A fast and efficient domain decomposition approach for finite antenna arrays

This paper describes a domain decomposition technique for finite element modeling of repetitive structures such as antenna arrays. The scheme leverages the repeating nature of an array to minimize the setup time for the domain matrices and the amount of computational resources required for a solution. The technique can be applied to arbitrary outlines or “array masks” of geometries including sparse arrays. Furthermore the ability to leverage a “composite excitation vector” to analyze specific scanning conditions as one effective excitation provides an extremely fast answer for very large and complex finite antenna arrays. Comparison results between this technique and an explicit FEM solution will be presented along with a solution performance for a 1024 element dual slant polarized Vivaldi array.