The Method of Moments: A Numerical Technique for Wire Antenna Design
High Frequency Electronics
The Method of Moments tech-nique, as applied to problems in electromag-netic theory, was intro-duced by Roger F.Harrington in his 1967 seminal paper, “Matrix Methods for Field Problems” [1]. The implementation of the Method of Moments, by Poggio and Burke at Lawrence Livermore National Labs during the 1970s, established this solution technique as a mainstay in the design of wire and wire array antennas. This tutorial reviews the Method of Moments (MoM) from a practicing RF engi-neer’s perspective, with a view to providing understanding of its foundations, as opposed to rigorous mathematical exposition. The dis-cussion begins with the formulation of Pocklington’s integral equation, an integral equation commonly used for wire antenna problems. The solution to Pocklington’s equa-tion, using the MoM, is then explained. The integral equation solution yields the current distribution on the wire which, in turn, is used to calculate the antenna’s radiation character-istics and feed point impedance.
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