In this article, we review, without being exhaustive, the main techniques used in antennas. An important classification parameter is antenna size as a function of wavelength.
First, we'll look at antennas whose largest dimension is smaller than or of the order of the wavelength: monopole, dipole, patch...
Next, we'll look at antennas whose largest dimension is of the order of a few wavelengths: wire antennas (for very long wavelengths), yagi, helices, horns...
Then we'll look at antennas whose largest dimension is much greater than the wavelength: reflectors, lenses, linear, circular and volumetric arrays...
We'll also look at special cases such as mixed antennas (array and reflector), broadband antennas (several octaves), and printed antennas, which are currently enjoying a boom.
We end with a table showing the areas of use of the techniques according to frequency. Finally, a number of photos will enable the reader to visualize some of these techniques.
Note :
the "Antennas" article is the subject of several booklets:
The subjects are not independent of each other. Readers will often need to refer to other issues.