Mutual coupling in a linear dipole array of finite size

Mutual coupling between the antenna elements in an antenna array is a potential source of performance degradation, particularly in a highly congested environment. A lack of knowledge of the correct in-array impedance value may result in impedance mismatching, errors in the desired pattern and increased sidelobe level, etc. The usual element-by-element approach does not include the effects of scattering from the neighbouring elements, because, in obtaining the mutual impedance between two elements of an array, the physical presence of other open-circuited elements is ignored. In the paper, the concept of ´extra port´ is introduced in the element-by-element based correction procedure that is proposed in order to completely involve the mutual coupling effects for linear dipole arrays. To validate the proposed method, several examples are presented.