Hybrid method of moments – induced EMF method for analysing multi‐element planar inverted F antenna arrays

Abstract

Multi‐element planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) phase array characteristics are investigated, using a hybrid method of moments (MoM) – induced electro‐motive force (EMF) method. First the MoM is used to study the dependence of mutual impedance between two array elements with respect to the distance between them. Then a general rule on the relationship between mutual impedance and distance is developed. Using this relation the induced EMF method is then employed in order to obtain the characteristics of a phased array with PIFA elements independently of the number of elements and the geometry of the array. Simulation results are presented in 1.8 GHz frequency bands and the accuracy of the proposed method is found satisfactory, while all the advantages of simplicity of the induced EMF method are exploited. Phased arrays are used in smart antennas which can also be adaptive, the proposed method can be used for real time calculation of the excitation coefficients in comparison with the calculation from a time consuming simulation program that is not realistic.