterized. Examples of LOS systems are radio telescopes, radar, radio links (point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communications) and satellite communication systems.
  2. Describe how antennas in multipath environment with fading behave and are characterized, such as antennas for mobile terminals, i.e. mobile phones, including also the characterization of the whole mobile terminal and user interaction.
  3. Describe the most common materials used in numerical antenna analysis as well as in practical antenna design.
  4. Explain the different factors contributing to the efficiency and gain of different types of antennas, as well as to system noise temperature.
  5. Explain the physical limitations of antennas; such as miniaturization and bandwidth limits of small antennas, maximum gain limits of large antennas, and correlation and efficiency limits of multiport/multibeam array antennas.
  6. Explain how different antennas can be analyzed in terms of classical incremental elementary sources, by using a modern and compact non-differential vector notation and numerical integration. The incremental elementary sources are the electric current, the equivalent magnetic current and the directive Huygens source.
  7. Apply your knowledge about antenna analysis to design antennas using classical formulas and design curves for the most traditional antenna types; such as dipoles, slots, microstrip patches, horns, reflectors and phased arrays. Good initial designs with classical formulas are important for a successful numerical design with a professional antenna CAD tool. And, to describe the same antennas according to §a and §b above.
  8. Apply your knowledge about characterization of antennas for LOS and fading environment to measure antennas, both in classical anechoic chambers and in modern reverberation chambers, respectively. The reverberation chamber is a multipath emulator, in which also active mobile terminals such as mobile phones will be measured.

Note that the words describe and explain mean the following above:

  • Describe - to tell or depict in written or spoken words, without using the textbook;
  • Explain - to make known in detail, including the simplest basic equations, without using the textbook.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

Examination form

The written exam has two parts. Part A is without book and Part B is of open-book. Part A is mainly concerning about theory and concepts, while in Part B the students are  requested to do calculations and analysis. The exam consists of four problems (two for each part) that include several sub-problems. The limits of the 3, 4 and 5 grades of the final results for the course are set to 40 points, 60 points and 80 points, respectively, of written exam points plus Home Assignments bonus points and Study Visit bonus points.

The  written exam consists of 100 points. There are 16 Home Assignment bonus points for four accepted home assignments, and 4 Study Visit bonus points for participation in study visits (2 points for each).

All three laboratory exercises are mandatory to get pass the course.

Course summary:

Date Details Due