Polarization

Polarization is an important factor for RF antennas and radio communications. Both RF antennas and electromagnetic waves are said to have a polarization. For the electromagnetic wave the polarization is effectively the plane in which the electric wave vibrates. This is important when looking at antennas because they are sensitive to Polarization, and generally only receive or transmit a signal with a particular polarization.
For most antennas it is very easy to determine the polarization. It is simply in the same plane as the elements of the antenna. So, a vertical antenna (i.e. One with vertical elements) will receive vertically polarized signals best and similarly a horizontal antenna will receive horizontally polarized signals.

An electromagnetic wave

It is important to match the polarization of the RF antenna to that of the incoming signal. In this way the maximum signal is obtained. If the RF antenna polarization does not match that of the signal there is a corresponding decrease in the level of the signal.

It is reduced by a factor of cosine of the angle between the Polarization of the RF antenna and the signal. Accordingly, the Polarization of the antennas located in free space is very important, and obviously they should be in exactly the same plane to provide the optimum signal. If they were at right angles to one another (i.e. Cross-polarized) then in theory no signal would be received.

For terrestrial radio communications applications it is found that once a signal has been transmitted then its Polarization will remain broadly the same. However, reflections from objects in the path can change the Polarization. As the received signal is the sum of the direct signal plus a number of reflected signals the overall Polarization of the signal can change slightly although it remains broadly the same.

Polarization categories

Vertical and horizontal are the simplest forms of antenna polarization and they both fall into a category known as linear Polarization. However, it is also possible to use circular Polarization. This has a number of benefits for areas such as satellite applications where it helps overcome the effects of propagation anomalies, ground reflections and the effects of the spin that occur on many satellites. Circular Polarization is a little more difficult to visualize than linear Polarization. However, it can be imagined by visualizing a signal propagating from an RF antenna that is rotating. The tip of the electric field vector will then be seen to trace out a helix or corkscrew as it travels away from the antenna. Circular Polarization can be seen to be either right or left handed dependent upon the direction of rotation as seen from the transmitter.

Another form of Polarization is known as elliptical Polarization. It occurs when there is a mix of linear and circular Polarization. This can be visualized as before by the tip of the electric field vector tracing out an elliptically shaped corkscrew.

However, it is possible for linearly polarized antennas to receive circularly polarized signals and vice versa. The strength will be equal whether the linearly polarized antenna is mounted vertically, horizontally or in any other plane but directed towards the arriving signal. There will be some degradation because the signal level will be 3 dB less than if a circularly polarized antenna of the same sense was used. The same situation exists when a circularly polarized antenna receives a linearly polarized signal.

Applications of antenna polarization

Different types of Polarization are used in different applications to enable their advantages to be used. Linear polarization is by far the most widely used for most radio communications applications. Vertical Polarization is often used for mobile radio communications. This is because many vertically polarized antenna designs have an omni-directional radiation pattern and it means that the antennas do not have to be re-orientated as positions as always happens for mobile radio communications as the vehicle moves. For other radio communications applications the Polarization is often determined by the RF antenna considerations. Some large multi-element antenna arrays can be mounted in a horizontal plane more easily than in the vertical plane. This is because the RF antenna elements are at right angles to the vertical tower of pole on which they are mounted and therefore by using an antenna with horizontal elements there is less physical and electrical interference between the two. This determines the standard Polarization in many cases.

In some applications there are performance differences between horizontal and vertical polarization. For example, medium wave broadcast stations generally use vertical Polarization because ground wave propagation over the earth is considerably better using vertical polarization, whereas horizontal polarization shows a marginal improvement for long distance communications using the ionosphere. Circular Polarization is sometimes used for satellite radio communications as there are some advantages in terms of propagation and in overcoming the fading caused if the satellite is changing its orientation.