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Problem Description

Wire antennas have been important tools in communication technologies since the birth of the industry. Their applications are extremely diverse, as are the physical designs that have evolved from wire. Examples of application and antenna type include:

• Two-way radio communication with HF whip antennas, monopoles, helix and dipole antennas.
• UHF and VHF television signal distribution with Yagi-Uda, log-periodic and grid antennas.
• GPS receivers with quadriflar helix antennas.

The basic elements in the design and deployment of wire antennas include the optimisation of the antenna radiation characteristics in isolation and the optimal placement of these antennas on the large structures where they are typically installed. Technologies are therefore required that enables:

• Rapid simulation of wire antennas of a wide frequency band.
• Visualisation of radiation patterns of the antenna in isolation.
• Evaluation of basic antenna parameters, such as S-parameters, axial ratio and gain.
• EMC and efficiency studies for the wire antenna in the environment where it will be used.
  

FEKO is ideally suited to the simulation of wire antennas in isolation and also integrated in their operational environments. The FEKO kernel is based on the Method of Moments (MoM) technique which solves for the currents on wire structures and then uses these currents to derive secondary solution parameters such as radiation patterns and input impedance.

It must be said that MoM solution is not the feature that distinguishes FEKO from other codes in the industry. The feature that distinguishes FEKO is the Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) which is an efficient implementation of MoM technology for the solution of problems involving large structures. This is an important feature when wire antennas are analysed in typical operating environments, e.g. mounted on ships, cars or aircraft.

In the case of very large geometries in proximity to the wire antenna FEKO also provides MoM hybridisation with asymptotic high frequency techniques such as Physical Options (PO) and Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD).