A multiport approach to modelling of phased antenna array for radio astronomy

A two-stage approach for solving a large-scale electromagnetic problem which occurs in performing multivariate analysis of phased antenna arrays of low-frequency radio telescopes is proposed. At the first stage, the antenna array is presented as an equivalent multi-port network whose parameters are obtained through solving series of electromagnetic problems of antenna array excitation. At the second stage, the multiport network parameters are used for multivariate analysis of the antenna array performance for different amplitude-phase current distributions at its inputs. A possibility of applying the NEC2 software for estimating the multiport network parameters is shown. The results of numerical calculations of the gain, directivity and efficiency of the antenna array for a low frequency radio telescope are given.