Coupled structural-electromagnetic modeling and analysis of hexagonal active phased array antennas with random errors

Abstract The structural and electromagnetic performances of planar hexagonal active phased array antenna (APAA) are degraded because of the position errors of radiating elements caused by manufacturing processing, assembly and environment loads. It seriously restricts the realization of high performances of phased array antenna. By considering the changeable mutual coupling parameters and introducing the structural distortion factor into the antenna pattern function, the coupled structural-electromagnetic model of planar hexagonal array antennas was developed. The quantitative relationship between the structural error and the electromagnetic performances of antenna was discussed with consideration of the mutual coupling. The influence of the plane assembling accuracy and flatness on antenna performance was analyzed with the change in the number of array elements. The presented valuable simulation results could be used in antenna engineering to provide guidance for the antenna designers to set the optimal performance-driven tolerance in manufacturing antenna.