V. P. Kudin1, I. A. Fanyaev2
1 Sukhoi State Technical University of Gomel (Gomel, Republic of Belarus)
2 Francisk Skorina Gomel State University (Gomel, Republic of Belarus)

1 vkudzin@mail.ru, 2 Fanyaev@gmail.com

In recent years, the number of works on the method of characteristic modes and problems solved with its help has increased significantly, which indicates an awareness of its potential and, in connection with this, a growing interest in this approach. The attractiveness of this method lies in the fact that it provides a clear physical picture of the occurring phenomena and the ensuing opportunity to build on this basis methods for creating structures with the required parameters and combating undesirable phenomena. Unfortunately, in the Russian-speaking segment of applied electrodynamics, very few researchers are engaged in the development and application of the approach under consideration. The purpose of this work is to increase the interest of Russian-speaking researchers in the method of characteristic modes. A review of publications devoted to the method of characteristic modes, both early, fundamental and already classic, associated with the names of R.J. Garbacz and R.F. Harrington, and those which have appeared in recent years and offer generalizations of the method for various electrodynamic structures, has been carried out. This includes composite structures consisting of a set of metal and dielectric bodies of various configurations. In addition, variants of the method for antenna arrays of both infinite periodic and finite sizes have been considered. Issues related to modal tracking problems, orthogonal properties of characteristic modes and improving the convergence of solutions have been considered. Much attention is paid to works containing solutions to specific practical electrodynamic problems using the method of characteristic modes. The works have been shown, in which simple and effective approaches based on the method of characteristic modes are given for the design of a ship's HF antenna system, on-board aircraft antennas in the short-wave region, antennas placed on the platform of a battle tank, and the concept of designing an antenna for an electrically small-unmanned aerial vehicle has been presented. Options for solving the problem of reducing the mutual coupling of elements in antenna arrays have been shown. Attention is paid to MIMO antennas, antennas for smartphones, systems with specified radiation zeros, antennas using metasurfaces. According to the authors, the characteristic mode method, taking into account the increasing possibilities of its application, will make it possible to take the next step in the development, analysis or synthesis of new antenna structures that meet ever-increasing modern requirements.

Kudin V.P., Fanyaev I.A. Method of characteristic modes. Antennas. 2024. № 3. P. 7–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18127/j03209601-202403-02 (in Russian)

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