Radome design with Altair Feko
Radomes (Radar Domes) take on many different shapes. Their primary purposes are for protection of antenna and radar systems. They are usually designed to be electromagnetically transparent while in some cases they are designed to block most frequencies except a narrow band. The radome shape and transparency will depend on the application.
Radomes are used in many different domains and applications, such as for telecoms and satcom, in the automotive industry in for example driver assisted systems, in aircraft for weather radar, and many more.
In the study of electromagnetic field propagation through radomes, the TE and TM modes are studied while for circular polarization the ellipticity of the circular polarization is studied.
There are two main methods for analysis of propagation through radome layers. The first method will use infinite planes with the planar greens function. This method is computationally very efficient for characterization of materials or a combination of layers also denoted a layer "sandwich". The characterization is defined by the transmission and reflection coefficients for a layer or combined set of layers, often called a sandwich of layers. Watch the below video for a demonstration.
The second method is employed for dielectric layers that contain finite metallic cells. In this case the periodic boundary conditions are used to model a layer of infinite size but with repeating or a periodic distribution of the metallic cells . Then again the transmission and reflection coefficients are determined. This method is used primarily for frequency selective surfaces and meta-materials.
In the below video a cell of the periodic radome wall structure will be modelled and characterized using transmission and reflection coefficients. This characterized surface is then applied to the geometry of a radome and solved with the RL-GO solver. Inside the radome a Vivaldi antenna is modelled as an equivalent source.
Radome performance analysis can be performed with Feko’s built-in scripting capabilities. The RTCA/DO213 standard specifies minimum operational performance standards for nose-mounted radomes. Watch the below video for a brief introduction.
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