A New Procedure for Assessing the Sensitivity of Antennas Using the Unscented Transform

In this communication, we introduce a new procedure to analyze the sensitivity of antennas. The procedure is based on the method of unscented transform (UT) developed by Julier and Uhlman in 1997. Although the UT is used in control engineering, the method has only recently been applied to electromagnetic (EM) problems. This work describes the application of the UT both for single and multiple random variables cases. The UT method is applied to problems using examples involving different types of antennas. In each example, the UT method is combined with different numerical methods to perform the sensitivity analysis of wire or reflector antennas. In the first example, the results were validated with results from the Monte Carlo technique. The second example investigated the convergence of the UT procedure, and the final example compared UT results with measured data. The main conclusion is that UT is a feasible alternative to the popular Monte Carlo technique, with the advantage of being far less computationally expensive.

[1]  Geovany Araujo Borges,et al.  Efficient computation of stochastic electromagnetic problems using unscented transforms , 2008 .

[2]  C. Christopoulos,et al.  Efficient extraction of statistical moments in electromagnetic problems solved with the method of moments , 2007, 2007 SBMO/IEEE MTT-S International Microwave and Optoelectronics Conference.

[3]  Shiwen Yang,et al.  Linear antenna arrays with bidirectional phase center motion , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[4]  Analysis and experimental results of wire antennas on a finite conductor ground plane , 2005, SBMO/IEEE MTT-S International Conference on Microwave and Optoelectronics, 2005..

[5]  A. Tennant,et al.  Direction finding using a four-element time-switched array system , 2008, 2008 Loughborough Antennas and Propagation Conference.

[6]  H. Shanks,et al.  FOUR-DIMENSIONAL ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATORS , 1959 .

[7]  Shiwen Yang,et al.  Sideband suppression in time-modulated linear arrays by the differential evolution algorithm , 2002 .

[8]  W. Kummer,et al.  Ultra-low sidelobes from time-modulated arrays , 1963 .

[9]  Shiwen Yang,et al.  The application of time modulated arrays in pulse Doppler radar , 2008, 2008 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[10]  Shiwen Yang,et al.  A new technique for power-pattern synthesis in time-modulated linear arrays , 2003, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[11]  A. Tennant,et al.  A Two-Element Time-Modulated Array With Direction-Finding Properties , 2007, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[12]  R. Rabelo,et al.  Analysis of reflector antennas through the World Wide Web [EM Programmer's Notebook] , 2007, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.

[13]  Shiwen Yang,et al.  A new technique for power-pattern synthesis in time-modulated linear arrays , 2003 .

[14]  B. Chambers,et al.  Control of the harmonic radiation patterns of time-modulated antenna arrays , 2008, 2008 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[15]  Jeffrey K. Uhlmann,et al.  Unscented filtering and nonlinear estimation , 2004, Proceedings of the IEEE.