On the Accuracy of Equivalent Antenna Representations - A Case Study

The accuracy of two equivalent antenna representations, near-field sources and far-field sources (FFSs), is evaluated for an antenna installed on a simplified platform. We show that the accuracy of the installed far-field and surface current for the investigated weakly scattering platform depends strongly on the configurations associated with the equivalent antenna representation. The root-mean-square error for the installed far-field error varies between 4.4%-8.4% for the considered configurations of near-field equivalent representations installed on the investigated platform. When using FFSs, the design parameters have an even larger influence of the achieved accuracy. There is also a varying accuracy depending on the type of numerical method used. Based on the results, some recommendations on the choice of subdomain for the equivalent antenna representation are given associated with the platform. In industrial antenna applications, the accuracy in determining, e.g., installed far-fields and antenna isolation on large platforms is critical. Equivalent representations can reduce the fine-detail complexity of antennas and thus give an efficient numerical description to be used in large-scale simulations. The results, in this paper, highlight to antenna designers and system engineers the accuracy challenges associated with the use of equivalent antenna representations.QC 20180802