Editor's Notes

Welcome to the IEEE Antenna and Propagation (AP-S) website.  We recently posted a new Feature Article by Said M. Mikki and Yahia M. Antar titled “A Theory of Antenna Electromagnetic Near Field—Parts I and II”.  The article provides a comprehensive treatment of antenna near-fields.  I encourage you to take some time to read the article, it’s quite interesting.  If you are interested in submitting a Feature Article for the website, please send me an email at webeditor@ieeeaps.org.
We have also spent some time making a few changes to the site.  Most of the content has been updated but there are still a few minor things to fix.  One of the new features we have added includes the new IEEE AP-S Facebook page.  There is a link to it on the right side of the home page.  Please take a few minutes to check it out.  We will frequently be posting notices of upcoming events and photographs from AP-S related events whenever possible.  We will also be using Facebook for notifications of changes to this site and other relevant things going on in our society.  Another feature we have added is the IEEE AP-S Events calendar which provides a schedule of AP-S related events including conference submission deadlines, conference dates and locations, the European School of Antennas schedule and a few other items.  Please let me know if there is something relevant that you would like to add to the calendar.
Finally, please let me know if there is any content that you would like to see included on the site or any features that you think would be of interest to society members.

Thanks and warmest regards,
- Steven Best, webeditor@ieeeaps.org

Feature Article

A Theory of Antenna Electromagnetic Near Field—Parts I and II
Said M. Mikki and Yahia M. Antar

Abstract: We present in this work a comprehensive theory of antenna near fields in two parts, highlighting in particular the engineering perspective. Part I starts by providing a general conceptual framework for the more detailed spectral theory to be developed in Part II. The present paper proceeds by proposing a general spatial description for the electromagnetic field in the antenna exterior region based on an asymptotic interpretation of the Wilcox expansion. This description is then extended by constructing the fields in the entire exterior domain by a direct computation starting from the far-field radiation pattern. This we achieve by deriving the Wilcox expansion from the multipole expansion, which allows us to analyze the energy exchange processes between various regions in the antenna surrounding domain, spelling out the effect and contribution of each mode in an analytical fashion. The results are used subsequently to evaluate the reactive energy of arbitrary antennas in a complete form written in terms of the TE and TM modes. Finally, the concept of reactive energy is reexamined in depth to illustrate the inherent ambiguity of the circuit total electric and magnetic reactive energies. We conclude that the reactive field concept is inadequate to the characterization of the antenna near field in general. Read more.

Announcements

Web Site Information and Updates

The inaugural launch of the AP-S web site leaves a few areas “under construction”. These include the For Students tab, the Ask an Expert feature and AP Fellows on the Cutting Edge. Updates to these sections of the web site will follow shortly.

In the For Student section of the site, we intend to add education resources, which will include the capability to download a number of IEEE AP-S training videos. With Ask an Expert, we intend to add a feature that will allow students to ask recognized experts in the field basic questions regarding antennas, electromagnetics and wave propagation. We have some implementation considerations to work out on this feature before it goes live. Finally, with AP Fellows on the Cutting Edge we intend to have short feature comments from recently elected AP-S Fellows on critical topics in antennas and electromagnetics.

Navigating the web site is straight-forward using the numerous tabs on the left. You are encouraged to use these tabs rather than the backward and forward features of your browser. If you have any issues or find any errors on the site, please send an email to webeditor@ieeeaps.org