How do you think about one of the most common structures in all of electronics/electrical design?  I recall having very little thought of the difference in them even after a rigorous course covering electrodynamics.  From the age of twelve to twenty-two, this was unchanged from the basic understanding that wavelength intervals made the magic happen.  Regurgitation of knows with a little illumination remained my level of enlightenment.  Something changed as soon as that course was over!

Finding myself in a situation needing to provide a specific signal level with a known variation in orientation to a remote data source moved me to understanding!  Stress and the need to produce a working design does that.  Let us break it down.  This is how I think of antennas to provide better understanding.

• Frequency selective (this makes them a filter)
• Spacial filters (this comes up when the filter is directional)
• Converter of a spacial electromagnetic wave to a useful electrical potential

The idea is that we want to go from this:

For the purposes of ending up using something like this:

This could be in reverse, but the point is made.  We either need to produce a signal that ends up propagating through space, or the need is to receive a signal floating in the ether for the purpose of recovering useful data.  Make James Maxwell and Claude Shannon proud!

If you an an engineering student languishing without the confident in how to design an antenna, checkout some of the “cookbook” books on the market.  Your school’s library likely has at least one, but they often sell for $20-$35.  This provides the basis of many simple, useful designs.  Try not to sweat the analysis if you do not need to do so.  However, do not expect to find extensive detail about antennas over 3GHz in many of these texts.

Are you an engineer that needs to get something ready now?  I often recommend spending some money on basic design tools.  Mathworks has the Antenna Toolbox that provides many design tools for analysis, synthesis, and simple Method of Moment simulation.  Getting that into a real design can be done without high-end CAD tools, but I would certainly recommend working through your impedance matching with a solid tool.  Your time is valuable, and the more value you bring to your company brings results.  If your leadership will not invest in them for the long run, show how much time it will save, but think of them as a force multiplier.  Show the return on investment for serious engagement.

If you guidance of design consultation, contact me!  I am happy to see how I can help, and that many be another person of resource to point you toward.  Enjoy!