Truncation effects in connected arrays: Analytical models to describe the edge-induced wave phenomena

This paper presents a Green´s function based procedure to assess edge effects in finite wideband connected arrays. Truncation effects are more severe in broadband arrays, since the inter-element mutual coupling facilitates the propagation of edge-born waves that can become dominant over large portions of the arrays. As a consequence, the overall behavior of a finite wide band array can be dramatically different with respect to the designs based on infinite array analysis. Here, we first rigorously derive the electric current distribution on the finite connected array with an efficient numerical solution. Later on, the introduction of a few simplifying assumptions allows the derivation of an analytical approximation for the current distribution. This latter provides meaningful insights in the induced dominant edge-wave phenomena.