Mutual coupling analysis between apertures embedded in a finite ground plane

It is noted that many clusters are built (or could be modeled) with their horn apertures embedded in a finite metallic plane. A quite general method to describe the cluster radiated fields is presented. The proposed method uses either the electric field model or Chu´s model and adds the rays diffracted by the metallic plane edge to calculate the modal aperture excitations and radiation field patterns. A horn cluster analysis procedure is developed taking into account the finite aperture plane. The results obtained using cylindrical horns are shown to provide a better prediction (mainly over crosspolar fields) than that obtained with a simple model without the use of the geometrical theory of diffraction