Radiation by cavity-backed antennas on a circular cylinder

Conformal antenna arrays are popular for deployment on curved aircraft, spacecraft and land-vehicle platforms because of their inherent low weight, cost and drag properties. The finite element-boundary integral method is extended to radiation by cavity-backed structures recessed in an infinite, metallic cylinder. The accuracy of the developed FE-BI code for a microstrip patch array is established by comparison with measurements. The formulation is then used to investigate the effect of the finite aperture on the radiation pattern. In addition, the effect of curvature on resonant frequency, gain, input impedance and pattern shape is examined