Synthesis of platform integrated antennas for reconfigurable radiation patterns using the theory of characteristic modes

A novel method is proposed for the synthesis of platform integrated antennas. The approach is based on the characteristic modes of the platform. Unlike traditional method that applying stochastic algorithms with full-wave simulators to find the optimal antenna placement, characteristic modes combined with the state of the art optimizer present physical insight into the currents induced on the platform and guide the engineer to quickly come up with the optimized antenna. The developed method for optimizing platform integrated antennas will find wide spread use in many applications. We demonstrate this method by a pattern reconfigurable aircraft integrated antenna design. Compared with traditional methods, the present method possesses advantages such as low computation cost, high radiation efficiency, easy to integrate antennas with platforms.