A Method to Improve the Radiation Patterns of the Base-Station Sector Antenna for Mobile Communications by Adding Scattering Structures on the Front Panel of the Antenna

A finite difference time domain software package, called XFDTD, is applied to study the characteristics of the base-station sector antennas for mobile communications. The XFDTD simulation software was employed to design several different metal structures for the scattering surfaces, located on the front panels of the base-station antennas. Without varying the appearance and dimensions of the antennas, the scattering surfaces can improve the antenna radiation patterns, such as lowering the level of the back lobe, reducing the field intensity in regions not to be covered, and decreasing the beamwidth of the antenna in the horizontal plane. Thus, cochannel and adjacent-channel interferences can be mitigated and antenna performance may be improved