A synthesis technique for radiation patterns due to conformal antenna arrays on PEC circular cylinders of finite length

In this paper, the effects of platform geometry on the synthesis of an array of conformal antennas is investigated using an array of 9 microstrip patch antennas mounted on a truncated PEC circular cylinder. It is seen that for such a platform it can not be assumed that all of the array elements have the same individual radiation patterns, but instead their patterns are greatly dependent on the platform geometry. Under these conditions, pattern multiplication can not be used, nor can a progressive phase shift be used to steer the main lobe of such an array. A nonprogressive phasing and/or a nonuniform amplitude tapering is suggested to compensate for many of the problems associated with designing this type of array.