Abstract:
In this paper, the efect of perfect electric conductor (PEC) as a ground plane on antenna
array is investigated. Vertical electric dipole which is of infnitesimal small length is considered as an array element. The efect of mutual coupling is neglected in this work. The
efect of PEC as a ground plane is analyzed by considering two cases in this paper. Firstly,
the array elements are kept at constant height above PEC and in second case, the array elements are kept with gradually increasing height above the ground plane. Performance of
antenna array in presence of PEC for both cases is investigated in terms of main lobe beam
width and side lobe level using array factor pattern. Side lobe level and beam width results
are compared both in presence of PEC and without PEC i.e. array in free space. It has been
observed that there is improvement in the main lobe beam width and reduction in side lobe
level when the array is used with PEC as a ground plane with elements kept at gradually
increasing height from the ground plane. In addition to this, overall directivity of the array
is also found to be increasing exponentially with height on application of ground plane in
comparison with that of antenna arrays without ground plane.
