Hybrid FEM/Floquet Modes/PO Technique for Multi-Incidence RCS Prediction of Array Antennas

An original method is proposed which associates rigorous 3D finite element methods (FEM) with Floquet modes through FACTOPO multidomain formalism for computing the radar cross section (RCS) of large array antennas. The most original aspect of the method is the fact that the source unit cell is characterized by a generalized scattering matrix (GSM) which does not depend on the plane wave incidence impinging the structure. Consequently, the factorization step of the FEM matrix, which is the main computational effort, is performed only once. The assembling procedure consists then in expressing the FEM GSM matrix in the Floquet mode basis for each incidence and to solve a linear system giving the complex amplitude of the Floquet modes on the array/cell interface. Associated with this formalism, lateral and back structure effects can be treated using physical optics (PO) combined with the equivalent current method (ECM) to improve the accuracy for far broadside incidence.