Measurements as enhancement of numerical simulation for challenging antennas

Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) solvers are important engineering tools in the characterization and optimization of antenna placement on large and complex platforms. The accuracy of the source representation has a strong influence on the simulation accuracy of such antenna systems. It is customary to use domain decomposition technique based on the near field description of the local domain in such cases. This allows a separate modelling of the radiating antenna with high level of detail. The source is subsequently used in the numerical simulation of the entire system. Due to the conclusiveness and high data reliability, measured antennas are attractive as accurate antenna model in numerical simulations. Inverse source or the equivalent current/source method (EQC) provides an accurate near-field representation of any radiating device in terms of equivalent electric and magnetic currents [1-8]. This technique establish accurate electromagnetic 3D models, maintaining the near-field (NF) and far-field (FF) properties of the measured device. The equivalent model of the measured device is importable in commercial CEM solvers in form of a near-field Huygens Box [1-3]. In this paper, applications of measured sources in complex scenarios are reported using commercial CEM solvers. Both free-standing and flush mounted antennas are investigated. The accuracy of the method is investigated by comparison with measurements and/or full-wave simulation of the full structure.