Tom Milligan

Miligan & Associates

8204 West Polk Place
Littleton, CO 80123
(303) 977-7268
(303) 977-8853 (Fax)

TMilligan@ieee.org(e-mail)

Editor's Introduction
This column discusses the problem of the synthesis of an
array when the interaction of the antennas with the mounting
structure is significant. Although the paper shows an example were
the.antemas were mounted on a ship, the extension to other platforms is straight forward. I am eager to apply this method to arrays

mounted on vehicles, such as spacecraft and aircraft. The

improvement in the pattem shows the value of the method. Thanks
to Prof. Femando Obelleiro and his co-workers for sharing this
approach. They would be interested in hearing about other applications of this method.

Synthesis of Onboard Array Antennas

Including Interaction with the Mounting
Platform and Mutual Coupling Effects
F. Obelleiro", L. Landesa2, J. M. Taboada", J. L. Rodriguez"
'Departamento de Tecnoloxias das Comunicacions
Universidade de Vigo
ETSE Telecomunicacion, Campus Universitario SIN
36200 Vigo, SPAIN
E-mail: obi@tsc.uvigo.es

2Departamento de Informatica, Universidad de Extremadura

Escuela Politecnica, Campus Universitario SIN
10071 Caceres, SPAIN

Abstract
The synthesis of array antennas mounted on aircraft, ships, or any other vehicular platform, is addressed here. Both the
mutual coupling between the array elements, and their interaction with the mounting platform, are considered and introduced
into the synthesis procedure. This is done by using a three-dimensional formulation of the Method of Moments, which models
the currents induced on the platform and the antennas, combined with an optimization procedure. Some results are presented, illustrating the capability of the proposed synthesis method.
Keywords: Antenna radiation patterns; conformal antennas; aircraft antennas; antenna arrays; antenna proximity factors;
aircraft antennas; vehicular antennas; electromagnetic compatibility; Method of Moments
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/EAntennas and Propagation Magazlne, Vol. 43,

No.2,

April 2001

1. Introduction

t is well known that the performance of radiating systems

mounted in complex environments is highly influenced by the
environment, and by the presence o f other elements located in the
systems near-field region. Nowadays, the overall evaluation and
control of the performance of onboard radiating systems (radiation
pattem, antenna gain, input impedance, etc.) has become a very
important task, which needs to be pursued through careful studies.
In recent years, different numerical techniques have been used to
predict the real pattem of antennas located in complex environments. This leads to a priori knowledge of the distortion in the
radiating system, but does not provide any solution to avoid this
negative influence. A more interesting alternative is the development of synthesis techniques that include the operating environment of the antenna, that is, that take into account the presence of
the mounting platform. This solution is mainly feasible for array
antennas, due to their synthesis possibilities.

There are several ways to address these kind of problems; let

us briefly introduce the different approaches that have been made
in recent years. First of all, we must remember approaches that try
to reduce or avoid electromagnetic coupling between the antenna
and the platform. These methods are based on minimizing the currents induced by the antenna on the platform (for simplicity, modeled as a set of near-field two-dimensional obstacles, in most
cases). In [l], Steyskal proposed a synthesis procedure that
enforces nulls at some points of the radiated near field, just over
the obstacle, in order to obtain a specific radiation pattem. A generalization of this approach was presented in [2], where the obstacles were isolated in a global sense, minimizing the radiated power
over the whole surface of the obstacle. A similar solution was proposed in [3]. The main limitation of these methods is that the isolation of the platform (or the near-field obstacles) is not always
possible: for example,when the obstacle is not very small, or in
real three-dimensional (3D) problems, in which the antennas are
directly connected to the platform. Otherwise, these approaches based on minimizing the current induced on the objects or platform
- do not necessarily provide the optimal solution, because these
induced currents can be used to reinforce and improve the radiating
systems performance. Taking advantage of this effect is the main
idea that has been developed in the approaches described next.
The first work in the framework of this choice deals with
two-dimensional blocking obstacles, which were taken into
account as parasitic elements in order to provide a required radiation pattem [4, 51, or in order to maximize their directivity [6]. In
all of this work, rigorous formulations based on the Method o f
Moments (MOM)[7] have been used. This leads to a simple matrix
formulation to account for the radiation of the array in the presence
of the obstacles, allowing computation of the radiation for a given
array excitation with a simple matrix-vector operation. Thus, it is
straightforward to include this modified radiation computation in
an optimization process, to obtain the desired array-excitation coefficients. Later on, . a related approach, based on the use of the
simulated-annealing technique, was presented in [8,9].
The extension of this work to real three-dimensional problems requires having an accurate model of the above-mentioned
electromagnetic antenna-platform coupling. But apart from that,
the study of real three-dimensional problems does require consideration of the mutual-coupling effects between the antenna-array
elements (not included in any of the previously mentioned work).
In order to include these effects, an accurate electromagnetic
Iff Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 43, No. 2. April 2001

analysis code for three-dimensional scatters and antennas must be

used. In a recent paper [IO], the electromagnetic coupling between
the antenna and the platform was modeled by the well-known
Numerical Electromagnetic Code NEC-2 [ 111. In this previous
work, the radiation pattem of each element of the array was
obtained separately, and then the excitation coefficients of the
array elements were obtained by a least mean squares (LMS) optimization process, based on combining the individual radiation
patterns.

A more accurate and efficient algorithm is presented here to

solve this kind of problem. The electromagnetic coupling is modeled by an accurate surface-wire Method of Moments (MOM)formulation 0. The resultant MOM matrices are incorporated into a
global-optimization procedure, which obtains the optimal excitation coefficients for the array elements. This approach takes into
account the coupling of the antennas to the mounting platform, and
also the mutual coupling between the array elements, the effects of
which are included both in the radiation computation and in the
synthesis procedure. Furthermore, the proposed method also allows
synthesizing array antennas attached to a vehicular platform where
the electromagnetic coupling is so strong that it is impossible to
avoid it. Some numerical results will be presented for real threedimensional problems, in order to illustrate the capability of the
proposed method.

2. Statement of the Problem

Let us consider a time-harmonic problem of angular frequency w (an eJwftime dependence is assumed and suppressed
for the rest of the paper), consisting of a large, perfect electrically
conducting (PEC) platform, with an array of Nu antennas mounted
on its surface. The medium surrounding the antennas and the platform is free space. It is known that both the presence of the platform and the mutual coupling between array elements have a great
influence over the array antennas performance. Our goal is to
obtain a set of excitation coefficients for the array elements that
will provide a prescribed radiation pattern when the array antenna
is radiating in the presence of the conducting platform, including
all kinds of interactions and electromagnetic-coupling effects.

3. Modeling the Electromagnetic Coupling

This original problem, of a PEC platform with an array of
Nu antennas attached to its surface, can be replaced by an equivalent problem, in which the PEC surfaces and wires are replaced by
equivalent induced currents, J, radiating in free space. These
equivalent currents can be both surface currents over the platform,
and line currents along the wires. It is important to notice that there
is no special treatment for the antennas. They are considered to be
the same as the rest of the platforms elements. The fields radiated
by these currents are denoted as scattered fields ( ES, HS), and represent the contribution of the replaced PEC wires and surfaces to
the total fields:

77

where LE and L,

represent integral operators., So, in order to

obtain the total fields (E',H') , the scattered fields must be added
to the impressed fields (E',H')., namely the fields due to the array
excitations at the feed points of each array element:

E' = E' + LE(J),

(3)

H'=Hi+LH(J).

(4)

Finally, the electromagnetic problem is stated in terms of an integral equation, which is obtained by enforcing the field boundary
condition over the original PEC surface. The formulation can be
done equally for the electric-field integral equation (EFIE), the
magnetic field integral equation (MFIE), or any combination of
these:
EFIE: 6 x [E' +LE (J)] = 0 ,

MFIE: ii x H' + LH (J)] = J ,

(5)
(6)

where ii is the unit outward normal vector over the original PEC
surface.
Thus, the EM coupling problem is reduced to obtaining the
unknown induced currents, J, in the above-mentioned integral
equations. At this point, in the MOM formulation, the current J is
expanded in a series of N basis functions, f, , as follows:

basis; is the N x M Method of Moments matrix, containing the

coupling between all the basis functions and weighting functions;
and V is the M x 1 excitation vector, closely related to the fields
originated by the excitations. The same matrix formulation would
also be applicable to the combined-field integral equation (CFIE),
which is obtained as a linear combination of the EFIE and the
MFIE.
Solving Equation (10) provides the unknown MOM coeffcients, C , for a given excitation of the array antenna, V :

Once the coefficients C have been obtained, the near fields, the
input impedance, or any other parameter of interest can be easily
obtained from the current approximation.
In this work, we have selected the Rao-Wilton-Glisson
(RWG) triangular basis functions [12] to model the body surface
currents, the triangular basis functions presented in [131 to model
wires, and the junction basis functions introduced in [131 to model
the connection between both of these. The Delta Gap model has
been used to simulate the feeding of the antenna [ 7 ] . With regard to
the weighting functions, we have selected the same number
( M = N ) and the same type as the expansion functions (i.e.,
fk = g,, V k ) on each subdomain. This testing procedure is known
as the Galerkin procedure, and leads to a symmetric N x N matrix
7 ,which implies important savings, in both storage and computational requirements.

J = z c n f n.

(7)

4. Synthesis Procedure

n=l

It is important to notice that the set of N basis functions used to

expand the current J accounts not only for the current over the platform, .but also over the antenna-array elements, including the feed
point of each antenna.

Let us consider the following expression, which gives the

'
field radiated at a set of No observation points, rl :

After some algebra, consisting of replacing Equation (7) into

the integral Equations (5) and (6); taking into account the linearity
of the operators LE and L, ; and introducing an inner product
( ) with a set of M expansion functions, g, , adequately chosen in
the integral equations, the EFIE and the MFIE stated in Equations ( 5 ) and (6) are transformed into a set of M linear equations of
the form

where
is an No x 1 vector containing the radiated field, C is the
previously described N x 1 vector containing the MOMbasis coefficients, and S is an No x N matrix containing the radiation of
each of the N MOM bases over each of the No observation points.

It must be pointed out that the elements of f and

are scalar
complex magnitudes, representing the projection of the radiated
fields at an observation point, r, ,in a given polarization, fi .

fl=l

The above systems of equations can be expressed in a matrix form

as follows:

where ?i is an
70

In order to synthesize a prescribed radiation pattem, it is

important to have the above expression as a function of the excitation vector, V , instead of as a function of the MOM-coefficients
vector, C . This can be easily achieved by replacing Equation (1 1)
into Equation (12), which leads to the following expression:

N x 1 vector containing the coefficients of the MOM

I Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 43, NO. 2, Aprll2001

60
5

79

For the sake of simplicity, let us introduce the following notation:

$*,?-' = 3,, where 3, is also an No x N matrix. So, Equation (1 5) can be expressed as follows:

At this point, it is important to notice that the excitation vector, V , is an N x 1 vector, containing zeros except in the elements
corresponding to the feed points of the array. These have been
intentionally placed at the end of the vector, that is,

platform is shown in Figure 1. In this example, the synthesis will

be performed for the z component of the electric field in the xy
plane. The frequency of the example is 0.3 GHz, The platform surface has been modeled using a triangular mesh, with an adaptivemesh refinement [14] in the vicinity of the array monopoles. The
overall number of MOM basis functions used in this example is
about

Two different synthesis examples have been performed:

Synthesis #1: The free-space synthesis, in which the excitations
of the array antenna have been obtained in free space, without
considering any electromagnetic coupling, neither the coupling
with the structure nor the coupling between the array elements.
Regarding the radiation pattem, it will be computed taking into
account the presence of the structure, that is, by modeling all
the electromagnetic couplings previously ignored.

(17)
where V, is an N, x 1. vector containing the voltage excitation at
each array feed point (remember, we use the Delta Gap model to
simulate the antenna feeds).

Synthesis #2: The synthesis procedure presented in the previous section. Of course, the radiation will be computed taking
into account the presence of the mounting platform.

So, Equation (16) can be written as

-

3"a' V ,

N = lo4.

f>

(18)

Figure 2 plots three radiation pattems, corresponding to the

objective pattern and the two syntheses described above. Compar-

being an No x N, matrix, which corresponds to the last N ,

columns of

3,.

Having reached this point, the array excitations, F a , can be

calculated to provide a prescribed radiation pattem, f o b j , via an
optimization procedure. It must be noticed that Equation (18)
implicitly contains all the mutual coupling and environment-inter-

z-'

in
action effects, which have been included with the matrix
Equation (15). Otherwise, it is important to notice that the evaluation of the radiation pattem of the array in the presence of the
structure is computed as a simple matrix-vector product, given by
Equation (1S), the computation of which is 0 ( N o x N,) . This
allows the incorporation of this calculation into any optimization
procedure, or into any other applications where the calculation of
the radiation of the array in the presence of the environment is
involved.

Figure 1. An array of 19 monopoles attached to a mounting

platform.

In the next section, we will present a real synthesis problem.

For the sake of simplicity, it has been solved using a simple optimization procedure, namely a LMS optimization. In this case, the
array excitations are straightforwardly obtained as

-10

-20

where

denotes the pseudoinverse operator.

CL

-30
n
V

5. Numerical Results

5m
-40

In order to illustrate the behavior of the proposed method, the

following synthesis problem is addressed: An array of 19 monopole antennas, attached to a real PEC conducting structure, is synthesized to obtain a prescribed radiation pattem (the objective pattem). The objective pattern is a Taylor pattem, with a secondary
lobe level (SSL) of 40 dB, which has been defined considering an
equivalent aperture of 9 1 (the maximum dimension of the array).
A three-dimensional view of the array antenna and the mounting

Figure 2. The normalized radiation patterns obtained for the

array of 19 monopoles depicted in Figure 1.

ao

/EAntennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 43, No. 2, April 2001

-50

-60

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

240

260

$in degrees

Table 1. The excitation voltages and input impedances of the

array obtained in Synthesis #2.

7. References
1. H. Steyskal, Synthesis of Antenna Pattems with Imposed
Near-Field Nulls, Electronics Letters, 30, 24, November 1994, pp.
2000-2001.
2. L. Landesa, F. Obelleiro, J. L. Rodriguez, J. A. Rodriguez, F.
Ares, and A. G. Pino, Pattem Synthesis of Array Antennas with
Additional Isolation of Near-Field Arbitrary Objects, Electronics
Letters, 34, 16, August 1998.
3. 0. M. Bucci, A. Capozzoli, and G. DElia, Reconfigurable
Conformal Array Synthesis with Near-Field Constraints, in Proceedings of the Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium
(PIERS), July 4-14,2000, Cambridge, MA, USA, p. 864.

ing the radiation pattern obtained in Synthesis #1 (the free-space

synthesis) with the objective, it is clear that the inclusion of the
electromagnetic coupling effects implies significant changes in the
antenna performance with respect to the free-space design conditions. A degradation of 15 dB in the secondary lobe level (SLL) of
the radiation pattem can be observed, together with a widening of
4 in the main lobe. Otherwise, looking at the radiation pattern corresponding to Synthesis #2 (obtained with the proposed method), it
can be seen that the radiation of the array antenna in the presence
of the mounting platform presents very good agreement with the
objective pattem. For the sake of completeness, the excitation voltages and the input impedances of each array element, obtained in
Synthesis #2, are summarized in Table 1.
Finally, to illustrate the effect of the electromagnetic coupling between the array antenna and the conducting platform, the
currents induced on the platform are depicted in Figure 3. We have
studied two cases, corresponding to the array antennas obtained in
Synthesis #1 and Synthesis #2. Looking at Figure 3, it can be seen
that the array antenna obtained in Synthesis#l presents strong
electromagnetic coupling with the platform. This is true not only in
the central direction, but also toward the laterals, which will provoke the presence of secondary lobes in the far-field pattern.
Meanwhile, in synthesis #2, the electromagnetic coupling is much
more concentrated in the broadside direction, avoiding the strong
induced currents in the lateral handrails.

6. Conclusions and Discussion

In this paper, a real problem of a conformal array antenna,
attached to complex platform, has been synthesized in order to
obtain a prescribed low-sidelobe radiation pattern. The effect of the
electromagnetic coupling between the antenna and platform has
been illustrated, demonstrating that it has a great influence on the
antennas performance. Numerical results have been shown, demonstrating that high-performance radiation patterns can be achieved
even including the presence of the mounting platform. So, we can
conclude that the proposed synthesis method improves previous
synthesis techniques, and extends the scope of application to real
three-dimensional problems.

I Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 43, No. 2, April 2001

4. L. Landesa, F. Obelleiro, J. L. Rodriguez, and A. G. Pino, Pattem Synthesis of Array Antennas in Presence of Conducting Bodies of Arbitrary Shape, Electronics Letters, 33, 18, August 1997,
pp. 1512-1513.
5. L. Landesa, J. L. Rodriguez, F. Obelleiro, and A. G. Pino, Pattern Synthesis of Array Antennas in Presence of Dielectric Bodies, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, MAG-35, 3, May 1999, pp.
1522-1525.

6. F. Obelleiro, L. Landesa, J. L. Rodriguez, A. G. Pino, and M. R.

Pino, Directivity Optimisation of an Array Antenna with Obstacles Within its Near-Field Region, Electronics Letters, 33, 25,
December 1997, pp. 2087-2088.
7. R. F. Harrington, Field Computation by Moment Methods, Piscataway, New Jersey, IEEE Press, 1993.
8. J. A. Rodriguez, M. V. Lozano, and F. Ares, Antenna Array
Pattem Synthesis in the Presence of Near-Zone Scatterers: TwoDimensional Scalar Case, Microwave and Optical Technology
Letters, 21, 4, May 1999, pp. 275-277.

9. M. Vicente-Lozano and F. Ares-Pena, Antenna Array Pattem

Synthesis in the Presence of Near-Zone Scatterers: Three-Dimensional Vector Case, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, 13, 11, 1999, pp. 1459-1608.
10. L: Landesa, J. M. Taboada, F. Obelleiro, and J. L. Rodriguez,
Design of On-Board Array Antennas by Pattern Optimisation,
Micvowave and Optical Technology Letters, 21, 6, June 1999, pp.
446-448.
11. G. J. Burke and A. J. Poggio, Numerical Electromagnetic
Code - Method of Moments, Technical Document 116, AFWLTR-76-320, Naval Ocean Systems Center, 1997.

12. S. M. Rao, D. R. Wilton, and A. W. Glisson, Electromagnetic

Scattering by Surfaces of Arbitrary Shape, IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation, AP-30,3, May 1982, pp. 409-418.
13. S. U. Hwu and D. R. Wilton, Electromagnetic Scattering and
Radiation by Arbitrary Configurations of Conducting Bodies and

81

Wires, San Diego State University, Technical Report, NO. 87-17,

May 1998.
14. J. M. Taboada, J. L. Rodriguez, and F. Obelleiro, Comparison
of Moment-Method Solutions for Wire Antennas Attached to
Arbitrarily Shaped Bodies, Microwave and Optical Technology
Letters, 26,6, July 2000, pp. 413-419.
~~

Ideas for Antenna Designers Notebook

Ideas are needed for future issues of the Antenna Designers Notebook. Please send your suggestions to Tom Milligan, and they will
be considered for publication as quickly as possible. Topics can
include antenna design tips, equations, nomographs, or shortcuts,
as well as ideas to improve or facilitate measurements. ?E:

Andrew Mathis is
New AP-S
Webmaster
Andrew Mathis has been appointed the new AP-S Webmaster. He has asked that A P - S members to peruse the AP-S Web site
at http://www.ieeeaps.org. If members note pages that are dated or
under construction and have updates or suggestions, comments,
questions, or benevolent criticism, please contact him via e-mail at
mathis@ansoft.com. News items and calls for papers are particularly encouraged. Calls for papers should be sent both to Andrew
and to Ross Stone, the Magazine Editor-in-Chief. Listings for the
calendar of meetings and symposia should be sent both to Andrew
and to Ray Wasky, Associate Editor for Meetings, Symposia, and
Short and Online Courses for the Magazine.
Andrew W. Mathis was bom in Miami, Florida, in 1969.
He received the BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from

Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, in 1991 and 1993,

respectively. In 1998, he earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering
from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.

In Memoriam:
Roger M. Gallet
Roger Gallet, of Boulder, Colorado, died at home on
March 16, 2001 after a long battle with cancer. He was 78. He was
born January 1, 1923, in Paris, France, to Marcel and Suzanne
Gallet. He received degrees in Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy,
and Philosophy at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
Roger Gallet was an officer in the French Navy. During his
tenure, he was involved in developing the .ionospheric-sounder
program for predicting long-range radio communication. In 1955,
he was offered a position as a radio physicist at the National
Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado, and traveled to the
United States. His most important contribution there was the computerization of numerical mapping for ionospheric data, which was
used for predicting the best frequencies for long-distance radio
communication, such as across oceans. This was one of the first
uses of electronic computers at the Boulder Laboratories. These
programs yielded more information and greater accuracy than the
former hand-produced charts.
For this achievement, Roger Gallet and William B. Jones
were awarded the United States Department of Commerce Gold
Medal in 1965, for the development of efficient computer
programs for the description and prediction of the worldwide properties of the ionosphere.
His interest in the theory of radio-wave propagation in a
magneto-plasma led to his design of the Plasma Physics Laboratory, for which a building was constructed on the National Bureau
of Standards campus in Boulder, Colorado. He was an expert on
the plasma physics and chemistry of the atmosphere of the planet
Jupiter. At his suggestion, a project to observe radio emissions
from Jupiter was initiated. He also did significant research on
whistlers, the radio signals emitted by lightning strikes that travel
great distances along the Earths magnetic field lines to the opposite hemisphere. In 1963, Roger and his colleagues published an
Atlas of Whistlers and VLF Emissions. As professor of Upper
Atmosphere Physics at Colorado State University in Fort Collins,
he was praised for his ability to reach and interest the students,
winning a teaching award.
He is survived by his wife, Hannelore; two brothers in
France, two daughters, and a son. His first wife, Christiane, whom
he mamed in 1946, was killed in a car accident in 1971.

From 1991 to 1993, he was a Teaching Assistant and

Research Assistant at Clemson University, and from 1994 to 1998,
he worked for the Packaging Research Center, Georgia Institute of
Technology. Since 1998, he has been a Research and Development
Engineer with Ansoft Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, where he
develops computational techniques for electromagnetic scattering,
microwave devices, and electronic packaging. .E

Emest K. Smith
Campus Box 425
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309 USA
Tel: +I (303) 492-7123
Fax: +1 (303) 492-2578
E-mail: Smithek@boulder.colorado.edu ?$

82

/E Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 43,No. 2, April 2001