Accurate Analysis of Arbitrarily Shaped Wire Antenna-Dielectric Radome Structures

Abstract

In this letter, the performance of wire antennas enclosed by a small/moderate-size dielectric radome with arbitrary shape is investigated by using the coupled surface integral equation (CSIE). PMCHWT formula is applied on the surfaces of the radome, while the EFIE is employed to model the equivalent strip structure of wire antennas. The advantages of this approach over other methods are (1) all of the mutual interactions between antennas and radome are taken into account so that the performance of the composite antenna-radome system can be predicted rigorously and accurately; (2) one can use only one type of basis function (e.g. RWG functions) to represent the equivalent currents on both antenna and radome surfaces; (3) A simple delta-gap feed model can be conveniently incorporated in the method of moments (MoM) with good accuracy. Numerical results of wire antenna covered by radomes with both spherical shell and Von Karman shapes are presented to validate the proposed method.