Electromagnetic characteristics of superquadric wire loop antennas

The analysis of antenna configurations in the form of a generalized superquadric loop, which includes circular, elliptical and rectangular loop geometries, is presented in this paper. Use of a Galerkin form of the moment method with piecewise sinusoidal subsectional basis and testing functions provides rapid numerical convergence and accurate representation of the antenna current. A convenient parametric representation for the superquadric curve is developed to allow a subsectional formulation using curved wire segments, rather than the commonly employed piecewise linear segments, to construct the geometry. Both magnetic frill and delta gap source models are implemented to allow a detailed study of input impedance, directivity, radiation pattern and current distribution as a function of various geometrical parameters. The results are shown to compare well with previous results for the special case of a circular loop antenna. Some useful curves are presented to aid in the design of practical superquadric loop antennas.>