---
title: RF & Antenna Engineering
description: RF engineering designs circuits and antennas for wireless systems. You will learn transmission lines, impedance matching, antenna theory, RF measurement and the basics of radio system design.
category: engineering
subcategory: electrical-and-computer-engineering
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/rf-and-antenna-engineering
---

# RF & Antenna Engineering

RF engineering designs circuits and antennas for wireless systems. You will learn transmission lines, impedance matching, antenna theory, RF measurement and the basics of radio system design.

## Available Resources

3 Books • 1 Courses • 1 Websites • 1 Papers

## Books

### 1. Electromagnetic Waves and Antennas

**Author:** Sophocles J. Orfanidis

Complete graduate-level textbook released free by its author. Covers plane-wave propagation and reflection, waveguides, transmission lines, impedance matching, S-parameters, linear and aperture antennas, diffraction and antenna array design, with MATLAB code.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://ece.rutgers.edu/orfanidis

**Tags:** electromagnetics, antenna-design, transmission-lines, waveguides, antenna-arrays, impedance-matching

### 2. Experimental Methods in RF Design (Revised 1st Edition)

**Author:** Wes Hayward, Rick Campbell, Bob Larkin

Bench-oriented text on designing, building and measuring RF circuits: amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, filters, receivers and transmitters, plus home-built test equipment. Each design is built and measured, showing how theory compares to real hardware.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/087259923X?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** rf-circuit-design, amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, receivers, amateur-radio

### 3. Microwave Engineering (4th Edition)

**Author:** David M. Pozar

Standard graduate textbook on RF and microwave circuit engineering covering transmission lines, waveguides, S-parameter network analysis, impedance matching, resonators, couplers, filters, ferrite devices and noise. Readers can analyse microwave networks and design amplifiers, oscillators and mixers.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470631554?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** microwave-engineering, rf-engineering, transmission-lines, s-parameters, impedance-matching

## Papers

### 1. Spectrum Analysis Basics (Application Note 150)

Keysight's long-running application note on how swept and FFT spectrum analyzers work: mixers, IF filters, resolution bandwidth, detectors, noise floor, dynamic range, phase noise and measurement accuracy, with practical guidance on setting up RF measurements. Covers the 'RF measurement' pillar authoritatively and free.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.keysight.com/us/en/assets/7018-06714/application-notes/5952-0292.pdf

**Tags:** spectrum-analysis, rf-measurement, test-equipment, resolution-bandwidth, phase-noise, dynamic-range

## Courses

### 1. Software Defined Radio with HackRF

**Author:** Michael Ossmann

Eleven-lesson free video course adapted from Michael Ossmann's two-day SDR class. Covers radio receiver architecture, sampling, complex (IQ) signals, modulation, filtering and signal replay using GNU Radio with HackRF or other SDR hardware.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://greatscottgadgets.com/sdr/

**Tags:** software-defined-radio, gnu-radio, hackrf, iq-signals, modulation, digital-signal-processing

## Youtubes

### 1. W2AEW (Alan Wolke) — Test & Measurement and RF Video Tutorials

**Author:** Alan Wolke (W2AEW)

Hundreds of whiteboard-and-bench videos by a Tektronix applications engineer and radio amateur covering Smith charts, transmission lines, standing waves, impedance matching, spectrum analyzers, oscilloscope probing and practical RF circuit measurements. Best free visual on-ramp: explains Smith charts, VSWR and measurement with real instruments before the reader faces Pozar-level math. Free, huge back catalogue, consistently accurate.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@w2aew

**Tags:** smith-chart, transmission-lines, impedance-matching, spectrum-analyzers, oscilloscopes, rf-measurement

## Websites

### 1. Microwaves101

Free encyclopedia of RF and microwave practice written by working engineers, with calculators and design spreadsheets. Covers transmission lines, waveguides, S-parameters, matching, couplers, filters, phased arrays, materials and measurement, helping engineers answer practical questions while designing hardware.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedias

**Tags:** rf-engineering, microwave-engineering, transmission-lines, s-parameters, antennas

---

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