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An antenna tuner, a matchbox, transmatch, antenna tuning unit (ATU), antenna coupler, or feedline coupler is a device connected between a radio transmitter or receiver and its antenna to improve power transfer between them by matching the impedance of the radio to the antenna's feedline. Antenna tuners are particularly important for use with transmitters. Transmitters feed power into a resistive load, very often 50 ohms, for which the transmitter is optimally designed for power output, efficiency, and low distortion.[1] If the load seen by the transmitter departs from this design value due to improper tuning of the antenna/feedline combination the power output will change, distortion may occur and the transmitter may overheat.
ATUs are a standard part of almost all radio transmitters; they may be a circuit included inside the transmitter itself or a separate piece of equipment connected between the transmitter and the antenna. In transmitters in which the antenna is mounted separate from the transmitter and connected to it by a transmission line (feedline), there may be a second ATU (or matching network) at the antenna to match the impedance of the antenna to the transmission line. In low power transmitters with attached antennas, such as cell phones and walkie-talkies, the ATU is fixed to work with the antenna. In high power transmitters like radio stations, the ATU is adjustable to accommodate changes in the antenna or transmitter, and adjusting the ATU to match the transmitter to the antenna is an important procedure done after any changes to these components have been made. This adjustment is done with an instrument called a SWR meter.
In radio receivers ATUs are not so important, because in the low frequency part of the radio spectrum the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is dominated by atmospheric noise. It does not matter if the impedance of the antenna and receiver are mismatched so some of the incoming power from the antenna is reflected and does not reach the receiver, because the signal can be amplified to make up for it. However in high frequency receivers the receiver's SNR is dominated by noise in the receiver's front end, so it is important that the receiving antenna is impedance-matched to the receiver to give maximum signal amplitude in the front end stages, to overcome noise.
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