Figure 2. This Periodic Array of four random subarrays would offer sidelobe performance approaching that of a fully random array of the same size, but would cost less than does the random array.

The software used to perform the computational simulations implements a marching-on-time, method-ofmoments algorithm for solving a timedomain electric-field integral equation of an antenna. Given a band-limited excitation, the algorithm solves for surface currents induced on the radiating element and the ground plane. For a geometry modeled by use of N_s surface unknowns and N_t time steps, the number of arithmetic operations required by the algorithm scales as O(N_tN²_s {where “O(x)” signifies “of the order of x”}. The algorithm can be augmented by use of a parallel-processing fast-Fourier-transform (FFT)-based accelerator, reducing the number of arithmetic operations to O(N_tN_s[log(N_s)]²). The software employs a standard message-passing interface for communication among processors and utilizes the Fastest Fourier Transform in the West (FFTW) library [a publicly available subroutine library for computation of parallel FFTs]. This software makes it possible to analyze the broadband characteristics of antennas characterized by N_s >10⁵, using supercomputers comprising tens of processors, in practical amounts of time.

This work was done by Jennifer T. Bernhard, Paul E. Mayes, Eric Michielssen, Garvin Cung, and Kiersten Kerby of the University of Illinois for the Army Research Laboratory. For more information, download the Technical Support Package (free white paper) at www.defensetechbriefs.com/tsp under the Electronics/Computers category. ARL-0011

This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).

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