An Inversion Design Method for the Radome Thickness Based on Interval Arithmetic

The primary purpose of the electromagnetic (EM) design of a dielectric radome is to minimize the degradation of the antenna EM performance caused by the radome. In the EM design phase, a small EM performance deviation from the ideal design value is allowed because the manufacturing tolerance is unavoidable. This letter proposes, based on interval arithmetic (IA), a novel design method for the possible thickness tolerance interval of the radome from the allowable power pattern interval of the antenna-radome system. The design process consists of two steps: The first is to obtain the radome transmission coefficient interval from the allowable power pattern interval; and the second is to obtain the thickness tolerance interval from the transmission coefficient. A 12.5 GHz patch antenna array with a dielectric radome is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the novel IA-based design method.