Problem Description
The limited space and environmental conditions of space borne antennas require very special antenna designs and careful deployment from an interference and radiation pattern point of view. The aerospace industry has traditionally been one of the main driving forces behind measurement ranges and simulations to characterize antennas on aircraft, satellites etc. Typical issues of concern are: - Design of space and aircraft antennas (e.g. wire/blade antennas, antenna arrays, reflector antennas, radomes, complex smaller antennas (e.g. cavity backed spiral, conformal antennas and antennas containing dielectrics.))
- Radiation pattern analysis of communication antennas on platforms (V/UHF, IFF, Inmarsat)
- Pattern distortion due to shielding by adjacent structures
- EMC (Antenna coupling, shielding, cable coupling)
Solution
FEKO is, due to its formulation, ideally suited for the "open boundary" radiating problems typically encountered in the Aeropace industry.
- Choosing simulation technique based on the electrical size of the problems tobe solved
- Medium sized (e.g. V/UHF communication antennas) problems are solved using the MoM,
- Large (e.g. 1-3 GHz antennas on a platform) problems are typically solved using the MLFMM,
- Huge (X-band and higher) problems require either the MoM/UTD (where the platform can be represented by flat polygonal plates) or MoM/PO.
| Navigation antenna
on Galileo satellite. |
|---|
|
| Surface currents on a passenger aircraft. |
|---|
|
Typical slot antenna
for aircraft communications |
|---|
|
|
