What is a Directional Antenna?

A directional antenna is a type of antenna that provides power in multiple directions. This pattern gives a directional antenna to get an increased performance in receiving and transmission of power.

These antennas transmit power in one direction and reduce signal loss by increasing the signal strength. In this blog, we will talk about directional antenna with its characteristics, design, benefits, and much more.

Design and Structure of a Directional Antenna

As the name says, the directional antenna can send and receive signals in one direction only. It contains a narrow beam. These antennas provide a cigar-shaped signal pattern that looks similar from the top and all the sides. The shape of a signal pattern is known as a lobe.

Generally, the directional antennas have small side lobes. You will get a wide range of directional antennas in the market with different sizes, shapes, and designs—the design of a directional antenna changes according to the kind of purpose.

Types of Directional Antennas

Directional antennas are sold in various shapes, sizes, and designs. Some of the most popular types of directional antenna are dish antenna, grid antenna, Yagi antenna, loop antenna, horn antenna, panel antenna, and so on. Every kind of directional application is used in the different applications. Now, let us discuss every kind of directional antenna in this section:

• Dish antenna

  The dish antenna contains a parabola. It has a curved shape and looks like a dish. A parabolic reflector contains a high degree of directivity and can focus RF energy in a beam. It has a narrow beamwidth now more than 25 degrees. Normally, a grid parabolic antenna is the best Directional Antenna to establish a communication link between large buildings and geographic locations.

• Horn antenna

  A horn antenna is a type of antenna that contains a horn which is a flaring metal. These antennas are generally used for UHF and microwave frequencies above the 300 MHz range. You can use horn antennas as feed antenna for large antenna structures like parabolic antennas. They can also be used as directive antennas in automatic door openers, radar guns, and microwave radiometers.

• Loop antenna

  The third type of directional antenna is the Loop Antenna. It is constructed by bending a uniform coil or wire in the shape of a loop. This antenna is normally used in radio receivers, aircraft direction finders, and RFID devices.

• Whip Antenna

  A whip antenna mainly contains a straight flexible rod or wire. The bottom part of the antenna is connected to the radio receiver. This antenna comes in the form of a monopole antenna.

Final Words

We discussed what is a Directional Antenna and its types, patterns, and design in the above section. It is often used for broadcast areas of Internet service providers and other applications.

 This antenna is ideal for applications that only focus RF energy in one direction. It is more powerful than the omni-directional antenna.