A Visualization of Receiving Characteristics for Typical Antennas Using the Poynting Streamline Method [Education Corner]

This issue’s “Education Corner” column presents a useful technique to help students and practitioners understand the receiving characteristics of antennas using a graphical method illustrating how the Poynting vector of an incident field interacts with the antenna. This is facilitated by employing streamlines visualized in the vicinity of the antenna. The technique is particularly useful in helping one to visualize the concept of the effective area of an antenna, which can be particularly challenging with certain antenna types, such as dipoles. Such methods can aid the understanding of how antennas interact with incident fields and provide a complementary tool for educators in the classroom.