Radiation and scattering tradeoff design for conformal arrays

A tradeoff between gain and radar cross section is presented for waveguide aperture antennas mounted on a circular cylinder. The radiation and scattering characteristics are investigated as a function of frequency, various array lattices and different impedance loads using a method of moments code combined with asymptotic techniques. First, single aperture elements in a cylinder are considered and then different arrays. It is shown that it is possible in some cases to maximize the radiation and minimize the scattering properties with a suitable choice of impedance loads. The importance of mutual coupling is investigated and it is found that under certain circumstances it is possible to draw conclusions from calculations where mutual coupling has been omitted. The radiation and scattering properties of cylindrical arrays have been compared to the corresponding quantities for planar arrays and the advantages/disadvantages of the two concepts are illustrated.