Conical horn antenna array analysis using matrix manipulation in conformal FDTD scheme

Studies on medium-sized and large-sized antenna arrays often require very large computational effort in full-wave electromagnetic analysis. Moreover, analytical analysis on mutual coupling effects among the elements is only applicable in limited cases and less accurate. A technique based on a conformal finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is presented and only electromagnetic near field information provided by any of two neighbouring elements in the proposed array is needed. Then, the whole array behaviour is derived via matrix manipulation on the known field. Simulation results using this technique are compared with the results provided by a full FDTD simulation on an array, and good agreement is obtained.