Hodograph of Antenna’s Local Phase Center: Computation and Analysis

Abstract

This communication studies the phase pattern of an antenna, with its phase front being significantly different from a sphere. Therefore, the concept of local phase center (LPC) has been used. Two algorithms of LPC hodograph computation are presented and verified by comparison with analytical results. Even in the simplest case of two sources, a curve of the LPC hodograph may be curious and hardly predictable. This is particularly true if a special phase pattern arises, e.g., as a result of the desired amplitude pattern synthesis. Two examples with sector and secant patterns are studied and the relevant LPC-hodographs are demonstrated. All calculations prove that the LPC is unexpectedly well defined.