FVTD simulations of Archimedean spiral antennas on thin substrates in planar and conformal configurations

This paper demonstrates the applicability of the finite-volume time-domain (FVTD) method to the simulation of two-arm substrate-supported Archimedean spiral antennas. The FVTD method uses an unstructured tetrahedral mesh to model precisely the fine spiral structures and the thin underlying substrate. Time-domain simulation results are presented to demonstrate the substrate influence on the current distribution on the metallic spiral arms. Application of the FVTD method to conformal spiral geometries is suggested in two further examples.