The receiving and scattering properties of a finite dipole array

In this paper, a tutorial discussion is presented on the receiving and scattering properties of the finite dipole array. The primary issue that we consider here is the relationship between the total scattered and received powers for the free-space and the ground-plane-backed dipole arrays. We discuss how the conservation of power relates to the total scattered and received powers for the general antenna and the finite array. The definitions of aperture efficiency, absorption efficiency, and scattering area are reexamined, and their relationship to the concept of total power available to the receiving array is discussed. It is shown that the superposition of received and scattered powers is not a valid concept for determining the total power available to the equivalent load(s) connected to the receiving array. We show that when receiving the maximum possible power from the incident plane wave, both the free-space and ground-plane-backed arrays must scatter some power.