Analysis of switch failures in a self-structuring antenna system

This letter considers the effects of switch failures on the performance of a self-structuring antenna (SSA) using measured standing-wave ratio (SWR) as the performance criterion. Degradation of SSA performance is categorized as minimal, intermediate, or large, depending on the amount of change in the ratio of good states to available states upon failure of a switch. A large degradation occurs when switches near the antenna feed, which control small sections of the template, fail. Degradation is much smaller when switches away from the feed fail. These results will be useful in designing more robust SSA templates through switch redundancy near the feed.