Abstract

A method is proposed to directly compare a volumetric figure of merit for a variety of antenna designs. This construction, a two-point polar metric dubbed the A-B parameter, is built from a number of commonly used antenna benchmarks and assists in the selection of the most effective antenna in a volumetrically constrained design space. Various methods of generating the parameter and effectively visualizing the result are discussed. In addition, a comparative analysis between this method and a single-valued efficiency metric derived from this parameter is highlighted, along with a comparison to recent similar efforts. Additional complications of antenna types and methods of calculating gain, bandwidth, and physical parameters are noted, and the methods are shown to take these complications into account. Finally, the benefits and limitations of this method are explored, and it is shown that this method can be a promising way in which to analyze the comparative effectiveness of antenna designs function under volumetric constraints.