Estimation of radiation property of cylindrical array

In this paper, an efficient calculation approach on radiation pattern of conformal array antenna is presented by using far-field data of antenna element. To demonstrate the computational accuracy of the proposed method, a 16-element cylindrical array antenna is simulated as an example. And the simulated results are compared with those of HFSS. Then the performance of the virtual phase shifting technology for cylindrical array is investigated. Finally, the effects of the attenuation accuracy of attenuator and the bit number of digital phase shifter on the radiation pattern of cylindrical array antenna, including beam granularity and pointing accuracy, are discussed.