THE MULTIPLE ANTENNA INDUCED EMF METHOD FOR THE PRECISE CALCULATION OF THE COUPLING MATRIX IN A RECEIVING ANTENNA ARRAY

Abstract

Practical antenna array designs generally require that the elements are separated by electrically short distances. The resultant mutual coupling often adversely afiects the achievable performance. Various methods are available to quantify the efiects of mutual coupling in arrays and improve performance through mutual coupling compensation. Mutual coupling is often described by a coupling matrix that relates the coupled and uncoupled quantities. Unfortunately, the accuracy with which the coupling matrix can be calculated is highly dependent on both the method selected and the frequency. This is a signiflcant limitation for wideband analysis where the coupling matrix needs to be calculated accurately at all frequencies of interest. This paper introduces a novel method for the precise calculation of the coupling matrix at any frequency of interest. It is an extension of the induced EMF method to multiple array elements. The method has the important practical advantage of being independent of the numerical technique used in the analysis. Since the coupling matrix is calculated by exciting the elements in the transmission mode, the method resembles well-known network analysis. However, as outlined in the paper, there are subtle difierences between the two approaches, which lead to more accurate results with the new proposed method. It is also demonstrated that antennas with arbitrary geometries and illuminations are handled accurately by the method.