Measured antenna models for numerical simulations of antenna placement scenarios

Accurate numerical models of a given antenna can be derived from measurements using the inverse source technique [1–3]. Using this technique, measured antenna patterns can currently be imported and used as numerical sources in a number of commercial Computational Electromagnetic (CEM) solvers [4–9]. This method has been validated experimentally and the achievable accuracy investigated for both stand-alone and flush-mounted antennas [10–12]. The reported validation activities have been concentrated on flush mounted antennas physically extending from the ground plane. Such antennas can easily be modelled by equivalent currents on a representative structure. In this paper, we investigate the derivation of the numerical model of a measured aperture type antenna, when mounted in a larger flat structure. Following the procedure in [10–12], a numerical model of the aperture is created from measurements of an open-ended waveguide when mounted in a representative ground plane. The accuracy of the model is investigated by comparison of the radiated Near Fields (NF) from the model and full-wave simulations. Future activities, comprise validation with measurements including different CEM tools.