Effect of parasitic elements on spherical probe-fed antennas

Theory and experiment of a spherical probe-fed conformal antenna with a parasitic element mounted on a spherical multilayer structure are presented in this paper. Linear Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) triangular basis functions are applied in MPIE formulation. Current distributions on coaxial probe and conformal radiating elements are computed by using spatial domain Dyadic Green's Function (DGF) and its asymptotic approximation. A prototype of such an antenna is fabricated and tested. The effect of the parasitic element on the input impedance and radiation patterns of the antenna is investigated. It is shown that the antenna characteristics are improved significantly with the presence of the conducting parasitic element. Good agreement is achieved between the results obtained from the proposed methods and the measurement results.