Simulation of SatCom Radome in Ku/Ka Bands

Numerical simulation of SatCom radome performance in Ku/Ka bands is a highly relevant topic, especially with the development of Flat Panel Active Antennas and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mega-constellations. A typical SatCom radome consists of a complex stack of dielectric layers with various refractive indices and thicknesses, which may be very small compared to the wavelength. Multilayer stacks are first optimised using 1D models of infinite flat layers with far-field assumptions. Accounting for such stacks in a 3D radome structure is very challenging for numerical methods due to the scale differences between the size of the radome (in meters), the wavelength (in centimeters), and layer thicknesses (from a few microns to several millimeters). This results in the resolution of very large, ill-conditioned linear systems. We have chosen a Boundary Element Method (BEM) with an H-matrix solver using a domain decomposition approach. The method has been validated numerically, and a study on a real radome shows excellent agreement with experimental measurements.