Vol: 1 Issue: 2
INVESTIGATION OF THE IMPACT OF NUMBER OF ELEMENTS ON THE DIRECTIVITY OF PLANAR ARRAY OF MONOPOLE ANTENNA
Omini, Ofem U, Tawo, Godwin A, Tim, Peter O.
Introduction
Planar array antennas are many antennas arranged and connected in a matrix format on a plane in order to reduce the inherent grating lobes and lobe levels [1 2]. Directivity in the other hand as a fundamental antenna parameter is a measure of how ‘directional’ an antenna’s radiation pattern is [1, 3, and 4]. In recent years, many antennas synthesis methods have been formed for planar arrays and also in recent times, there exist a burning desire in the communication industry to transmit signals over long distances at the same time keeping the gain and quality of the signal very high. The use of single antenna like (monopole, dipole and others) [5] lacks the ability to deliver this signal at such distance with the desired signal quality, hence the development of array antenna technology [1, 6]. Planar array of monopole antenna is chosen for this research, because of its ability to transmit signal to long distances retaining the quality of the signal in terms its power and content [7]. The total field radiated as well as the directivity by this planar array of monopole antenna depends largely on the elemental parameters (inter-element spacing, number of elements and progressive phase of the array elements) [7, 8]. But number of elements has a crucial impact on improving and enhancing the directivity of the radiated field [10].