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How can a parabolic dish aperture be modeled using a dipole distribution for simulation purposes?

I am studying parabolic dish antennas and want to simulate their radiation pattern efficiently.
Direct full-wave simulation of large reflectors is computationally expensive, so I’ve seen references to dipole-array modeling.
I want to know how to distribute dipoles across the aperture to approximate the dish’s behavior accurately.

All Answers (1 Answers In All)

By Asif Aslam Answered 1 year ago

From my experience, modeling a parabolic dish with a dipole distribution is a practical way to reduce computational load while capturing far-field behavior. I have seen designers place dipoles on a grid corresponding to the aperture surface, assigning amplitudes and phases that match the parabolic phase profile. I would recommend carefully spacing dipoles to sample the aperture adequately without aliasing—usually at λ/2 or finer—and including tapering if the dish has illumination shading. In practice, this method gives a close approximation of main beam, sidelobes, and beamwidth, allowing iterative design without full-scale full-wave simulation.

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