Combining Measurements and Simulations for Antenna Coupling Analysis

In numerical simulation of antenna problems, accuracy of antenna representations is essential to ensure the reliability of results. Integration of measured Near Field (NF) representation of antenna in Computational Electromagnetic (CEM) solvers opens new perspectives to solve this problem. This approach has been already studied for complex and/or large scenarios, antenna placement, scattering problems and EMC applications. Another interesting use of the combination between measurement and simulation is to enhance the evaluation of the antenna coupling. Previous investigations have been carried out on an H/V polarized array of three identical cavity-backed cross-dipole antennas. In that study only the radiation pattern of the central element of the array was measured (in a stand-alone configuration), while the other elements were simulated. A good agreement was found between the measured mutual S parameters on the real array and results obtained by the combination between measurement and simulations. In this paper a continuation of the previous study will be performed, exploring both an enhancement of the representation of the NF source by inclusion of placement boundary conditions and the use of measured NF source models to represent the other elements of the array, not only the central one.