Fast Characterization of Mutually Coupled Array Antennas Using Isolated Antenna Far-Field Data

Journal article, 2021

A new method is proposed to analyze antenna arrays including mutual coupling, which is based on the concept of multiple scattering and relates to the iterative Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel methods. The method employs sampled far-field data of an isolated element, which can be obtained by any full-wave simulator and consists of far fields for excitation at the antenna feed and for plane waves with different angles of incidence. Mutual interactions between the array elements are modeled by approximating the incident field as a single dual-polarized plane wave taken from the spherical wave expansion of the scattered field from any other element in the array. The accuracy and run-time performances of the method are evaluated mainly by comparing simulations for several array geometries to MoM-based full-wave solutions. The method is primarily intended as a tool for the fast sequential analysis of arrays while varying the array lattice, particularly in case of irregular or sparse lattices and complex elements requiring dense meshes in full-wave simulators. The applications of the method may thus range from the systematic analysis of mutual coupling to optimization and synthesis.