Comparison of various spherical antenna array element distributions

The number of the elements and the determination of how to distribute these elements are two of the most basic parameters that affect the operation and the characteristics of an antenna array. The decision of a suitable array element distribution for a spherical antenna array is not a straight-forward problem. In this paper, various antenna element distributions are presented for a spherical array antenna. Specifically, three different distributions are investigated (the t-design/quasi-uniform distribution, the Leopardi´s algorithm distribution and the spiral distribution). The proposed distributions are also modelled and simulated in MatLab in order to compare their results. The discussion in this paper presents the advantages and the disadvantages of each distribution and places special emphasis on the design and fabrication efficiency.