Biconical antennas are used for electromagnetic compatibility test applications including emission testing, immunity testing, measuring the efficiency of RF shielding, and more. A biconical antenna has a broad frequency range that varies from 20 MHz to 18 GHz. Having a broad frequency bandwidth within the compact size of the biconical antenna allows for increased accuracy of results.
ATEC has biconical antennas available to rent with industry-leading rates from manufacturers including
A.H. Systems,
Com-Power Corporation,
ETS-Lindgren,
PMM Narda, and
Schwarzbeck.
What is a biconical antenna?
A biconical antenna is a broadband dipole antenna that is made up of two conical conductive objects that touch at majority of the points on the unit. Biconical antennas have characteristics similar to a dipole antenna with a wider bandwidth attained by a double cone elements structure. The appearance of the cones gives it the nicknames "bowtie antenna" or "butterfly antenna." Biconical antennas simplify bipolar conductive emission testing compared to previous iterations like half-wave dipoles, which do not allow for continuous sweeps as biconical antennas do.
Biconical antennas are time-savers because the tuning of antenna elements to the half-wavelength is not needed. Biconical elements can be mounted and dismounted within seconds to provide contact repeatability due to special clamping features. Additionally, a biconical antenna can produce continuous sweeps to have site anomalies much easier to discover. The radiation pattern of a biconical antenna is similar to the radiation pattern of a half-wave dipole as biconical antennas have an omnidirectional response in the H-plane and a figure-eight shape in the E-plane. Having the H-plane bandwidth pattern ensures that biconical antennas are well equipped for field survey and spectrum monitoring.
Biconical Antenna Applications
Relevant applications of a biconical antenna include:
- Spectrum Monitoring: Requires a wide operating range and an omnidirectional pattern. Spectrum monitoring is also known as radio surveillance and is used to cover a broad operating range.
- Emissions Testing: Because it requires measuring the field strength of equipment types in the 30 MHz to 1 GHz range, radiated emissions testing is a very common test type when it comes to compliance testing and a biconical antenna is well suited for the measurements.
- Radiated Immunity Testing: This type of testing subjects equipment to high amounts of radiated electromagnetic fields. The use of element extensions in radiated immunity testing can be used to create higher fields.
The category we refer to as
EMC antennas, which includes biconical, can also be used for a very broad range of applications such as radio systems, but our equipment is focused on electromagnetic pre-compliance/compliance testing.