An Efficient and Versatile Conformal Aperture Inverse Design Framework Based on IDMBSA

Conformal aperture inverse design faces significant challenges in computational efficiency and applicability due to its inherent curved geometry complexity. This article proposes an efficient and versatile conformal aperture inverse design framework that transforms the complex conformal inverse design problem into a more tractable planar aperture synthesis through the equivalence principle, thus significantly reducing problem dimensionality and computational complexity. The framework’s innovation lies in its ability to inverse design tangential field distributions on curved surfaces to achieve desired radiation patterns, providing unprecedented design flexibility for conformal apertures with broad implementation possibilities. Any antenna element that maintains acceptable performance under conformal conditions can be integrated into this framework, and it can potentially be extended to other implementations such as metasurfaces and transmitarrays, providing designers with extensive flexibility in practical applications. The feasibility of the proposed framework is thoroughly validated through theoretical analysis, full-wave simulations, and experimental measurements of a prototype conformal sparse array. The results demonstrate its potential for practical applications in aerospace and other fields requiring conformal antenna designs.