How can you design linear arrays using a different axis than the xz-plane in antennaArrayDesigner?

I want to design an array of dipole antennas, but I want them to be "stacked" on top of each other, increasing in the z-direction. Even if I figure out how to change the xz-plane, I still have to make them stacked on top of each other, not just laying down horizontally. How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

[Umeshraja]

Hi @Will,

You can design an antenna array with arbitrary geometry using the 'Conformal' Array type in the Antenna Array Designer.

This allows you to place new elements by clicking the antenna and positioning it anywhere on any canvas plane (XY, YZ, ZX). And to rotate any element, update the value in 'Tilt(deg)' and 'TiltAxis' property.

You can launch the Antenna Array Designer by executing the following command:

>>antennaArrayDesigner

Also, you can start it by searching in the app section.

Alternatively, you can design programmatically using the ‘ConformalArray’ object in the Antenna Toolbox. Below is an example that demonstrates how to design an array of dipole antennas stacked vertically along the z-axis.

numDipoles = 5; 

% Spacing between dipoles (in meters)  
spacing = 0.2;  

% Frequency of operation (in Hz)  
frequency = 1e9; % 1 GHz  

% Speed of light  
c = physconst('LightSpeed');  

% Wavelength  
wavelength = c / frequency;  

% Create the dipole antenna element with specified dimensions  
dipoleElement = dipole('Length', wavelength/2, 'Width', wavelength/100);  

% Define positions of dipoles in the array  
elementPositions = zeros(3, numDipoles);  

for i = 1:numDipoles  
% Position each dipole in the z-direction  
elementPositions(:, i) = [0; 0; (i-1)*spacing];  
end  

% Create a antenna array with dipole elements  
dipoleArray = conformalArray('Element', dipoleElement, 'ElementPosition', elementPositions'); 

% Display array structure  
figure();  
show(dipoleArray);  
title('Vertically Stacked Dipole Antenna Array');  

% Radiation pattern  
figure();
pattern(dipoleArray, frequency, 'Type', 'directivity', 'CoordinateSystem', 'polar'); 
ax = gca;
margin = 0.1; % 10% top margin
ax.Position(4) = ax.Position(4) - margin;
title('Radiation Pattern'); 

Feel free to adjust the antenna parameters, such as dimensions and spacing, to meet your specific application or specifications.

For more information on using 'conformalArray', please refer to the following MATLAB Documentation

https://www.mathworks.com/help/antenna/ref/conformalarray.html?s_tid=doc_ta