MODSAR: A Computational Tools for Modelling and Analysis of Array Antennas

Array antennas are frequently used on Communication Systems to attend a particular characteristic of gain, directivity, and radiation pattern. Array antennas are special useful when it is not possible to achieve a desired operating condition with a single-element antenna. The parameters of an array antenna as number of elements, element separation, size of elements, phase and magnitude of excitation currents have a strong influence over the resulting radiation pattern. Modeling and simulation of array antennas involving these parameters is a hard task due to the complexity of mathematical solution. Advanced knowledge in electromagnetic waves theory for time variant fields are necessary to obtain the total field provide by an array in a far-field region. The MODSAR project (Modeling and Simulation of Array Antennas) was created to provide a simple computational environment for modeling and simulation of array antennas with results showed by means of graphical interfaces. The aim of this paper is to show the main features of MODSAR program and its application on studies and researches of array antennas.