Mechanical Antenna Simulations via FDTD to Characterize Mutual Depolarization

Antenna miniaturization is currently facing increased performance demands while simultaneously lacking a computational framework to drive robust designs. Future platforms must radiate farther, at lower frequency, and be increasingly compact. While mechanical resonance based piezoelectric antenna arrays are a viable candidate, detrimental mutual depolarization effects arise that must be characterized by multi-scale simulations, coupling the elastodynamic and EM wave physics. This work presents an algorithm capable of performing such full-wave simulations to provide design guidance to engineers wishing to mitigate mutual depolarization. The relevant dynamic systems of equations are discretized and put into a Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) scheme. This scheme exhibits electrodynamic unconditional stability and features heavily graded meshes to directly tackle the time and length scale disparity between the mechanical and EM waves. The algorithm was validated by comparison with experimental data and analytical solutions. Additionally, the algorithm compared well with predicted values for depolarization. Simulations demonstrated that spacing within piezoelectric antenna arrays should not be made too small, as to induce undue mutual depolarization, or too large, as to not allow sufficient elements to contribute to array dipole moment. Computational guidance is also provided based on the authors’ own experiences.