AN4190

Antenna advantages and disadvantages

Doc ID 023812 Rev 1

25/29

3

Antenna advantages and disadvantages

After the antenna theory, where the most important parameters of the antennas have been

covered, and after the description of the main types of antennas that can be used in the sub-

GHz bandwidth, a description of the main advantages and disadvantages of each antenna

is shown here.

●

Dipole antenna: this antenna is a very simple chip and presents a good gain. The main

disadvantage is the large size at low frequency.

●

Whip antenna: this antenna presents good performance with a size lower than a dipole

antenna. A good ground plane is necessary to achieve good performance.

●

Loop antenna: loop antennas are cheap and not easily detuned by nearby hand

movements. They have the disadvantage of having poor gain, to be very narrowband

and are difficult to tune.

●

Spiral antenna: spiral antennas have a size lower than a whip antenna and are

wideband. On the negative side, these types of antennas are difficult to feed.

●

Helical antenna: helical antennas are very directive and have good gain. However, they

have a bulky size and are easily detuned by nearby objects.

●

Microstrip antenna: microstrip antennas have the advantage of being very cheap and

have a simple and thin structure. As a negative, they are very large at low frequency.

●

Ceramic antenna: ceramic antennas have the advantage of being separate

components, have a small size and are less affected by environmental factors. The

main disadvantages are the high cost, the medium performance and the matching

function of the PCB size and shape of the ground plane.

●

Slot antenna: slot antennas have the advantage of size, design simplicity, robustness

and convenient adaption to mass production. The main disadvantage is the big

dimension for low frequency that makes the slot antenna difficult to manage for

frequencies lower than 433 MHz.

The antenna advantages and disadvantages are summarized in Table 2.

Table 2.

Antenna types advantages and disadvantages

Antenna types

Advantage

Disadvantage

Dipole antenna

– Very cheap

– Good gain

– Difficult to design for frequencies lower than 433

MHz

– Large size at low frequency

Whip antenna

– Good performance

– High cost

Loop antenna

– Cheap

– Not easily detuned by hand

movements

– Poor gain

– Very narrowband

– Difficult to tune

Spiral antenna

– Lower size than whip

– Wideband

– Difficult to feed

Helical antenna

– Very directive

– Good gain

– Mechanical construction

–Bulky size

– Easily detuned by nearby objects