EEL 760 Antenna Theory and Design 2013-14 Semester II
Time: Tu We Fri, 10-10.50a (Slot E). Location: Block 2 Room 332.
Office hours: Tu 5-6p, Block 2 Room 402B.

News
  1. Major will be held on Sunday 04.05.2104 from 8-10am in Block II - 337. Open (your own) notes, and bring your calculators!
  2. Project reports are due on Monday 28.04.2014.
  3. Minor-2 solutions are released on 31.03.2014. Class avg: 9.1/30, std. dev.: 5.
  4. Minor-2 will be held on 22.03.2014 from 2:30-3:30p in Block II - 337. Open (your own) notes, and bring your calculators!
  5. Project topics and dates announced on 25.02.2014.
  6. Homework-1 is available on 24.02.2014. Due on 11.03.2014. Handwritten solutions released on 18.03.2014. Class avg: 12.4/30, std. dev.: 8.3.
  7. Minor-1 solutions are released on 18.02.2014. Class avg: 7.5/24, std. dev.: 2.3.
  8. Minor-1 will be held on 06.02.2014 from 2:30-3:30p in Block II - 337. Open (your own) notes, and bring your calculators!
  9. Open-book quiz in class on 22.01.14 in two parts, individual and collaborative. Quiz 1a: Class avg: 9.9/20, std. dev.: 4.2.
Resources
  1. Minor-2: Paper, solution.
  2. Homework 1: Paper, solution.
  3. Minor-1: Paper, solution.
Lecture Topics
  1. First experimental detection of electromagnetic radiation. (Lecture 1 03.01.14).
    1. Original Hertz setup. URL1 and URL2
    2. The Hertz experiment leads to the photo-electric effect. URL
    3. "Revisiting the 1888 Hertz experiment", Daniele Faccio, Matteo Clerici and Davide Tambuchi, Am. J. Phys. 74, 992 (2006) URL
    4. On J C Bose's contribution to long range radio transmission. URL1, URL2.
  2. Mathematical background.
    1. Review of vector calculus. URL1, URL2 (Lecture 2 07.01.14)
    2. Review of Maxwell's equations. Integral form URL, differential form URL, Ch 7 of Griffith's book (Introduction to Electrodynamics, 4rth Ed). (Lecture 3 08.01.14)
  3. Generating electromagnetic radiation (Lecture 4 10.01.14).
    1. Jiggling a sheet of charge produces plane wave radiation. URL
    2. Chapter 1.1,1.2,1.3 of ATCB.
    3. Does an accelerated charge produce radiation? Read a detailed summary to this non-trivial problem: URL.
  4. Auxiliary potential functions (Lecture 5 15.01.14, Lecture 6 17.01.14)
    1. Solution to Poisson and Laplace's equation: URL.
    2. Solution to the inhomogeneous wave equation: section 3.1-5 of ATCB.
    3. Vector tangential boundary conditions, section 1.1.4 of: URL.
    4. On the field equivalence principle: Section 12.2 of ATCB, URL.
    5. On the physical meaning of auxiliary potential functions; the Aharonov-Bohm effect and a modern review.
  5. The simplest antenna: Hertz dipole (Lecture 7 24.01.14, Lecture 8 28.01.14)
    1. Poynting vector and energy flow: section 2.3 of ATCB, URL.
    2. Derivation of near and far fields of a Hertz dipole: section 4.2 of ATCB, section 1.6 of ATST, and a URL.
    3. Antenna input impedance: section 2.13 of ATCB.
  6. Fundamental antenna parameters
    1. Radiation pattern, intensity, beamwidth, directivity: Slides, Java applet for radiation intensity of a linear antennna, and section 2.1-6 of ATCB. (Lecture 9 29.01.14)
    2. Antenna efficiency and gain, beam efficiency, antenna bandwidth: Slides, section 2.8-11 of ATCB. (Lecture 10 31.01.14)
    3. Antenna polarization and examples: section 2.12 of ATCB, section 1.10 of ATST, URL. (Lecture 11 04.02.14)
    4. Vector effective length, equivalent antenna area, relation between antenna directivity and equivalent area, Friis transmission equation. Section 2.15-17 of ATCB. (Lecture 12 11.02.14)
    5. Radar range equation, Lorentz reciprocity theorem. Section 2.17, 3.8 of ATCB. (Lecture 13 12.02.14)
    6. Antenna reciprocity, phase errors in analytical expressions for antenna far fields. Section 3.8, 4.4 of ATCB. (Lecture 14 14.02.14)
  7. Linear Antennas
    1. General expressions for finite length dipole antennas. Slides, section 4.5,4.6 of ATCB (ignore 4.5.6). (Lecture 15 18.02.14)
    2. Uniqueness theorem, Image theory applied to vertical dipole antennas. Slides, section 4.7 of ATCB. (Lecture 16 19.02.14)
    3. Image theory applied to horizontal dipole antennas, role of finite ground conductivity in image theory. Slides, section 4.7,4.8 of ATCB. (Lecture 17 25.02.14)
  8. Small loop antennas: Fields due to a square loop, duality principle, radiation resistance. Section 2.4 of ATST. (Lecture 18 26.02.14)
  9. Antenna arrays
    1. Linear arrays and antenna factors. Section 3.1 of ATST. (Lecture 19 11.03.14)
    2. Generalized array factor for linear arrays, broadside and endfire array conditions. Section 3.2 of ATST. (Lecture 20 12.03.14)
    3. Directivity calculations of linear arrays (section 6.4 of ATCB), pattern multiplication (section 3.3 of ATST), and non-uniform excitation of linear arrays (section 3.4 of ATST). (Lecture 21 14.03.14)
    4. Mutual coupling between elements of an antenna array. Section 3.6 of ATST, section 8.6 of ATCB, online notes: URL1 & URL2. Research paper: URL3.(Lecture 22 18.03.14)
  10. Resonant antennas
    1. Resonance conditions for linear wire antennas, matching networks and feeding strategies, Yagi-Uda antennas. Sections 5.1,5.3,5.4 of ATST. (Lecture 23 19.03.14)
    2. Corner reflectors (section 5.5 of ATST), Microstrip antennas (section 14.1,14.2.1 of ATCB). Slides. (Lecture 24 21.03.14)
  11. Computational Electromagnetics
    1. (Method of moments) Pocklington's Integral equation. Sections 10.1,10.2,10.3 of ATST and section 8.3.1 from ATCB. Also review field equivalence principle from section 7.1 of ATST. (Lecture 25 26.03.14)
    2. Method of solution for integral equations: section 10.4 of ATST and 8.2 of ATCB. Source modeling: section 10.5 of ATST, section 8.3.3 of ATCB. Basis functions: section 8.4.1 of ATCB. Computational complexities: section 10.8.3,10.8.4 of ATST. (Lecture 26 01.04.14)
    3. Weighted residuals and MoM, section 10.6 of ATST. Linear algebra formulation of MoM, section 10.7.2 of ATST. Summary of direct methods of matrix solution: Gauss elimination and LU decomposition. Matrix condition number (URL). (Lecture 27 02.04.14)
    4. Solving Matrix equations; direct methods: QR decomposition. Iterative methods : stationary methods (Jacobi, Gauss-Seidel, Successive Over Relaxation), PDF from URL1, URL2, URL3. (Lecture 28 09.04.14)
    5. Solving Matrix equations; Iterative methods : non-stationary methods : steepest descent PDF from URL1. (Lecture 29 17.04.14)
    6. Solving Matrix equations; Iterative methods : non-stationary methods : conjugate gradient (above link, and the following link, which is one of the nicest writings in science I have come across URL). (Lecture 30 22.04.14)
    7. Introduction to vector-based Finite Element Method (FEM). Some notes on vector basis functions, URL. (Lecture 31 (extended) 23.04.14)
    8. Implementation details in FEM: meshing, numerical convergence, far-field computations. Instructor's notes on 2D FEM. (Lecture 32 25.04.14)
Class Project : Topics
  1. Frequency independent antennas. (Pragya 28/3) PPT
  2. Meta-material antennas. (Saraswati, 28/3) PPT
  3. New directions in mobile antennas: Discuss recent game changing innovations in antenna design and fabrication technology. References: URL. (Vikas 4/4) PPT
  4. Using radio telescopes to characterize icy satellites of the solar system: In this, discuss the different kinds of antenna transmit and receive polarizations used, and how they can tell us about the surface properties of distant satellites. References: PDF, URL1. (Anurag 4/4) PPT
  5. Ultra-Wide-Band antennas for underwater applications. URL. (Debashish 11/4) PPT
  6. Wireless power transfer (WPT): References: URL1, URL2, URL3. Far-field WPT+implementing communication (Deepak 11/4) PPT
  7. Radio astronomy: Explain the basic motivations, and operating principles of the antennas used in radio astronomy. Pick any one existing/planned radio telescope and elaborate on its features and uniqueness. General references: URL1, URL2, URL3. (Sidharth 15/4) PPT
Class Project : What is expected?
  • Objective: To get a 1st order understanding of the chosen topic, and to be able to communicate this knowledge effectively to anyone else who has taken an antenna course. Think of this as a pilot study that you would do before beginning an in-depth research on the subject.
  • Topic: Either pick your own topic, or one from the list above. Finalize the topic after discussion with the instructor.
  • Report: In IEEE format (11pt, double column). Final document must be a PDF prepared by using either a LaTeX or Word template, downloadable from the web. All work referred to, whether or not it is published, must be properly cited. Target 3-6 pages. Weightage: 40%. Due one week after your presentation.
  • Presentation: 20 minute talk. Weightage: 45%. About the presentation:
    • A rough guideline is # of slides = presentation time in minutes x 3/4. So, budget approximately 15 slides.
    • Make sure the title slide contains your topic, name, roll number, course number and date.
    • Choose a colour scheme that is easy on the eyes (for example, no blue font on black background), and font types (avoid comic sans kind of fonts, stick to the normal Helvetica/Arial/Calibri) and sizes that are easily readable.
    • Avoid full sentences and too much text in any slide. Convey ideas graphically, and using bullet points and key words. Don't bombard your audience with too much information.
    • Include references to quoted material on the same slide, possibly in smaller font. This includes putting references for any images taken from the web. In short, references must be put for anything that is not your own material.
    • The first few slides are very important -- they should convey the main question/idea/problem that you want to talk about in very clear terms. The beginning of the talk is when you have maximum audience attention. If you loose them now, you've lost them for the rest of the talk.
    • Every slide should have a meaningful title that conveys what that slide is about.
    • NEVER read verbatim from your presentation, and ALWAYS make eye contact with your audience.
    • Figures must be captioned, and all axes must have readable labels. If you copy a figure from a paper to a presentation slide make sure that the axes labels don't look tiny.
    • Additional tips, URL1, URL2, URL3.
  • Class interaction during presentations. Weightage: 15%
Grading
  • Grading will be relative.
  • Minor 1: 15%, Minor 2: 15%, Major: 25%.
  • Assignments: 15%, Project: 20%, In-class evaluations (open book, announced beforehand): 10%.
  • Bonus: 3% for solving challenging problems.
Policies
  • All emails to the instructor or TAs must have EEL760 in the subject line.
  • Attendance: As per institute norms, 75% attendance is mandatory and will be enforced.
  • Collaboration policy: For the purpose of assignments and projects, students are free to: Look up any reference texts or Internet resources, use any computational software (Mathematica/MATLAB), and discuss with faculty or fellow students. However, the assignments turned in must be entirely original. Strictly off limits are: Looking at the final work of a fellow student, or the solution manuals of any reference text, or past assignment/examination material of any courses.
  • Academic misconduct: There will be zero tolerance towards any unethical means, such as plagiarism (COPYING in plain and simple terms) URL1, URL2, URL3. Penalties incude: receiving a zero in a particular assignment/examination, receiving a fail grade for the entire course, having a note placed in your permanent academic record, suspension, or all of the above. All electronic submissions will be via a plagiarism detection software, TurnItIn. Details will be discussed in class.
Course flyer
  • About antennas: Antennas are ubiquitous. You carry them in your pocket, see them on building tops, use them to manage air traffic, etc, all in order to satisfy humankind's insatiable need for communication. We have used them for detecting buried mines and discovering ancient rivers. Antennas have also been used to listen to the ancient music of the universe, the cosmic microwave background, in our attempt to understand where we came from.
  • Brief description: In this course, I will start with the basic principles of radiating systems and antenna theory. A familiarity with Maxwell's equations and vector calculus is recommended, but not necessary, as the relevant material will be reviewed in this course. We will cover popular antenna types such as wire, loop, aperture, micro-strip, and array antennas, and describe the methods of characterizing these systems. Antenna synthesis will be introduced, as well as computational methods such as the method of moments and the finite element method. Antenna theory is a classical field with many modern applications, and our treatment of the course will be the same. We will review classical ideas and design principles but will make connections with current day trends in both research and industry, and cover modern applications such as smart antennas where possible. Collective or individual assignments will include programming tasks to solidify the learning experience.
  • Recommended text: Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, C Balanis, Wiley 3rd ed (ATCB).
  • Supplementary text: Antenna Theory and Design, W L Stutzman and G A Thiele, Wiley 2nd ed (ATST).
  • Note: While this course is offered at the PG level, interested UGs can also take this course and have this count as a department elective by requesting the DRC chairman.


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