Antenna and Array Technologies for Future Wireless Ecosystems

Chapter 8Contemporary Array Analysis Using Embedded Element Patterns

David B. Davidson¹ and Karl F. Warnick²

¹Curtin University, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Perth, WA, Australia

²Brigham Young University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Provo, UT, USA

8.1 Introduction

Antenna arrays have a long history, dating back over a century. They are becoming ever more important in communications and other applications. The German physicist Karl Ferdinand Baum constructed a three element, switchable array in 1909. The demands of especially radar during WWII saw the deployment of a large number of RF and microwave systems using antenna arrays. Terrestrial TV transmissions (both the older analogue and the newer digital standards) routinely use the Yagi‐Uda or log‐periodic arrays, or variants thereof. Antenna arrays are core components of mobile communication base stations. Fifth generation (5G) systems and beyond will increasingly use beamforming for diversity gain, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications, null steering, and interference reduction.

Much of the design work in these areas has been done using the classical array theory found in most antenna textbooks, for example [1–4]. Fundamental to this approach is that the array pattern is the product of an array factor and the radiation pattern of an individual element. The array factor and isolated element pattern decomposition has allowed the development of some powerful and elegant ...