Navigation antenna on Galileo satellite.
Electrical surface currents on airframes
Typical slot antenna for aircraft communications

Problem Description

The limited space and environmental conditions of space borne antennas require very special antenna designs and careful deployment from an interference and radiation pattern point of view. The aerospace industry has traditionally been one of the main driving forces behind measurement ranges and simulations to characterize antennas on aircraft, satellites etc. Typical issues of concern are:

• Design of space and aircraft antennas
  
• Radiation pattern analysis of communication antennas on platforms (V/UHF, IFF, Inmarsat)
  
• Pattern distortion of high gain/high frequency antennas (Radar, Electronic Warfare EW) due to shielding by adjacent structures
  
• EMC (Antenna coupling, shielding, cable coupling)
  

FEKO Solution

FEKO can be used to solve the following problems

• Antenna Design:
• • Wire and "blade" antennas.
    
  • Complex smaller antennas (e.g. cavity backed spiral, conformal antennas and antennas containing dielectrics.)
  • Antenna Arrays (dipole or planar microstrip antennas.)
  • Reflector antenna
  • Radomes
    
• Electrical Size considerations for Antenna Placement analysis:
  
• • Medium sized (e.g. V/UHF communication antennas) problems are solved using the MoM.
  • Large (e.g. 1-3 GHz antennas on a platform) problems are typically solved using the MLFMM.
    
  • Huge (X-band and higher) problems require either the MoM/UTD (where platform can be represented by flat polygonal plates) or MoM/PO.