A second look at characterizing antenna performance in the time domain

Abstract

We recently developed the concept of the impulse response of an antenna, in order to more simply characterize antenna performance in the time domain. This time domain waveform is analogous to antenna gain in the frequency domain. Using older methods, to fully characterize antenna performance on boresight in the time domain, one would need waveforms in both transmission and reception, and for various risetimes and/or pulse widths. The impulse response of an antenna is equally useful in the time and frequency domains, is equally useful in transmission and reception, and is simply related to the gain or realized gain of an antenna. Furthermore, the impulse response of an antenna is independent of the source risetime or incident field pulse width.