Infinitesimal Dipole Modeling in Electromagnetic Antenna Systems

Infinitesimal dipole modeling offers a powerful means to represent complex radiating structures as a superposition of point-like electric dipoles. Each dipole, characterised by its position, orientation, amplitude and phase, generates a known analytical field solution. By optimising the parameters of a finite set of such dipoles, one can reproduce both near- and far-field patterns of arbitrary antennas with high accuracy while greatly reducing the computational burden of full-wave numerical solvers. This approach underlies a broad class of inversion and synthesis techniques: inversion algorithms extract equivalent dipole sources from measured near-field data; synthesis algorithms distribute dipoles to achieve prescribed radiation characteristics or to compensate mutual coupling in array environments. Infinitesimal dipole models facilitate rapid prototyping, allow closed-form evaluation of mutual coupling effects and support non-intrusive field reconstruction in compact measurement setups. Applications range from handset and IoT antenna design to large-scale phased arrays for 5G and satellite communications, as well as remote sensing and radar signature analysis. By blending analytical rigour with computational efficiency, dipole-based modelling continues to drive innovation in antenna engineering and electromagnetic metrology.

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Infinitesimal Dipole Modeling in Electromagnetic Antenna Systems publication trend

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Technical terms

Infinitesimal dipole: An idealised point source with an oscillating electric dipole moment used to model elementary radiation behaviour.

Dipole equivalence: Representation of a complex radiating structure by an equivalent set of infinitesimal dipoles whose combined fields reproduce measured or desired patterns.

Near-field to far-field transformation: A computational or measurement technique that converts field data recorded in the reactive or radiating near-field into the corresponding far-field radiation pattern.

Method of Moments (MoM): A numerical technique that transforms integral equations governing electromagnetic fields into a matrix equation via basis-function discretisation.

Induced EMF method: An analytical approach for computing individual antenna element patterns by evaluating the electromotive force induced by currents in neighbouring elements.

References

1. Analysis, Optimization, and Hardware Implementation of Dipole Antenna Array for Wireless Applications. International Journal of Antennas and Propagation (2022).
2. Radiation Pattern Synthesis Method of Antenna Arrays with an Arbitrary Arrangement of Radiating Elements. Proceedings of Telecommunication Universities (2022).
3. Far field reconstruction of antennas via single‐surface phaseless spherical near‐field scans: A novel approach based on dipole equivalence. Electronics Letters (2024).