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matlab-analyze-antenna-structures

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Updated 10-16 03:04

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Antenna Structure Design and Analysis

Design, analyze, and visualize electrically large antenna structures — reflector antennas, reflectarrays/RIS, platform-installed antennas, and radar cross section — using MATLAB Antenna Toolbox with appropriate EM solvers for each problem class.

When to Use

Reflector antennas

  • Design a parabolic dish, satellite dish, or prime-focus reflector
  • Design a Cassegrain or Gregorian dual-reflector system
  • Design an offset-fed reflector (no blockage)
  • Design a corner reflector, cylindrical or spherical reflector
  • Use reflectorCalculator for trade studies
  • Import custom reflector geometry from STL files

Reflectarrays and RIS

  • Design a reflectarray antenna with unit cell phase control
  • Design a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) with quantized phases
  • Characterize unit cell reflection phase (S-curve)
  • Synthesize an aperture phase distribution for beam steering
  • Verify pattern via pattern multiplication

Installed antennas on platforms

  • Mount an antenna on a vehicle, aircraft, ship, satellite, or large structure
  • Analyze installed antenna patterns, coupling, or efficiency
  • Load platform geometry from STL/STEP/IGES files
  • Generate platform geometry programmatically

Radar cross section

  • Compute monostatic or bistatic RCS
  • Analyze RCS of a platform, antenna, or array
  • Compare RCS across polarizations (HH, VV, HV, VH)
  • Compute RCS of a dielectric target

When NOT to Use

  • Designing standalone antenna elements or arrays (no platform) — use matlab-design-antenna
  • Optimizing antenna dimensions with SADEA/TR-SADEA — use matlab-design-antenna
  • Impedance matching, measured antenna objects, RF propagation, or SAR — use matlab-integrate-antenna
  • A flat reflector backing a dipole — use matlab-design-antenna (catalog element)

Must-Follow Rules

Reflectors

  • Set Exciter BEFORE design() — design(obj, freq) takes two arguments only for reflectors
  • cavity is NOT a valid exciter — it will error
  • reflectorCorner and reflectorCylindrical have no SolverType property — always MoM
  • Array as exciter: design the array first, assign to Exciter, do NOT call design() on reflector afterward

Reflectarrays

  • infiniteArray only supports pcbStack with exactly 3 layers (metal-dielectric-metal)
  • Set BoardThickness before Layers on pcbStack — order matters
  • Feed offset: Use [Lp/4, 0, 1, 3] — not [0 0 1 3]
  • Always unwrap phase with unwrap() and normalize magnitude (peak = 1)
  • Pattern multiplication adds dB — element pattern (dB) + array factor (dB), NOT linear multiplication

Installed Antennas

  • installedAntenna only supports pure metal antennas — no dielectric substrates
  • Platform Units must be explicit — defaults to "mm" but ElementPosition is always in meters
  • Set ElementPosition before Element for multi-element setups
  • Always mesh explicitly before analysis — uncontrolled density causes inaccurate results

RCS

  • One of azimuth or elevation must be scalar for monostatic sweeps
  • Dielectric targets require FMM solver — PO and MoM will error
  • UseFileAsMesh = true required for dielectric .mat files
  • PO fails at grazing incidence — returns artificially low values (~-250 dBsm)

Solver Selection (All Workflows)

  • Default: MoM-PO for installed/reflectors, PO for RCS
  • Use FMM for: closed bodies, concave features, dielectric targets
  • Verify FMM convergence with solver() then convergence() after analysis
  • Mesh density: lambda/10 for MoM/FMM, lambda/6 for MoM-PO, default for PO

Workflow

1. Reflector Antenna Design

  1. Parse — Identify reflector type, frequency, exciter, f/D ratio, constraints
  2. Create — Set exciter first (if non-default), then call design(obj, freq)
  3. Customize — Adjust Radius, FocalLength, FeedOffset for custom f/D
  4. Analyze — Pattern, gain, beamwidth, impedance
  5. Report — Key metrics with units, f/D ratio, aperture in wavelengths

For trade studies, use reflectorCalculator first (instant), then createAntenna for full-wave.

2. Reflectarray / RIS Design

  1. Design unit cell — Parameterized pcbStack (3 layers) with variable patch size
  2. Characterize S-curve — Sweep patch size via planeWaveExcitation + infiniteArray + EHfields
  3. Synthesize aperture phase — Compute required phase (path delay + beam steering gradient)
  4. Map phase to geometry — Invert S-curve via interpolation; quantize for RIS
  5. Build geometry — conformalArray with unique elements at each position
  6. Verify pattern — Element pattern + array factor via patternCustom

3. Installed Antenna Analysis

  1. Create platform — Load from STL/STEP/IGES or generate programmatically
  2. Install element(s) — Set Platform, ElementPosition, Element, SolverType
  3. Mesh — mesh(ant, MaxEdgeLength=lambda/N) per solver guidelines
  4. Analyze — Pattern, impedance, S-parameters (coupling), efficiency
  5. Report — Metrics with units; verify FMM convergence if used

4. RCS Analysis

  1. Create target — Load platform from file or use antenna/array object directly
  2. Select solver — PO (default, fast), MoM (small, accurate), FMM (dielectric/concave)
  3. Compute — rcs(obj, freq, az, el, Polarization=..., Solver=...)
  4. Report — Peak RCS (dBsm), angular location, polarization

Key Classes

Class Purpose
reflectorParabolic Prime-focus parabolic dish
cassegrain / gregorian Symmetric dual-reflector systems
cassegrainOffset / gregorianOffset Offset dual-reflector (no blockage)
reflectorCorner Corner reflector (90/60/45 deg)
reflectorCylindrical / reflectorSpherical Fan-beam / wide-scan reflectors
customDualReflectors Custom STL reflector surfaces
reflectorCalculator Gaussian-beam analytical design (R2026a)
installedAntenna Antenna mounted on conducting platform
platform 3D geometry loader (STL/STEP/IGES)
infiniteArray Periodic boundary conditions for unit cells
planeWaveExcitation Plane wave illumination for S-curve/RCS
conformalArray Arbitrary element positions (reflectarray geometry)
pcbStack Unit cell structure (3-layer for reflectarrays)
rcs Radar cross section function

Conventions

Coding Standards

  • 4-space indentation, lowerCamelCase variables, UpperCamelCase Name-Value args
  • "double quotes" for strings, fprintf for formatted output
  • Do not add titles to Antenna Toolbox plots (show, pattern, rcs auto-plot)
  • Do add titles to manual plot, imagesc, subplot, and TitleTop to polarpattern
  • Show all plots in separate figures. Include units in all output.

Script-First Workflow

For design, analysis, or sweep tasks — write code to .m files, run via run_matlab_file, iterate by editing and re-running. Use inline evaluate_matlab_code for quick one-off checks.

References

Load when... Reference
Designing any reflector antenna (parabolic, dual, corner, custom STL) references/reflector-antennas.md
Designing a reflectarray or RIS (unit cells, S-curve, phase synthesis) references/reflectarrays.md
Installing antennas on platforms (STL loading, multi-element, conformalArray workaround) references/installed-antennas.md
Computing monostatic/bistatic RCS (polarization, dielectric targets, GPU) references/rcs-analysis.md
Choosing between MoM-PO, PO, MoM, FMM for any application references/solver-selection.md

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