Reconstruction and visualization of equivalent currents on a radome using an integral representation formulation

In this paper an inverse source problem is investigated. The measurement set-up is a reflector antenna covered by a radome. Equivalent currents are reconstructed on a surface shaped as the radome in order to diagnose the radome's interaction with the radiated field. To tackle this inverse source problem an analysis of a full-wave integral representation, with the equivalent currents as unknowns, is used. The extinction theorem and its associated integral equation ensure that the reconstructed currents represent sources within the radome. The axially symmetric experimental set-up reduces the computational complexity of the problem. The resulting linear system is inverted by using a singular value decomposition. We visualize how the presence of the radome alters the components of the equivalent currents. The method enables us to determine the phase shift of the field due to the transmission of the radome, i.e., the IPD (insertion phase delay). Also, disturbances due to defects, not observable in the measured near field, are localized in the equivalent currents.