A Non-Uniform Travelling-Wave Current Source Model for Designing OAM Antenna: Theory, Analysis and Application

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has become a research hotspot in radar, communication, and other fields because of its spatial spiral phase distribution in azimuthal domain. However, it encounters some problems in practical application scenarios owing to its inherent defects. Recently, several particular OAM waves and novel antenna structures have been proposed to make up for its defects or optimize its characteristics. However, there lack a universal and systematic theoretical analysis for these schemes. In this paper, the non-uniform travelling-wave current source (NTCS) model for OAM generation is proposed. This model is universal and suitable to be applied to many proposed antennas. The far field pattern and OAM spectrum distribution are theoretically derived based on the uniform travelling-wave source model. Bridged by the OAM spectrum analysis, an application-oriented antenna design process is presented. A PSOAM MG antenna optimal for the MIMO system is designed as an example. This work not only unifies the generation model of different OAM waves, but also provides a new view for the OAM based antenna design.