Simulation of Radiation Scattering and Coupling Properties of Large Phased Arrays

The objective of this effort is to develop a new approach for solving large phased array problems that cannot be handled by presently available Electromagnetic Field Solvers. Previously, RM Associates has developed a code for analyzing large FrequencySelective Surface(FSS) type of radomes by using a novel version of Plane Wave Spectrum (PWS) approach, specially tailored for handling these problems. We now propose to further extend and generalize this approach to handle large phased array antennamodeling problems that can only be described by using a large number of degrees of freedom and, hence, cannot be simulated by using available computer codes.When fully developed, the PWS-based Phased array code will be useful not only for predicting the radiation and impedance characteristics of large arrays, but also the coupling ptoperties between two such array apertures. In addition, it can be interfacedwith an electronics code to predict the signal spectrum and intermodulation products of the received signals. Coomercial organizations developing large antenna arrays for signal communication would greatly benefit for the availabilty of computer codes withwhich they can relaiably design these arrays.