Showing posts with label dish antenna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dish antenna. Show all posts

Thursday, February 24, 2011

MEEP colormap for Matlab

I have been thinking of using the colormap used in the MEEP software (an open source FDTD code) as a nice alternative to the classical Matlab colormap. Here is the short Matlab code to generate it and the resulting images:

mincolor    = [1 0 0]; % red
mediancolor = [1 1 1]; % white   
maxcolor    = [0 0 1]; % blue      

ColorMapSize = 4;
int1 = zeros(ColorMapSize,3); 
int2 = zeros(ColorMapSize,3);
for k=1:3
    int1(:,k) = linspace(mincolor(k), mediancolor(k), ColorMapSize);
    int2(:,k) = linspace(mediancolor(k), maxcolor(k), ColorMapSize);
end
meep = [int1(1:end-1,:); int2];

colormap(meep); 
colorbar
Classical Matlab colormap (jet)
MEEP colormap with ColorMapSize 64
MEEP colormap with ColorMapSize 16
MEEP colormap with ColorMapSize 4

*Images are snapshots from the FDTD simulation of a dish antenna.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Dish Antenna Animation (Parabolic reflector)



Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation of a parabolic reflector antenna in the transmitting phase. Reflector antennas are frequency-independent antennas and they are highly directive. As long as the source is located at the focal point, the reflected field travels in the broadside direction. In this simulation, two short pulses - first one at central frequency of 100 MHz and the other at 200 MHz are fired from the focal point (VHF regime). f/D (focal length/diameter) ratio is 0.257.

Normally, the feed antenna is also chosen to be directive, but for the purpose of illustration, we have chosen a point source as the feed antenna.

Below, one can see several microwave link stations in the form of dish antennas (Photo captured in Mount Hood in Oregon around 7000 ft).



Also see below for other simulations:

Half Wavelength Dipole Antenna Radiation
Oblique Plane Wave Reflection From Half Space
Radiation from a Circularly Tapered Dielectric Waveguide
Right Hand Circular Polarization (RHCP) Animation
Linear Polarization Animation
Left Hand Elliptical Polarization (LHEP) Animation
Standing Wave Pattern (SWR) Animation
Electromagnetic Propagation of UWB Short Pulse in Random Medium