A hybrid uniform geometrical theory of diffraction–moment method for efficient analysis of electromagnetic radiation/scattering from large finite planar arrays

Abstract

A hybrid uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD)‐moment method (MOM) approach is introduced to provide an efficient analysis of the electromagnetic radiation/scattering from electrically large, finite, planar periodic arrays. This study is motivated by the fact that conventional numerical methods become rapidly inefficient and even intractable for the analysis of electrically large arrays containing many antenna or frequency‐selective surface (FSS) elements. In the present hybrid UTD‐MOM approach, the number of unknowns to be solved is drastically reduced as compared to that which is required in the conventional MOM approach. This substantial reduction in the MOM unknowns is essentially made possible by introducing relatively few, special ray‐type (or UTD) basis functions to efficiently describe the unknown array currents. The utility of the present hybrid approach is demonstrated here for the simple case of a large rectangular phased array of short and thin metallic dipoles in air, which are excited with a uniform amplitude and linear phase distribution. Some numerical results are presented to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of this hybrid method.