A novel active element pattern method for calculation of large linear arrays

The standard active element pattern (AEP) method is presented to predict the radiation pattern of large finite arrays. In this method, the AEPs of a large array are deduced from those of a small subarray. Thus, it needs to compute the AEPs of the subarray element-by-element and costs much CPU time. Also, this paper proposes a simplified AEP (SAEP) method to eliminate this complicated procedure. In the expression of the SAEP method the radiation field of a large finite array is simply related to the total radiation field of two small subarrays. Compared with the standard AEP method, the SAEP method allows us to arrive at a more efficient calculation of the radiation from large arrays. Numerical results show that the SAEP method has the same accuracy as the simulator HFSS while maintaining the simplicity of the pattern multiplication method.