Antenna Engineering Training Boot Camp

Antenna Engineering Training Bootcamp by Tonex

Antenna Engineering Training covers the theory and practice of antenna engineering, communications, radar, commercial and military applications.

Learn how to system engineer, design and build different practical antenna types. Antenna applications and properties including EM, spectrum of frequencies covering HF, VHF, UHF, mmWaves, and microwave, radar, and space antennas anything from 50 kHz to 300 GHz.

Antenna Engineering Training is a hands-on course, and everyone will design and build a simple antenna and verify and validate the properties in the class. TONEX provides all the material and the testing equipment, and the attendees will keep their antennas.

This Antenna bootcamp course provides the fundamental antenna and wave theory properties, operations, utilizations, testing and applications of antennas.

Radio telescope dish field in twilight

What You Will Learn

• Basics of How antennas work
• The basics of electromagnetic principles applied to antennas
• Apply mathematical and physics principles to antenna design
• Learn the skills associated with basic communications theory, Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) communications techniques
• Basics of link budget, antenna gain antenna application, materials and connector utilization
• Applications of Fourier transform (spectral) method to antenna radiation
• Plan, calculate, design, construct and test your choice of antennas
• Analyze, design, and visualize the radiation characteristics of antennas (antenna horizontal and vertical patterns)
• Analyze and measure antenna polarization
• Basic information essential to a wide variety of practical designs of horn, dish, yagi, rectangular and circular patches
• Basics of moment methods, radar cross section, VZWR, mutual impedances, aperture and horn antennas, compact range designs, and antenna measurements
• The basics of Radar antenna
• Basics of antenna Arrays: Linear, Planar, and Circular
• The fundamentals of Phased Array Antennas
• The fundamentals of SATCOM antennas
• Fundamentals of High Frequency (HF) utilization, communications in contested environments, and communications in arctic environments
• Apply SIGINT and ELINT principles to tactical antennas

The bootcamp schedule is well-structured that includes a curriculum that is hands-on in real-world scenarios with a mix of lectures, class discussions, labs, demos, antenna construction and other hands-on exercises led by knowledgeable and engaging instructors.

Audience

RF engineers, scientists, software engineers, testing engineers, analysts, engineering managers, antenna technicians, soldiers, field measurement technicians, and project planners.

Wireless propagation is the heartbeat of antenna engineering.

That’s because the propagation channel has the most impact on the design of a wireless receiver. The wireless channel causes the transmitted signal to lose power as it propagates from the transmitter to the receiver.

Reflections, diffraction, and scattering create multiple propagation paths between the transmitter and the receiver, each with a different delay. The net result is that wireless propagation leads to a loss of received signal power as well as the presence of multipath, which creates frequency selectivity in the channel.

In a wireless communication system, a transmitted signal can reach the receiver via a number of propagation mechanisms.

Antenna engineering involves designing and developing antennas and other communication devices.

The duties of someone in antenna engineering include working with electronic equipment such as modems, cell phones, satellite equipment, and radio antennas.

As an antenna engineer, you may analyze a company’s needs and then make plans to meet those needs. Your responsibilities may include performing research, making a development schedule, and creating budget proposals for development projects.

Antenna engineers often create prototypes of your designs for testing and then analyze performance. Many projects require an understanding of radio frequency (RF) ranges.

Understanding antenna theory is a must.

The fundamentals of antenna theory requires that the antenna be “impedance matched” to the transmission line or the antenna will not radiate.

The concept of VSWR (voltage standing wave radio) is introduced as a measure of how well matched an antenna is. Bandwidth. The bandwidth of an antenna is the frequency range over which the antenna radiates.

VSWR is important in antenna engineering because the VSWR is always a real and positive number for antennas. The smaller the VSWR is, the better the antenna is matched to the transmission line and the more power is delivered to the antenna.

Antennas are the keystone technology that allows connected smart devices to communicate wirelessly. From high-tech consumer devices, aircraft communication systems and autonomous vehicles, to industrial applications.

Course Content

Introduction to Antenna Theory

• Antenna Basics
• Basics of Electromagnetic Theory
• Radiowave Propagation
• Physics and Applications
• Antenna Basics: Radiation, gain, directivity, efficiency, effective area, pattern, impedance, VZWR, Return Loss, antenna noise temperature and polarization
• Introduction to Smart Antennas
• Antenna Arrays
• Phased Array Antennas

Basic Antenna Concepts

• Antenna properties
• The basics of sinusoids (sine and cosine waves), wavelength, frequency and the speed of light
• Impedance, VSWR, RL, bandwidth, directivity, gain, radiation patterns, polarization,
• Fundamental antenna elements
• Frequency bands
• Radiation pattern
• Field regions
• Directivity
• Efficiency and Antenna Gain
• Beamwidths and Sidelobes
• Impedance
• Bandwidth
• Types of antennas
• The monopole
• The dipole
• The loop
• The folded dipole
• The slot
• Resonant antennas
• Traveling wave antennas
• Frequency independent antennas
• Aperture antennas phased arrays
• Electrically small antennas
• Circularly polarized antennas
• Classification of antenna types
• By frequency
• By size
• By directivity

Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design

• Polarization of Waves
• Polarization of Antennas
• Effective Aperture
• Friis Transmission Equation
• Antenna Temperature
• Why do Antennas Radiate?
• Types of Antennas
• Antenna Arrays
• Antenna Measurements
• Smith Charts and Impedance Matching
• Antenna Design
• Review of basic antenna types
• Radiation pattern, gain, polarization
• Equivalent circuit & radiation efficiency
• Smart antennas
• Types of Antennas
• Radiation Mechanism
• Thin Wire Antenna

Fundamental Parameters of Antennas

• Radiation Pattern
• Radiation Power Density
• Radiation Intensity
• Beamwidth
• Directivity
• Numerical Techniques
• Antenna Efficiency
• Gain
• Beam Efficiency
• Bandwidth
• Polarization
• Input Impedance
• Antenna Radiation Efficiency
• Antenna Vector Effective Length and Equivalent Areas
• Maximum Directivity and Maximum Effective Area
• Friis Transmission Equation and Radar Range Equation
• Antenna Temperature
• Linear Wire Antennas
• Infinitesimal Dipole
• Small Dipole
• Region Separation
• Finite Length Dipole
• Half-Wavelength Dipole
• Linear Elements Near or on Infinite Perfect Conductors
• Ground Effects
• Computer Codes
• Multimedia
• Loop Antennas
• Small Circular Loop
• Circular Loop of Constant Current
• Circular Loop with Nonuniform Current
• Ground and Earth Curvature Effects for Circular Loops
• Polygonal Loop Antennas
• Ferrite Loop
• Mobile Communication Systems Applications

Antenna Arrays: Linear, Planar, and Circular

• Two-Element Array
• N-Element Linear Array: Uniform Amplitude and Spacing
• N-Element Linear Array: Directivity
• Design Procedure
• N-Element Linear Array: Three-Dimensional Characteristics
• Rectangular-to-Polar Graphical Solution
• N-Element Linear Array: Uniform Spacing, Nonuniform Amplitude
• Superdirectivity
• Planar Array
• Design Considerations
• Circular Array

Phased Array Antennas

• Basics of Phased Array Antennas
• Functional Principle
• Advantages and Disadvantages
• Possible Arrangements
• Linear Array
• Planar Array
• Frequency Scanning Array
• Calculation of the Phase Shift
• Calculation Example

Antenna Engineering Workshop and Case Studies

• Calculations of antenna radiation, gain, directivity, efficiency, effective area, pattern, impedance, noise temperature, and polarization
• Friis transmission equation and radar range equation.
• Operation of selected antenna types.
• Analysis, design and OT&E of selected antenna types.
• Consideration of transmission lines, antenna materials, impedance mismatch, VSWR, Return Loss for selected antennas.
• Testing, verification and validation of electromagnetic measurement and diagnostics.

Antenna Selection Workshop

• Antenna Arrays
• Antenna Computer Modeling
• Antenna Design and Simulation
• Antenna Gain and Polarization
• Antenna Materials and Lens Antennas
• Antenna Measurement Techniques
• Axial Mode Helical Antennas
• Antenna Components, Construction and Cost
• Design the antenna to match the system criteria
• Dipole and Monopole Antennas
• EMC/EMI
• Far-Field
• Anechoic Chamber
• Compact and Near-Field Antenna Measurements
• Friis Transmission Equation
• Horn Antennas
• Log-Periodic Dipole Arrays
• Loop Antennas
• Low Noise Antennas
• Microstrip Antennas
• Modeling and Simulation of Antennas
• Near-Field Antenna Measurement Techniques
• Phased Array Antennas and Adaptive Techniques
• Phased Array Antennas for Radar and Communications
• Phased Array Technology
• Phased Array Theory
• Planar antennas
• Portable (Small) Antennas
• Radar Antennas
• Reflector Antennas
• SAR simulation
• Slot Antennas
• Spiral Antennas
• Vehicle Mounted Antennas
• VHF and UHF Antennas
• Yagi-Uda Antennas

Bootcamp Details: Student activities are geared toward a 4-day block of instruction and antenna design and construction techniques.

Daily classroom instruction, hands-on exercises assessments & practical exercises are given along with other measurement and testing exercises. Students will design, construct and test variety of antennas for various communication systems and test their antennas in the local environment using spectrum analyzers, PortoPack HackRF One and other test equipment.