Study of corner reflector antenna using FDTD

The corner reflector antenna consists of two flat conducting plates which meet at an angle to form a corner. It is fed by a dipole, and is used in situations where a moderate gain is required from a simple antenna, particularly at UHF and low microwave frequencies. An array of corner reflector antennas can be used as a base station antenna in mobile communication systems. The antenna was invented over fifty years ago but the number of publications has remained small and most design information relies on experimental studies. Theoretically modelling is difficult due to it being a few wavelengths in size. This paper shows that the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is a good technique for studying the corner reflector antenna with finite length reflecting plates. The accuracy of the FDTD modelling has been verified by comparison with other numerical techniques and by experimental measurements. A parametric study is reported showing how the geometric parameters and the length of the reflecting plates influence the radiation characteristics.