Latest posts by Fiona Richardson (see all)
- FEKO Website Content Migration to Altair Locations - March 25, 2018
- Designing EMC Compliant Products for a Connected World - February 26, 2018
- Why Join the Electromagnetic Support Forums? - September 20, 2017
A log-periodic dipole array is modeled in FEKO to determine input impedance and radiation patterns
Log-periodic dipole arrays (LPDAs) are wideband structures having a geometry such that its impedance and radiation characteristics vary periodically with the logarithm of frequency. This antenna design is commonly used as a receiving antenna at VHF and UHF frequencies. Figure 1 shows the FEKO model of an 18 element LPDA designed for operating in the frequency band 200~600MHz. Non-radiating transmission lines are used to connect consecutive elements and the array is fed at the shortest element. The shortest element is roughly half a wavelength long at the highest design frequency, while the longest element is roughly half a wavelength long at the lowest design frequency.
The input impedance of the LPDA across the operating frequency is shown in Figure 2a. While the resistive component oscillates near 70Ω, the reactive component remains close to zero. In Figure 2b the input reflection for a 75Ω system is shown.
Figure 2: Impedance characteristics of LPDA
Radiation patterns for the LPDA at different frequencies is shown in Figure 3. The angle phi is measured in the xy-plane from the x-axis and the angle theta is measured from the z-axis. As expected the radiation pattern of the antenna is relatively stable across the 3:1 relative bandwidth.
Figure 3: Radiation patterns of LPDA
Visit the website