Full-Wave Characterization of Wave- length-Scaled Phased Arrays

Introduction: Ultra-wideband antenna arrays achieve operation over bandwidths of 4:1 or more. These arrays are traditionally costly due to high element counts. Wavelength-scaled arrays (WSAs) have the same aperture size and bandwidth as traditional ultra-wideband arrays, but have significantly fewer elements. Using scaled elements of three different sizes, an 8:1 bandwidth WSA has fewer than 18% of the original element count. Due to the finite array complexity, powerful new computational tools based on the domain decomposition–finite element method (DD-FEM) with nonmatching grids have been developed to accurately model the WSA architecture. These simulation tools can model structures 1000 times more complex than previously possible. Prior to building expensive hardware, it is now possible to use full-wave characterization of phased array systems to very accurately predict and correct electromagnetic performance, thereby reducing implementation costs and significantly increasing the chance that hardware will operate as desired when deployed.