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In electrical engineering
Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism....
, a ground plane is an electrically conductive surface
Electrical conductor

In science and Electrical engineering, an electrical conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons ....
.

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Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the assisted Transmission of Signal over a distance for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, this may have involved the use of smoke signals, Drum , Semaphore line, flag signals or heliograph....
, a ground plane structure or relationship exists between the antenna and another object, where the only structure of the object is a structure which permits the antenna to function as such (e.g., forms a reflector or director for an antenna). This sometimes serves as the near-field
Near and far field

The near field and far field of an antenna or other isolated source of electromagnetic radiation are regions around the source where different parts of the field are relatively more or less important....
 reflection
Reflection (physics)

Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an wiktionary:interface between two differentmedium so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated....
 point for an antenna, or as a reference ground
Ground (electricity)

In electrical engineering, ground or earth may be the reference point in an electrical circuit from which other voltages are measured, or a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth....
 in a circuit
Telecommunication circuit

A telecommunication circuit is defined as follows:# The complete path between two terminals over which one-way or two-way communications may be provided....
.

There are a variety of ground planes, including drooping ground planes, and flat circular ground plane antennas.






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Encyclopedia


In electrical engineering
Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism....
, a ground plane is an electrically conductive surface
Electrical conductor

In science and Electrical engineering, an electrical conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors, such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons ....
.

Radio antenna theory

In telecommunication
Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the assisted Transmission of Signal over a distance for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, this may have involved the use of smoke signals, Drum , Semaphore line, flag signals or heliograph....
, a ground plane structure or relationship exists between the antenna and another object, where the only structure of the object is a structure which permits the antenna to function as such (e.g., forms a reflector or director for an antenna). This sometimes serves as the near-field
Near and far field

The near field and far field of an antenna or other isolated source of electromagnetic radiation are regions around the source where different parts of the field are relatively more or less important....
 reflection
Reflection (physics)

Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an wiktionary:interface between two differentmedium so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated....
 point for an antenna, or as a reference ground
Ground (electricity)

In electrical engineering, ground or earth may be the reference point in an electrical circuit from which other voltages are measured, or a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth....
 in a circuit
Telecommunication circuit

A telecommunication circuit is defined as follows:# The complete path between two terminals over which one-way or two-way communications may be provided....
.

There are a variety of ground planes, including drooping ground planes, and flat circular ground plane antennas. A ground
Ground (electricity)

In electrical engineering, ground or earth may be the reference point in an electrical circuit from which other voltages are measured, or a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth....
 plane may consist of a natural surface, such as the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
 (or ocean
Ocean

An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
) (or salt marsh) or an artificial
Artificial

Artificial is something which is not Natural . Its original sense, related to artifact and artifice, refers to a product of human endeavor; a more English but gendered synonym is man-made....
 surface of opportunity (such as the roof of a motor vehicle). A ground plane can also be a specially designed artificial surface (such as the radial elements of a quarter-wave ground plane antenna). Artificial (or substitute) grounds (e.g., ground planes) concerns the grounding structure for the antenna and includes the conductive structure used in place of the earth and which grounding structure is distinct from the earth.

The ideal ground plane for an antenna in the MF (300 to 3000 kHz) band is 120 quarter-wavelength-long radial wires extending outward evenly around the base of quarter wavelength tall vertical radiator. As radials get fewer and shorter, the ground plane becomes lossier. Essentially, the ground plane acts as the "missing half" of a dipole two element, half wave long, center fed antenna. It can be thought of as the "return current" path for the radiating antenna. The efficiency of a ground plane can be measured in ohms as the loss component (i.e., fewer ohms are better) of an antenna's total input impedance. In VHF (30 to 300 MHz or wavelengths 10 to 1 meter} used in mobile communications, the metal of a car body begins to act as an efficient quarter-wavelength groundplane. By the upper VHF and UHF (300 to 3000) MHz frequencies, the car or truck body ground plane can be several wavelengths long, making an "ideal and lossless" groundplane.

Printed circuit boards

A ground plane in PCB
Printed circuit board

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using Conductor pathways, or signal traces, industrial etchinged from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate....
 assembly is a layer of copper
Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
 that appears to most signals as an infinite ground
Ground (electricity)

In electrical engineering, ground or earth may be the reference point in an electrical circuit from which other voltages are measured, or a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth....
 potential. This helps reduce noise
Electromagnetic interference

Electromagnetic interference is an unwanted disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic conduction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source....
 and helps ensure that all integrated circuit
Integrated circuit

In electronics, an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin Wafer of semiconductor material....
s within a system compare different signals' voltage
Voltage

Electrical tension is the potential difference between two points of an electrical or electronic circuit, expressed in volts. It is the measurement of the potential for an electric field to cause an electric current in an electrical conductor....
s to the same potential
Electric potential

At a point in space, the electric potential is the potential energy per unit of electric charge that is associated with a static electric field....
.

It also serves to make the circuit design easier, allowing the designer to ground anything without having to run multiple tracks; the component needing grounding is routed directly to the ground plane on another layer.

Ground planes can also be placed on adjacent layers to power planes creating a large parallel plate capacitor
Capacitor

A capacitor or condenser is a Passive component electronic component consisting of a pair of electrical conductor separated by a dielectric....
 that helps filter the power supply
Power supply

Power supply is a reference to a source of electrical power. A device or system that supplies electrical or other types of energy to an output External electric load or group of loads is called a power supply unit or PSU....
.

Ground planes are sometimes split and then connected by a thin trace. This allows the separation of analog and digital sections of a board or the inputs and outputs of amplifiers. The thin trace has low enough impedance
Electrical impedance

Electrical impedance, or simply impedance, describes a measure of opposition to a sinusoidal alternating current . Electrical impedance extends the concept of Electrical resistance to AC circuits, describing not only the relative amplitudes of the voltage and Electric current, but also the relative Phase ....
 to keep the two sides very close to the same potential while keeping the ground currents of one side from impacting the other.

See also

  • List of electronics topics
    List of electronics topics

    This is a list of communications, computers, electronic circuits, fiberoptics, microelectronics, medical electronics, reliability, and semiconductors....
  • Power plane
    Power plane

    In printed circuit board design, a power plane is the counterpart to the ground plane and behaves as an alternating current signal ground, whilst providing DC voltage for powering circuits mounted on the PCB....
  • Microstrip
    Microstrip

    Microstrip is a type of electrical transmission line which can be fabricated using printed circuit board [PCB] technology, and is used to convey microwave-frequency signals....
     and Stripline
    Stripline

    Stripline is a transverse electromagnetic transmission line medium, that was invented by Robert M. Barrett of the Air Force Cambridge Research Centre in the 1950's....
  • Line-of-sight propagation
    Line-of-sight propagation

    Line-of-sight propagation refers to electro-magnetic radiation including light emissions traveling in a straight line. The rays or waves are diffracted, refracted, reflected, or absorbed by atmosphere and obstructions with material and generally cannot travel over the horizon or behind obstacles....
  • Radio electronics
    Radio electronics

    *For the magazine, see Radio-ElectronicsRadio electronics is the sub-field of electrical engineering concerning itself with the class of electronics electrical network which receive or transmit radio signals....
     and Radio propagation
    Radio propagation

    Radio propagation is a term used to explain how radio waves behave when they are transmitted, or are wave propagation from one point on the Earth to another....
  • Printed Circuit Board Milling
    Printed circuit board milling

    Printed circuit board milling is the process of removing areas of copper from a sheet of printed circuit board material to recreate the pads, signal traces and structures according to patterns from a digital circuit board plan known as a layout file....
  • Antenna tuner
    Antenna tuner

    An antenna tuner, transmatch, or antenna tuning unit matches a transceiver with a fixed Electrical impedance to a load impedance which is unknown, complex or otherwise does not match....
  • Salisbury screen
    Salisbury screen

    The Salisbury screen is maybe the first ever anti-radar or, to be more precise, anti-reflective concept; the so called RAM . It was first described in 1952 and was applied in ship radar cross section reduction ....


External articles

References and citations
  • General Source: Federal Standard 1037C
    Federal Standard 1037C

    Federal Standard 1037C, entitled Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms is a United States Federal Standard, issued by the General Services Administration pursuant to the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended....
     in support of MIL-STD-188
    MIL-STD-188

    MIL-STD-188 is a series of U.S. military standards relating to telecommunications....
  • Groundplane antenna model FA-2 from the book PRACTICAL ANTENNA DESIGN second edition, Philippine copyright, 1990, 1994 by Elpidio C. Latorilla
Websites
  • John Whitmore, sci.electronics > . August 11, 1992.
  • Amateur Quarter Wave . Computer Support Group, Inc., 2006.
  • Criterion Cellular, 2006.