Analysis of printed array antennas

A simple but efficient analysis tool for printed antenna arrays is presented. It relies on a perturbation approach, which starts from the infinite periodic array assumption to ultimately take into account effects due to finite size, nonperiodicity, double-periodicity in a multilayer case, complex excitation with nonlinear phase shifts between elements, etc. The technique is an approximation, as are most of the array analysis tools. However, it gives good results for arrays presenting a relatively smooth variation of the antenna characteristics between adjacent cells. Results will be shown for several arrays, including nonperiodic and multilayered cases. The method is validated through the comparison with results obtained by a rigorous element-by-element method.