Antenna effective area

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Definition

In telecommunication, antenna effective area is the functionally equivalent area from which an antenna directed toward the source of the received signal gathers or absorbs the energy of an incident electromagnetic wave.

Note 1: Antenna effective area is usually expressed in square meters.

Note 2: In the case of parabolic and horn-parabolic antennas, the antenna effective area is about 0.35 to 0.55 of the geometric area of the antenna aperture.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C

Relationship To Antenna Gain

The effective area is related to the antenna gain by

<math>A_{\mathrm{eff}} = \frac{\lambda^2}{4\pi}G</math>

where G is the antenna gain (not in decibels) and <math>\lambda</math> is the wavelength. Like the antenna gain, the effective area varies with direction. If no direction is specified, the maximum value is assumed.

Relationship to Physical Area

Simply increasing the size of antenna does not guarantee an increase in effective area; however, other factors being equal, antennas with higher maximum effective area are generally larger.

In the case of wire antennas, there is no simple relationship between physical area and effective area. In the case of aperture antennas (for example, horns and parabolic reflectors) considered in their direction of maximum radiation, the aperture efficiency is the ratio of effective area to physical area:

<math>A_{\mathrm{eff}} = e_{\mathrm{ap}} A_{\mathrm{phys}}</math>

where <math>e_{\mathrm{ap}}</math> is the aperture efficiency, <math> A_{\mathrm{phys}}</math> is the physical size of the aperture, and <math>A_{\mathrm{eff}}</math> is the effective aperture.

Note 2 in the Definition section above, derived from the Federal Standard, implies that the aperture efficiency is 0.35 to 0.55, which is true for simple designs. However, carefully designed and constructed reflector antennas can easily have efficiencies in the 0.65 to 0.75 range; and values as high as 0.85 have been reported in the literature. Factors limiting the aperture efficiency are nonuniform illumination of the aperture, phase variations of the aperture field (typically due to surface errors in a reflector and high flare angle in horns), and scattering from obstructions. Very high aperture efficiency is not always desirable, since such antennas tend to have high sidelobe levels.