On Simulation of Antenna Arrays Using Domain Decomposition Principles

This paper presents the evaluation of accuracy and computational efficiency of methods for calculating farfield of antenna arrays using the domain decomposition principles. It first describes the classical calculation methods based on simulating the entire antenna array geometry and using the array factor. Then, the basic principles of antenna array simulations using domain decomposition are outlined and a new method for far-field antenna array calculation is proposed. Unlike traditional methods, the new one does not require the use of periodic boundary conditions. Finally, all four methods are compared based on the far-field simulation for a squared antenna array consisting of 400 patch antennas. It is shown that domain decomposition requires almost 3 times less memory than the full antenna array simulation. In addition, the calculation time is reduced by almost 2.5 times. However, the accuracy of antenna array simulations degrades. The difference between the results can reach 30 dB within the side lobes of the far-field diagram.