An Efficient Method for Calculation of Patterns of Conformal Array Antennas Based on Near-field Rotation Technique

In this paper, a novel and efficient method for calculation of patterns of conformal array antennas based on a nearfield rotation technique is presented. Firstly, based on the information of conformal carriers, the proposed solution rotates the electric fields, magnetic fields, and position of sampling points on a specific near-field closed surface of a single antenna element. The electric and magnetic fields on the surface in the global coordinate system are further obtained. Then, the equivalent electric and magnetic current densities of the above single element and radiation fields generated by them can be calculated based on the Schelkunoff′s equivalence principle. Furthermore, radiation fields of all elements in the global coordinate system can be obtained in the same way. Afterwards, the total far fields of the conformal array antennas can be calculated as a vector superposition of patterns of all elements in the global coordinate system. Finally, two numerical examples regarding to the pattern calculations of conformal array antennas with different carrier platforms and array elements are provided for the validation. Compared with results based on the full-wave simulation and of the reported far-field rotation technique-based method, the proposed solution has the advantages in calculation accuracy and efficiency simultaneously.