A short backfire antenna (or short back-fire, SBA, SBF or SBFA) is a type of a directional

antenna Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...

, characterized by high gain, relatively small size, and narrow band. It has a shape of a disc with a straight edge, with a vertical pillar with a

dipole In physics, a dipole () is an electromagnetic phenomenon which occurs in two ways: *An electric dipole deals with the separation of the positive and negative electric charges found in any electromagnetic system. A simple example of this system ...

acting as the

driven element {{Unreferenced, date=April 2016 In a multielement antenna array (such as a Yagi–Uda antenna), the driven element or active element is the element in the antenna (typically a metal rod) which is electrically connected to the receiver or transm ...

in roughly the middle and a conductive disc at the top acting as a sub-reflector. The bottom disc has the diameter of two wavelengths, and its collar (edge) is quarter the wavelength tall. The center pillar consists of two coaxial tubes (their diameter has to be carefully chosen to give the desired impedance), with a quarter-wavelength slot cut into the outer tube This structure behaves like a

resonant cavity A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonat ...

, resulting in a substantial gain in small space. Short backfire antennas are used in some

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

s, and in high-frequency (short-wavelength) communication equipment (often for communication with satellites) on ships and other applications where rugged construction is an advantage. They are also used for

wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office building ...

s. The SBF antenna was invented by Dr. Hermann W. Ehrenspeck of Air Force Cambridge Research Labs based at

Hanscom Air Force Base Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base located predominantly within Bedford, Massachusetts, with portions extending into the adjoining towns of Lincoln, Concord and Lexington. The facility is adjacent to Hanscom Fie ...

in Bedford, MA and was used for among other purposes, to provide Tactical Satellite Communications for U.S. Army ground forces due to the SBF's portability and gain. The bandwidth of the antenna can be increased by using a conical main reflector instead of a flat one. Archery target antenna is an evolution of the short-backfire antenna. The name is derived from its appearance. Its base diameter is 5 wavelengths (5 λ), the rim height is 0.7 λ, the diameter of the small center reflector is 0.7 λ, its height above the base is 0.7 λ as well, the height of the dipole above the base is 0.35 λ, there is one more reflector - an annular reflector - at the same height as the center reflector, with inner diameter 2.2 λ and outer diameter 3.7 λ

Short backfire antennas are able to achieve high aperture efficiencies, at right cavity size even beyond 100%.

References

{{Reflist Radio frequency antenna types Antennas (radio)

See also

References