Electromagnetic modeling of conformal wideband and multi-band patch antennas by bridging a solid-object modeler with MoM software

The advantages of antennas that can resemble the shape of the body to which they are attached are obvious. However, electromagnetic modeling of such unusually shaped antennas can be difficult. In this paper, the commercially available software SolidWorks/spl trade/ is used for accurately drawing complex shapes in conjunction with the electromagnetic software FEKO/spl trade/ to model the EM behavior of conformal antennas. The application of SolidWorks and custom-written software allows all the required information that forms the analyzed structure to be automatically inserted into FEKO, and gives the user complete control over the antenna being modeled. This approach is illustrated by a number of simulation examples of single, wideband, multi-band planar and curved patch antennas.

[1]  K.F. Tong,et al.  Experimental study of the rectangular patch with a U-shaped slot , 1996, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. 1996 Digest.

[2]  T.J. Talty,et al.  Automotive antennas: trends and future requirements , 2001, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. 2001 Digest. Held in conjunction with: USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (Cat. No.01CH37229).

[3]  Lauri Sydänheimo,et al.  A small planar inverted-F antenna for wearable applications , 1999, Digest of Papers. Third International Symposium on Wearable Computers.

[4]  Roberto G. Rojas,et al.  Efficient computation of surface fields excited on a dielectric-coated circular cylinder , 2000 .

[5]  Roberto G. Rojas,et al.  Paraxial space-domain formulation for surface fields on a large dielectric coated circular cylinder , 2002 .

[6]  W. Wiesbeck,et al.  Design and measurement of conformal antennas on cylindrical and spherical geometries , 1999, 1999 IEEE Africon. 5th Africon Conference in Africa (Cat. No.99CH36342).

[7]  P. Kabacik.  Investigations into advanced concepts of terminal and base-station antennas , 2001 .

[8]  S. T. Jellett,et al.  Electronically steered antenna system for the Australian Mobilesat , 1996 .

[9]  T. Hebron,et al.  Conformal shaped PIFAs for mobile communication applications , 2003, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. Digest. Held in conjunction with: USNC/CNC/URSI North American Radio Sci. Meeting (Cat. No.03CH37450).

[10]  L. Josefsson,et al.  Radiation and scattering tradeoff design for conformal arrays , 2003 .

[11]  Kai Fong Lee,et al.  Analysis of broadband U-slot microstrip antenna , 1997 .

[12]  D.I. Kaklamani,et al.  Integrating antenna modeling codes in Web-based visualization environments , 2003, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.

[13]  J. Hopf,et al.  Smart antenna application on vehicles with low profile array antennas , 2000, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. Transmitting Waves of Progress to the Next Millennium. 2000 Digest. Held in conjunction with: USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (C.

[14]  R. Munson.  Conformal microstrip antennas and microstrip phased arrays , 1974 .

[15]  R.F.E. Guy.  Spherical coverage from planar, conformal and volumetric arrays , 1999 .

[16]  I. J. Bahl,et al.  Microstrip Antennas , 1980 .

[17]  M. Chia,et al.  E-shaped planar inverted-F antenna with low-absorption for triple-band operation in cellular phones , 2001 .

[18]  P. Kabacik,et al.  Cylindrical array antennas and their applications in wireless communications systems , 2001 .

[19]  Yahya Rahmat-Samii,et al.  Low-profile enhanced-bandwidth PIFA antennas for wireless communications packaging , 1997 .

[20]  Raj Mittra,et al.  A reciprocity approach for calculating radiation patterns of arbitrarily shaped microstrip antennas mounted on circularly cylindrical platforms , 2003 .

[21]  H.J. Visser.  Second european workshop on conformal antennas , 2002, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.