6574 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 67, NO.
10, OCTOBER 2019
General Diffraction Mechanism Interpretation of
Electromagnetic Transient Scattering From
Large Scatterers by Time-Domain
Aperture Integration Technique
Hsi-Tseng Chou , Fellow, IEEE
Abstract— The diffraction mechanisms of electromag-
netic (EM) transient scattering from large scatterers are
examined by applying a general time-domain aperture
integration (TD-AI) technique when the scatterer is illuminated
by an incident EM field. This incident field exhibits a transient-
step field response and can be the radiation from a relatively
arbitrary EM source located at any place. The mechanism
is interpreted by considering an equal time-delay curved
aperture (ETDCA) where a set of EM equivalent current
sources are defined to radiate the scattering field. The transient
responses at any instant time are then found by considering the
effects of equal net time-delay in propagation when the incident
wave propagates to the field point via EM scattering from the
scatterer. A contributing contour in the radiation integral of the
equivalent currents define on the ETDCA by its intersection
with a time-varying equal path-length sphere defined by the field
point is therefore extracted to reduce the surface integral into
a line one. The characteristics of this contributing contour are
employed to interpret the EM scattering mechanisms. Practical
numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity
and feasibility of this general TD-AI technique.
Index Terms— Aperture integration (AI) technique, diffraction
mechanism, electromagnetic (EM) scattering, time-domain (TD)
EM, transient analysis.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A GENERAL time-domain (TD) quasi-analytical transient
analysis of electromagnetic (EM) scattering from a large
scatterer with smoothly varying surface curvatures is examined
by applying the time-domain aperture integration (TD-AI)
technique [1]–[5] when it is illuminated by an incident EM
wave. In particular, practical interpretation of transient dif-
fraction mechanisms [1], [2], [6]–[18] is developed to explain
the physical phenomena of EM scattering. It is based on a
determination of contributing contour to integrate the radia-
tion integral of induced currents on the preselected aperture
in TD-AI technique, analogous to that of the time-domain
physical optics (TD-PO) approach [6]–[9], [19]–[25] in which
Manuscript received November 18, 2018; revised April 30, 2019; accepted
May 25, 2019. Date of publication June 6, 2019; date of current version
October 4, 2019. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and
Technology, Taiwan.
The author is with the Graduate Institute of Communication Engineer-
ing, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (e-mail: chouht@
ntu.edu.tw).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2019.2920323
0018-926X © 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
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a contributing contour of integration is defined on the surface
of the scatterer. Various diffraction mechanisms, including
reflection and truncation diffraction, can be well explained
in TD by considering the characteristics of this contributing
contour.
This work serves as a complement to the past works of
transient analysis of EM scattering from large structures and
makes the TD theoretical solutions [1]–[25] more complete.
It is particularly useful to treat the scattering structure with
concave surface curvatures, which is beneficial to define an
equivalent aperture with a finite boundary and define a set of
equivalent currents on it to radiate the EM scattering fields.
Potential applications include the designs of various reflector
antennas to radiate focus beams in realistic applications of
ultra-wideband or short-pulse antenna systems for target iden-
tification and remote sensing, such as in the design of impulse-
radiating antennas (IRAs) [26]–[28]. Recently applications of
near-field focused radiations for RFID [29], the detections
of vital signal and underground objects [30], or noncontact
microwave inspection system [31], [32] have also attracted
increasing interest to use reflector antennas because of its
nature to focus the scattering field in the near zone of antenna.
In addition, the presented works may also be applied to
the general analysis of EM scattering from large objects as
interested in the target identification.
This TD-AI technique allows the advantages of conven-
tional frequency-domain (FD) AI technique directly imple-
mented to find the transient responses in TD, which in
conjunction with TD-PO may compensate the shortcomings
and drawbacks of various conventional quasi-analytical TD
techniques. In particular, EM numerical techniques of finite-
difference time-domain (FDTD) and TD integral approaches
are not only numerically intensive but also short of mech-
anisms to explain the physical phenomena of EM scatter-
ing. On the other hand, high-frequency-based quasi-analytical
approximations, including TD uniform geometrical theory
of diffraction (TD-UTD) [13]–[16], [33], [34] and physical
theory of diffraction (TD-PTD) [17] appear shortcomings in
the analysis of reflector antennas because of the existence
of singularity in the vicinity of ray caustics. Similar to
the abovementioned high-frequency approximation-based TD
solutions [6]–[9], [13]–[16], [33], [34] this TD-AI solution is
valid for early- to intermediate-time response estimation.
 CHOU: GENERAL DIFFRACTION MECHANISM INTERPRETATION OF EM TRANSIENT SCATTERING 6575

This TD-AI has been successfully employed to analyze

the transient radiation of reflector antennas in the near- and
far-field focus applications [1], [2]. In this paper, we further
develop the generalization of TD-AI technique to treat the EM
scattering from a relatively general scatterer with smoothly
varying surface curvatures, including dielectric scatterers.
In this TD-AI technique, an aperture external to the scatterer
is defined, on which a set of equivalent currents are defined by
using an approximation of geometrical optics (GO) ray tracing
techniques [35]. This set of equivalent currents radiates the EM
scattering fields via the computation of radiation integral.
The physical interpretation of scattering mechanisms starts
with the definition of equivalent aperture, which exhibits
equal-phase characteristics in FD or equal time-delay from
the EM source in TD. This aperture is referred to an equal
time-delay curved aperture (ETDCA). In addition, a time-
varying equal path-length (TEPL) surface [36] is afterward
defined for the field point. It appears that the intersection of
these two surfaces results in a contributing contour that makes
the net time delay from the EM source to the field point
via the aperture equal for all propagation paths. It is noted
that the evaluation of the radiation integral over the ETDCA
surface integration may be reduced to a line contour integra-
tion. As a result, the scattering mechanism can be interpreted
by the formation and characteristics of this contributing con-
tour. Consequently, the evaluation of the radiation integral can
be significantly simplified. Fig. 1. Illustration of AI technique to define equivalent apertures and their
This paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the fields found by GO ray tracing technique, where the scenarios of conducting
and dielectric bodies are shown in (a) and (b), respectively. ISB, RSB, and
theoretical foundation of this TD-AI technique. Characteristic TSB indicate the incident, reflected, and transmitted field shadow boundaries,
discussion of scattering mechanisms is presented in Section III. respectively. The aperture is defined by Sa = Slit and Sa = Slit + Ssha in
Reduction of radiation surface integral as well as its treatment (a) and (b), respectively. (a) Conducting scatterer. (b) Dielectric scatterer.
of special field points are presented in Section IV. Numerical
examples to demonstrate the characteristics are shown in where Z 0 is the free space impedance, and U (·) is the
Section V. Concluding remarks are discussed in Section VI. Heaviside step function defined by
 
1, ξ ≥ 0
II. T HEORETICAL D EVELOPMENT OF A PERTURE U (ξ ) = . (2)
0, ξ < 0
I NTEGRATION T ECHNIQUE -BASED
T RANSIENT A NALYSIS In (1), ti is a time reference of the incident field response, and
A. Equivalent Currents on an Aperture Surface ˆ0 is the propagation direction. Also, Ḡ(r̄ ) is the amplitude
in TD-AI Technique of ε̄i (r̄) excluding the time variation. In this case, the FD
counterpart is given by
Consider scattering bodies in Fig. 1, where conducting and
dielectric bodies are shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b), respectively, Ḡ(r̄ ) − s0
Ē i (r̄ , s) = e v (3)
which are illuminated by an incident EM field, ( Ē i , H̄i ) s
with a transient-step field response. Fig. 1(a) shows that a where s = j ω with ω being the angular frequency, and 0 =
part of the conducting body is assumingly concave to better vti with v being the speed of light.
illustrate the finite aperture boundary to define equivalent It is noted that if the incident wave is the field radiated in
currents. The equivalent aperture can be defined by the GO free space from an antenna located at r̄ F (denoted by Q F ),
ray tracing by using the reflected and transmitted rays. The it can be expressed by
boundaries of aperture are then determined by the shadow  r 
boundaries of the incident, reflection, and transmission, as U t − νf
ε̄ f (r̄ f , t) = F̄ f (θ f , φ f ) (4)
illustrated in Fig. 1(a) and (b). In this TD-AI technique, the rf
transient responses of the incident field in free space are
expressed by where F̄(θ f , φ f ) is the pattern function and is assumed to
⎧ be independent of time. In (4), (r f , θ f , φ f ) is expressed in
⎨ε̄i (r̄ , t) = Ḡ(r̄ )U (t − ti ) the spherical coordinate system of an antenna. In this case,
⎩H̄ i (r̄ , t) =
1 ˆ (1) ti = r f /v where r f is measured from the phase center
0 × ε̄i (r̄ , t)
Z0 of the antenna at Q F . It is noted that the time-invariance

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 6576
assumption of F̄(θ f , φ f ) has been widely used in the transient
analysis of reflector antennas for impulse-radiation applica-
tions [8], [9], [20], [27], [37]–[39]. It remains valid when
most of the radiation energy concentrates within a reasonable
frequency bandwidth.
In the FD-AI technique, one first defines an aperture, Sa ,
in front of the scatterer and finds the EM fields on Sa via GO
ray-tracing approach as illustrated in Fig. 1. This aperture is
selected as close as possible to the scatterer, better resembling
the actual scattering behaviors. The equivalent currents are
defined by the EM fields, ( Ē ap , H̄ap ), on Sa predicted by GO
ray tracing [35] as
J¯eq (r̄  , s) = n̂ × H̄ap (r̄  , s)|r̄  ∈Sa
(5)
M̄eq (r̄  , s) = −n̂ × Ē ap (r̄  , s)|r̄  ∈Sa
where n̂ is the unit vector normal to Sa at r̄  and points to the
direction of the scattering field.
B. GO Ray Tracing Characteristics to Find
the Aperture Field
The prediction of aperture fields by GO is also illus-
trated in Fig. 1. For the conducting scatterer case shown
in Fig. 1(a), the aperture fields are found by the reflected
fields ( Ēre f l , H̄re f l ), from the part of the scatterer’s surface
lit side to the incident field. The aperture resulted from these
reflected fields is denoted by Slit , and thus, Sa = Slit . The
reflected field on Slit is expressed as [35]
ρ1r ρ2r
Ēre f l (r̄  , s) = Ē i (r̄q , s) · R̄¯
e− v (6)
(ρ1 + r ) (ρ2 + r )
r r
where r is the distance from the reflection point at r̄q to the
aperture, and ρ1,2
r are the radii of the two principal wavefront
curvatures of reflected fields at r̄ . Also, R̄¯ is the reflection
q s Z0
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 67, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2019
into the dielectric material with refraction, and transmit into
the free space in the shadow side from the dielectric material.
The transmitted field can be expressed as
ρ1t ρ2t st
Ē tran (r̄  , s) = Ē tran (r̄t , s) e− v (9)
(ρ1 + t ) (ρ2 + t )
t t
where t is the distance between the transmission point on the
shadow side r̄t , to the aperture with ˆt being the direction of
propagation. In (9), ρ1,2 t are the radii of the transmitted ray’s
wavefront curvatures. Also Ē tran (r̄t , s) is found via the ray
tracing by GO. Thus, the incident wave propagates by a i
distance to touch the scatterer on the lit side at r̄q , travels by
another d distance to touch the boundary of the surface on
the shadow side at r̄t , and travels by a t distance to reach the
aperture at r̄  . Thus, the transient response can be expressed as
 ρ1t ρ2t
ε̄tran (r̄ , t) = Ḡ t (r̄t )   U (t − tt ) (10)
(ρ1t + t ) ρ2t + t
where Ḡ t (r̄t ) is the value of Ḡ(r̄ ) after it is tracked to r̄t with
the transmission coefficients included. In (10), the propagation
time delays are included in tt . Thus, it can be shown that
√
v(tt − t0 ) = i (r̄q ) + εr d (r̄t ) + t (r̄  ), where the relative
permittivity, εr , is used to indicate slow propagation velocity
in the dielectric material. Detailed GO ray tracing procedure
is omitted for brevity [35].
C. Summary of TD-AI Formulation
sr
In FD-AI technique, the EM scattering field at r̄ (denoted
by Q) is found by the radiation from the currents in (5)
by [35]
 
R̂ × R̂ × J¯eq (r̄  , s)


e− v
sR

coefficient at r̄q , which is dependent on the local property of Ē s (r̄ , s) = ds  (11)

4πv Sa +Y0 R̂ × M̄eq (r̄  , s) R
the scatterer. It is apparent that in TD, (6) can be expressed as

ρ1r ρ2r where R̄ = R R̂ = r̄ − r̄  , and R̂ points to the field point.

 ¯
ε̄re f l (r̄ , t) = Ḡ(r̄q ) · R̄ U (t − tr ). (7) It is noted that the “s” term in (11) will be canceled by the
(ρ1 + r ) (ρ2 + r )
r r
“1/s” term resulted from the step function in (3). As a result,
The magnetic field can be found by the corresponding format of the electric field in TD can be
1 ˆ found by [1], [2], [6]–[9]
H̄ re f l (r̄  , t) = r × ε̄re f l (r̄  , t) (8)    
Z0
∼ Z0 R̂ × R̂ × J¯eq
m (r̄  ) 1
ε̄s (r̄ , t) =
u
·
where ˆr is the direction of the reflected field. In (7) and tr is 4πv Sa
m 
+Y0 R̂ × M̄eq (r̄ ) R
the reference time for the reflected field at r̄  on the aperture.  
In particular, v(tr − ti ) is the distance of wave propagating net + R
δ t− ds  (12)
from the reference point of incident field to the aperture. v
If the distance between the reference point of incidence to
the reflection point is i (r̄q ), then i (r̄q ) + r (r̄  ) = v(tr − ti ). where δ(t) = dU (t)/dt is the Dirac delta function, and the
On the other hand, in the dielectric scatterer case shown path length is given by
in Fig. 1(b), the reflected field can be analogously found with
0 + i (r̄q ) + r (r̄  ); onSlit
identical ray paths as in the conducting surface case with net = √ (13)
the reflection coefficients found by considering the dielectric 0 + i (r̄q ) + εr d (r̄t ) + t (r̄  ); onSsha .
effects. The fields on the shadow side can be found by
considering the transmission effects, and exist on the aperture In (12), ( J¯eq
m , M̄ m ) are independent of s by considering
eq
denoted by Ssha . The net aperture is denoted by Sa = Slit +   snet
Ssha . In this case, the illuminating incident field will transmit J¯eq
m
, M̄eq
m
= s( J¯eq (r̄  , s), M̄eq (r̄  , s))e v . (14)

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 CHOU: GENERAL DIFFRACTION MECHANISM INTERPRETATION OF EM TRANSIENT SCATTERING 6577

The delta function in (12) may reduce the surface integral

in (12) to a line integral by using the following condi-
tions [1], [2], [6]–[9], [40]–[42]:

net + R
δ t− = 0 (15)
v
which occurs at
net + R = vt.
It appears that (16) defines a contour on Sa after Sa is selected.
The time-step response in (12) can be differentiated with time
to find the impulse response and afterward convolute with a
realistic time waveform of excitation for a general transient
waveform analysis [7], [41]. It may also directly convolute
with the derivative of the excitation time waveform [8], [15]
to find the same results if desired.
III. C HARACTERISTIC D ISCUSSION OF C ONTRIBUTING
C ONTOUR IN TD-AI T ECHNIQUE
A. Determination of AI Aperture and Contributing Contour
Equation (16) describes a contour on the aperture, Sa , which
may simplify and reduce the surface integration of (12) into
a line contour integration. The determination of this contour
relies on a prior determination of the aperture and afterward
uses (16) to determine the contour. This work proposes a
selection of Sa by considering an equal net time-delay of GO
aperture field by making
vta = net
where ta is the net delay time, and is retained as constant
for all ray paths to arrive at the aperture. This relationship
results in an aperture of the curved surface, which is referred
to ETDCA, which significantly simplifies the analysis. As a
result, (16) is reduced to
R = v(t − ta )
which describes a spherical surface with its center located at
the field point, r̄ . This sphere is referred to as a TEPL spherical
surface [36] because all points on this sphere have the same
distance to the field point. Also, the radius of this TEPL sphere
increases with respect to the time of observation.
This concept is illustrated in Fig. 2, where it can be easily
shown that when r̄  is on the intersection contour of these two
ETDCA and TEPL surfaces, the net times traveling from the
source to the field point are equal, thus, making (15) valid at t.
This intersection contour is referred to as the contributing con-
tour, Ct , analogous to the case in TD-PO [1], [2], [6]–[9], [36].
B. Characteristics of Contributing Contour, Ct
The characteristics of this contributing contour Ct , are
examined to interpret the diffraction mechanisms of EM scat-
tering. Analogous to the interpretation by TD-PO in [1], [2],
and [6]–[10], (12) results in a finite pulse transient response,
where these characteristics may help to predict the finite pulse
scattering.
1) Basic Characteristics of ETDCA: The ETDCA is selected
by using GO ray tracing with equal ray path lengths measured
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(16)
Fig. 2. General illustration of defining ETDCA and TEPL surfaces to produce
a contour by the intersection of ETDCA and TEPL surfaces that may result in
an equal time delays from the excitation source to the field point by various
paths A, B, and C as an example.
from the location of the source. For the conducting scatterer
case in Fig. 1(a), where the source is at Q F , only reflected
fields are considered to find the aperture field, where the
reflection points are available to form Slit . Thus, Slit is
determined by the reflection shadow boundary (RSB), which
results in an artificial truncation to cause diffractions as shown
in Fig. 1, analogous to the TD-PO analysis [6]–[9], [36], which
may not be the actual edge truncations when the actual edge
is in the shadow region. This artificial truncation appears on
(17) a convex surface and does not exist on a concave surface.
For relaxing this shortcoming of the convex surface, creeping
waves can be added to extend the boundary of the ETDCA.
In order to resemble the actual truncation effects, the ETDCA
should stay as close as possible to the scatterer’s surface. It is
noted that a similar phenomenon also appears to the incidence
shadow boundary (ISB) as illustrated in Fig. 1(a).
(18) On the other hand, for the dielectric scatterer case shown in
Fig. 1(b), the transmission shadow boundary (TSB) also effec-
tively forms a virtual truncation on the ETDCA in addition to
the RSBs. However, for a smooth convex surface, TSBs may
coincide with RSBs and ISBs of grazing incidence to vanish
this virtual truncation.
2) Finite-Pulse Scattering Field Behavior: The transient
response of EM scattering field in (12) appears only when the
delta function inside the integral is nonzero, i.e., only when Ct
can be found from the intersection between the TEPL sphere
and the ETDCA, otherwise, (12) vanishes. Due to the fact that
the radius of TEPL sphere increases with observation time,
it can be foreseen that a time frame of finite pulse exists for the
transient response of (12), which is analogous to the TD-PO
analysis in [1], [2], [6]–[10], and [36]. As the observation time
increases from t = 0, the radius of the TEPL sphere becomes
nonzero after t > ta which is the time that the incident wave
arrives at the ETDCA.
The radius of TEPL sphere surface continues to increase
as the observation time increases. Thus, the earliest time of
the available transient response appears at the time, t = t1 ,
that the TEPL sphere first touches the ETDCA. On the other
hand, the latest time of transient response appears at the time,
 6578 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 67, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2019
Fig. 3. Illustration of reflection/transmission effects and diffraction mech-
anism to form an analogous Keller’s cone by the truncation of ETDCA.
(a) Reflection and transmission effects. (b) Diffraction effects.
t = t2 , when the TEPL spherical surface losses the contact
with the ETDCA.
An impulse field behavior can be identified when t2 → t1 ,
which appears when the ETDCA tends to coincide or overlap
with the TEPL surface at t = t1 . In this case, the scatterer
should produce an inward propagating wavefront toward the
field point. Thus, the ETDCA is either a spherical surface or
a surface approximated from the TEPL spherical surface at
t = t1 which is centered at the field point, such as ellipsoidal
or parabolic reflectors [1], [2].
C. Special Points of Ct and Their Physical Meanings
Special points of Ct may be identified and used to interpret
the scattering mechanisms. First, when the TEPL surface
touches the ETDCA at a single point lying inside the interior
region of the ETDCA, i.e., the TEPL surface and ETDCA
are tangent to each other by sharing the same tangent plane,
the transient response is contributed by the reflected field or
transmitted field from the scatterer as illustrated in Fig. 3(a),
which are either the reflection or transmission responses.
In particular, if the field point is on the side of Slit , and this
contact point is inside Slit , then the contributing point gives
the reflection contribution. On the other hand, if the field point
is on the side of Ssha , and this contact point is inside Ssha ,
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then the contributing point gives the transmission contribution.
It is evident from the fact that in the former case of reflection
contribution, the ray propagating from ETDCA to the field
point is orthogonal to the tangent plane, and thus, is parallel
to the reflected ray from the scatterer. A similar argument also
applies to the case of transmission contribution.
In these two situations, the contributing contour starts with
a single point and then increases to form a closed loop until
the TEPL surface intersects with the boundary of the ETDCA
when the radius of TEPL sphere continues to increase with
time. The intersection on the ETDCA’s boundary continues
until t = t2 , the latest time of the scattering field response.
It is noted that when the TEPL spherical surface touches the
boundary of the ETDCA at a single point in a tangent fashion,
the behavior tends to be analogous to the conventional trunca-
tion diffraction mechanisms of GTD as illustrated in Fig. 3(b),
where a Keller’s cone can be identified when the field points
sweep with respect to the tangent line of this truncation. In this
case, the boundary is at the RSB.
D. Typical Illustration Examples of Contributing Contours
Three typical examples of reflector antenna designs and
EM scattering analysis problems are presented to illustrate
the characteristics of this contributing contours, as illustrated
in Fig. 4(a)–(c). The former two are the antenna designs
for transient impulse radiation in the far- and near-field
regions, respectively, as previously investigated in [1] and [2],
respectively.
1) Parabolic Reflector for Far-Field Focusing Radiation:
One first considers the configuration of a parabolic reflector
in Fig. 4(a), which is excited by a source at its focal point. It is
well known that the GO rays launched from its focal point and
experiencing the reflection from the reflector will go parallel to
the reflector’s axis [i.e., along ẑ in Fig. 4(a)]. Thus, the ETDCA
is a circular plane orthogonal to the ẑ axis, which is selected
to be right on the reflector open near its edge as illustrated
in Fig. 4(a), where the origin of the coordinate system is,
therefore, defined at the location of the ETDCA. In this case,
the contributing contour for a field point at r̄ = (x, y, z) is a
circular loop defined by [2]
(x  − x)2 + (y  − x)2 = R 2 − z2 ≥ 0 (19)
where (x, y) is the projection of r̄ onto the ETDCA plane.
Thus, when R = z, then (x  , y  ) = (x, y), representing a
single point of contributing contour and a direct ray parallel
to ẑ axis. If (x, y) is inside ETDCA, then this direct ray is the
reflected ray from the reflector surface. However, if (x, y) is
outside ETDCA, then this direct ray does not exist and then
R will continue to increase with time until (x  , y  ) lies within
the circular boundary of the ETDCA.
2) Ellipsoidal Reflector for Near Field Focusing Applica-
tion: One next considers the configuration of an ellipsoidal
antenna in Fig. 4(b), where the excitation is at one of the
two focal points (F1,2 ) that is closer to the reflector, i.e., F1
in Fig. 4(b). According to the illustration shown in Fig. 4(b),
for any point, Q d , on the ellipsoidal surface, it is seen that
F1 Q d + Q d F 2 = 2a, where a is the radius of curvatures
 CHOU: GENERAL DIFFRACTION MECHANISM INTERPRETATION OF EM TRANSIENT SCATTERING
Fig. 4. Illustration of scattering mechanisms. (a) Parabolic reflector illustra-
tion. (b) Ellipsoidal reflector illustration. (c) Circular flat disk.
along z-axis. Thus, the ETDCA is defined by a spherical
surface centered at F2 with a radius r1 [1]. In particular, r1 is
selected as large as possible to make the ETDCA sphere stay
closer to the reflector. In this case, the contributing contour is
determined by the intersection between the ETDCA and TEPL
spheres. The time delay on the ETDCA surface is given by
ta = (2a − r1 )/v.
As illustrated in Fig. 4(b), one first selects the origin of the
coordinate system at the second focal point, i.e., O = F2 ,
and defines a new coordinate system (x̂ ct , ŷct , ẑct ) = (θ̂ , φ̂, r̂ )
6579
circular loop given by
⎧ 2  2  2

⎨ x ct 
+ yct = r12 − zct
⎩ z = r + r 1 − R
2 2 2 (20)
ct
2r
where r = (x 2 + y 2 + z2 )1/2 . The actual Ct is the part of (20)
on the ETDCA.
3) Planar Disk Scatterer: The third example considers
a planar disk located (0, 0, F) at in Fig. 4(c), where the
excitation is at a distance F, along the ẑ axis at (0, 0, 2F).
Based on the Snell’s reflection law, the reflected rays can be
found by placing a source at an image point on the other
side of the disk at a distance F. It is, thus, understood that
the ETDCA is a spherical surface centered at the image point
(0, 0, 0), with a radius computed by the largest distance r1 ,
between the image source point and the disk’s truncation edges
and corners. Thus, the contributing contour is the intersection
between these two spheres of ETDCA and TEPL surface.
It can be shown that the contributing contour is a circular
loop in the form of (20) in the (x ct , yct , zct ) coordinate system
except its parameters are described in Fig. 4(c). Similar to the
discussion in the ellipsoidal reflector case, the actual Ct is the
part of (20) on the ETDCA.
IV. E VALUATION OF T RANSIENT
R ESPONSE IN (12)
A. Simplification of ETDCA Surface Integration Into a Line
Contour Integration
Due to the possibly complicated complexity of ETDCA,
it is assumed that the ETDCA can be decomposed into several
smooth surfaces with continuous surface curvatures. In this
decomposition scenario, each surface can be treated separately
to find the transient response. The net transient response
can be then computed by a superposition of all transient
responses.
The approach is based on the variation of contributing
contour Ct , which starts with a single point when the TEPL
sphere touches the ETDCA and its extension to infinity and
continues to grow as a closed loop when time increases.
Thus, the integration variable of ds  on the ETDCA can be
deformed into a polar coordinate system with its center located
a single point, as previously exhibited by the three examples
in Section III-C. As a result, (12) can be transformed by the
following format:
 
. . . . . .ds  → . . . . . . J A (, ϕ)d · dϕ (21)
Sa
where J A (, ϕ) is the transformation Jacobian. In (21), (, ϕ)
are illustrated in Fig. 5(a). In particular, it is selected by (t) =
R(t). Thus, the delta function in (12) can be alternatively
expressed as [43]
with (r̂ , θ̂ , φ̂) being the spherical coordinate system defined 

net + R δ(R − Rt )
at the field point (x, y, z). It is easy to show that in this new δ t− =   (22)
v ∂
t − net +R
|
(x̂ ct , ŷct , ẑct ) coordinate system the contributing contour is a ∂R v R=R t

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 6580 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 67, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2019

Substituting (24) and (25) into (23) gives

Z0
ε̄su (r̄ , t) ∼
= · [U (t − t1 ) − U (t − t2 )]
4π R
   
R̂ × R̂ × ±(r̄ R × r̄ϕ ) × H̄ap
m (r̄  )
    dϕ. (26)
Cϕ −Y0 R̂ × ± r̄ R × r̄ϕ × Ē apm (r̄  )

B. Transient Responses at Special Field Points

One first considers the situation in Fig. 3(a) and examines
the transient responses near t = t1 , where the contributing
contour is a closed loop in the vicinity of the contact point
at t = t1 with Cϕ = [02π]. In particular, we consider the
reflection case, where the transmission case can be analogously
analyzed.
In this case, ±(r̄ R × r̄ϕ ) = |r̄ R × r̄ϕ | R̂ and the integrand in
(26) can be assumed to be constant. As a result, (26) reduces to
ε̄su (r̄ , t) ∼
= [U (t − t1 ) − U (t − t2 )]
|r̄ R × r̄ϕ |
m 
Ē ap (r̄ )|t ∼t1. (27)
R
It can be observed that (27) has a format analogous to the
GO ray field, i.e., the electrical field at r̄ is equal to the field
at r̄  multiplied by a divergence factor with a time delay of
propagation.

V. N UMERICAL E XAMPLES
Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the char-
acteristics of this TD-AI technique. It is noted that the TD-AI
analysis of near- and far-field impulse radiating reflector anten-
nas by using ellipsoidal and parabolic reflectors, respectively,
Fig. 5. Illustration of integration mapping from the curved surface of ETDCA was previously investigated in [1] and [2], respectively. These
to variables analogous to polar variables, and the determination of Cϕ in two
different scenarios on the projection plane. (a) Mapping of the integration to two cases of analysis are special cases of the presented general
the projection plane. (b) Determination of Cϕ on the projection. TD-AI analysis, and will not be repeated. In this section,
we present EM scattering problems of two typical metal
where Rt = R(t) = v(t − ta ). Substituting (22), (5) and (14) structures that appear very often in practical applications.
into (12) gives [1], [2], [40]–[42] The scattering from dielectric bodies is not considered in the
example demonstration as the GO ray tracing is the same
Z0
ε̄us (r̄ , t) ∼
= · [U (t − t1 ) − U (t − t2 )] with the same ray paths of reflection as in the conducting
4π R
  m (r̄  )
 body cases. The analysis is identical except the inclusion
R̂ × R̂ × n̂ × H̄ap of reflection and transmission coefficients found from the
 m (r̄  )
 J A (R, ϕ)dϕ (23)
Cϕ −Y0 R̂ × n̂ × Ē ap dielectric bodies.
In these examples, a linearly polarized source is employed
where ( H̄apm , Ē m )
ap = s( H̄ap (r̄  , s), Ē ap (r̄  , s))e(snet )/(v) to produce the illuminating field, whose electrical field pattern
when (5) is used. Here the “−” arising from ∂/∂ R is absorbed is given by
by considering the direction of Cϕ .
In (23), Cϕ is the span angle of Ct with respect to its inter- F̄ f (θ f , φ f ) = V0 cos θ f (cos φ f θ̂ f − sin φ f φ̂ f ) (28)
section with the boundary of ETDCA as illustrated in Fig. 5(b). where (r f , θ f , φ f ) is expressed in the feed’s coordinate system
When Ct is a closed loop, then Cϕ = [0 2π]. Also R is (x f , y f , z f ). The illuminating field becomes a plane wave
constant with respect to ϕ variation. Thus, J A (R, ϕ) in (12) when the feed source is moved to a far distance. In these
can be expressed as examinations, ẑ f points to the center of scatterers. For easy
ds  comparison, the field point is expressed in the spherical
J A (R, ϕ) = = |r̄ R × r̄ϕ | (24)
d Rdϕ coordinate system by (r, θ, φ = 0o ) on the xz plane.
r̄ R × r̄ϕ
n̂ = ±  (25) A. Transient Responses of Scattering From a Circular Disk
|r̄ R × r̄ϕ |
The first example considers the transient responses from a
where r̄ R = (∂/∂ R)r̄  and r̄ϕ = (∂/∂ϕ)r̄  . The sign in (25) circular metal disk of a radius a = 1 m as shown in Fig.
√ 4(c),
is selected to point toward the direction of scattering field. where its center is along ẑ at (0, 0, F) with F = 3 m.

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 CHOU: GENERAL DIFFRACTION MECHANISM INTERPRETATION OF EM TRANSIENT SCATTERING 6581

The feed is at (0, 0, 2F) with ẑ f = −ẑ and x̂ f = x̂.

As discussed earlier in Section III-C, the ETDCA determined
by GO reflected rays is a spherical surface with a radius of
r1 = 2, which is within a cone of α = 30◦ . The contributing
contour is the intersection of the ETDCA and the TEPL
spheres, which result is a circular loop on the x ct − yct plane
in the (x̂ ct , ŷct , ẑct ) coordinate system as shown in (20).
In this (x̂ ct , ŷct , ẑct ) coordinate system, the position vector
on the ETDCA, r̄  = (x ct  , y  , z (x  , y  )), where from (20)
ct ct ct ct
one has
 2
    r 2 + r12 − R 2
x ct , yct = (ρ cos ϕ, ρ sin ϕ); ρ = r1 − 2 2
.
2r
(29)
It can be shown that
  Rr1
± r̄ R × r̄ϕ = r̂1 . (30)
r
m (r̄  ), H̄ m (r̄  )) can be easily found from
It is noted that ( Ē ap ap
image theory. Thus, after a mathematic manipulation, (26)
reduce to
∼ 1 · [U (t − t1 ) − U (t − t2 )]
ε̄us (r̄ , t) =
4πr 
( R̂ × R̂ + R̂ × r̂1 ) × F̄(θ, φ)dϕ (31a)
Cϕ

where the excitation feed’s pattern is computed when it is

placed at the image point in Fig. 4(c) by
F̄(θ, φ) = V0 cos θ (cos φ θ̂ − sin φ φ̂).
Thus, its variable (θ f , φ f ) is now replaced by r̂1 in the global
coordinate system, where r̂1 is on Ct . It is apparent that at
t = t1 , Ct is a point to give R̂ = r̂1 and make (31a) consistent
with (27), i.e., creating the reflecting field.
One first considers the field point at r = 6 m at θ = 0o .
In this case, Ct is a single point at the earliest time, t1 = 20 ns
when r1 + R = r and zct = r1 in (20). On the other hand,
the radius of Ct a = 1 m at the latest time, t2 = 21.279 ns
when zct = F. Between t1 and t2 , Ct is a circular loop to make
Cϕ = [0 2π]. In this case, the transient response is a finite
rectangular pulse as shown in Fig. 6(a), where the decrease in
the magnitude is due to the illuminating taper of feed in (28)
at wide angles. On the other hand, when θ increases and is still
within the cone of the ETDCA (θ < α), Ct is a circular loop
at an early time, and becomes a truncated part after it touches
the boundary of the ETDCA at t = t3 as illustrated by the
left-hand side figure of Fig. 5(b). Thus, the transient response
starts with a finite rectangular pulse between t1 and t3 , and
afterward it starts to decrease at late time, as shown by the
cases of θ = 15◦ and 30◦ in Fig. 6(a). In particular, the case of
θ = 30◦ shows the transient response when the field point is
at the boundary of the ETDCA (i.e., at the RSB). In this case,
the reflected field is almost 1/2 of the ordinary reflected field.
It is noted that the differences of larger than 1/2 by the cases
of θ < 30o in Fig. 6(a) is caused by the illumination taper.
When θ continues to increase to make the field point
directions outside the ETDCA cone, Ct is a finite part of the
circular loop to make the span angle range Cϕ < 2π. In this
(31b)
Fig. 6. Transient responses of EM scattering from a circular disk to
demonstrate the scattering mechanisms. (a) r = 6 m measured from O
in Fig. 4(c). (b)  = 2 m measured from the ETDCA edge.
case, t1 is at the time when the TEPL sphere touches the
boundary of the ETDCA at (a, 0, F) while t2 is at the time
when the contact point is on the other side of the ETDCA at
(−a, 0, F). Thus, the transient responses increase at the early
time and will decrease to zero at late times as shown by the
cases of θ ≥ 45o in Fig. 6(a).
One next example examines the diffraction mechanism as
illustrated in Fig. 3(b), where the cases of study is also
illustrated by the inset of Fig. 6(b). In these cases,  = 2 m
with θ varied to show the phenomena. First, when θ = −30◦ ,
then the field point is on the z-axis. Thus, Ct is a closed
circular loop between t1 and t2 , where the transient response
is a finite pulse as shown by the first case of Fig. 6(a). Here
t = t2 = 13.33 ns corresponds to the time that the truncation
effects of the ETDCA starts to contribute to the transient
response. Thus, t = 13.33 ns is the boundary to identify
the truncation effects, which is constant in these cases. When
θ < 30o , the transient responses at t < 13.33 are finite
pulses due to reflection effects, i.e., Cϕ = [0 2π]. When
t > 13.33 ns, the diffraction effects start to contribute, which
are demonstrated by the cases that θ ≥ 30o , where the earliest
time of transient responses is the same.
In order to compare the estimation accuracy, the above
TD analysis problem is scaled down to quarter size in both

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 6582 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 67, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2019

Fig. 7. Comparison of transient responses between the developed TD-AI

and full-wave MoM technique. The MoM results were obtained in FD first
and converted into TD.

geometric structures and parameters such that full-wave sim-

ulation by a method of moment (MoM) can be performed.
In this case, a frequency range of 20 GHz in 10 MHz steps
is adopted in MoM simulation, where the results are inverted
into TD to find the step transient responses. The comparison
of results is shown in Fig. 7. It is observed that the early-
time responses agree very well, as pointed out in Section I
by the nature of high-frequency approximated TD solutions.
Some discrepancy at the early-time responses is caused by
the insufficient sampling of MoM due to the use of finite
frequency range, where the high-frequency components are not
available. In addition, the TD-AI does not correctly predict the
responses due to the mutual coupling and edge currents within
the structures, which contributes to the diffraction effects as
demonstrated by the red curves, and in particular the late-time
responses. These effects are included in MoM. It is also noted
that MoM suffers difficulty at extremely low frequencies that
are most important for a step response. In general, the results
obtained by these two solutions agree very well.
B. Transient Responses of Scattering From
a Parabolic Reflector
It is assumed that an offset parabolic reflector is illuminated
by a vertically polarized (x̂-polarized) plane wave incident
in −ẑ direction, as illustrated in Fig. 8(a). The reflector has
a diameter D = 2 m, and focal length F = 2 m, and is
located in +x̂ space. In this case, the reflected GO rays are
spherical waves and will converge to the focal point of the
reflector. Thus, the ETDCA is selected by a sphere with its
center at the focal point. Thus, the origin of coordinate systems
is placed at this focal point. In this case, the contributing
contour is determined by the intersection of these two spheres
as illustrated in Fig. 8(a).
The computation of this contour is analogous to the cases in
Sections III-B and III-C with the result shown in (20). Again
r1 is selected as large as possible to make the ETDCA stay
closer to the reflector, which is given by r1 = F = 2 m in
this case.
Fig. 8. (a) Geometric illustration and (b) transient responses of EM scattering
from a parabolic reflector illuminated by a vertically polarized plane wave
incident from the axial direction.
The boundary of this ETDCA is determined by the inter-
section between the position vectors on the reflector’s edge
boundary and the ETDCA sphere. The mapping of these
position vectors onto the xy plane also forms a circular cycle.
These two properties can be used to determine Ct and Cϕ
which can be found by the intersection of (20) and this
ETDCA boundary.
In FD, the spherical waves of reflected fields, predicted by
GO ray tracing can be expressed by
V0
Ē ap (θ1 , φ1 ) = (cos φ1 θ̂1 + sin φ1 φ̂1 )e j kr1 (32)
r1
propagating toward the focal point at O (i.e., in −r̂1 direction),
where r̄1 = (r1 , θ1 , φ1 ) is the position vector on ETDCA
in the global spherical coordinate system. In the analysis,
the reference time of incident plane waves is selected at O to
make the time delay of GO reflected rays at O by to = 2F/v.
As a result, the time delay at the surface of the ETDCA is
constant by (2F − r1 )/v.
One now considers the field points in the +ẑ half space
as illustrated in Fig. 8(a). Analogous to the derivation in
(29)–(31), it can be found that
  Rr1
± r̄ R × r̄ϕ = − r̂1 (33)
r

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 CHOU: GENERAL DIFFRACTION MECHANISM INTERPRETATION OF EM TRANSIENT SCATTERING
and subsequently (26) reduces to
V0
ε̄us (r̄ , t) ∼
= · [U (t − t1 ) − U (t − t2 )]
4πr
( R̂ × R̂ − R̂
Cϕ
× r̂1 ) × (cos φ1 θ̂1 + sin φ1 φ̂1 )dϕ.
It is noted that the integration variable ϕ, is defined in (20) on
Ct , where the span angle of Cϕ is determined by the intersec-
tion of (20) and the boundary of ETDCA in computing (34).
Fig. 8(b) shows the transient responses when r = 6 m at
various θ angles of field points, where −45o ≤ θ ≤ 30o by a
step of 15o is considered. In particular, when the field point
is in the −x̂ half space, GO reflected rays can be found in
these cases, which can be determined by the extension of ẑct
axis toward the reflector. Due to the penetration through a ray
caustic, the earliest time of transient responses arise from the
contact of the TEPL surface to the edge of the ETDCA. Thus,
the transient responses start with the diffraction effects from
a null field, and gradually increase to the transient responses
of reflected fields, i.e., the span angle of Cϕ increases from
zero at the edge contact toward 2π when Ct is inside the
interior region of the ETDCA. Thus, it can be observed from
Fig. 8(b) that the late time responses for θ < 0o are relatively
similar and flat in the magnitude variation. It is also observed
that when the reflection is closer to the center of the reflector,
the reflection effect becomes more important to produce wider
pulse widths as can be observed by the comparison between
the three cases.
At θ = 0o , the field point is at the RSB, thus, analogous
to the phenomena observed in Fig. 6(a), the magnitude of
the reflected field effect is almost equal to one-half of the
◦ pp. 726–729, 2014.
magnitudes for θ < 0 to make a continuous field distribution
as the field points cross the shadow boundary. On the other
hand, when θ > 0◦ , no GO reflected rays can be found
from the parabolic reflector, and thus, only the diffraction
effects exist. As a result, the TEPL surface first touches the
ETDCA’s edge on the top side to make zero span of Cϕ , and
gradually increases it to a maximum. Afterward, the span of
Cϕ decreases again to zero when the TEPL surface losses the
contact with the ETDCA on the bottom side.
VI. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we present general EM scattering mechanisms
in TD-AI technique when it is employed in the analysis of
EM transient scattering from large scatterers. The mechanism
interpretation is based on the definitions of ETDCA and TEPL
surfaces, where the intersection of these two surfaces assures
equal net time delays for wave propagation from the source
to field points via the scattering from the scatterer. Various
scattering mechanisms have been explained based on the phe-
nomena of the intersected contour. Numerical examples have
also well validated the mechanism interpretation approach.
Due to the possible complicated complexity of EM scatter-
ers, closed-form analytical formulations of transient responses
are not available for a general structure. However, the solutions
for typical structures commonly used in the antenna design and
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6583
to composite EM scatterers can be obtained [1], [2], such as
planar, parabolic, ellipsoidal and hyperbolical surfaces. This
work may complement the TD quasi-analytical techniques in
the transient analysis of EM scattering problems.
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Hsi-Tseng Chou (F’12) received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering from National Taiwan Uni-
versity, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1988, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from The
Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus, OH, USA,
in 1993 and 1996, respectively.
He was a Graduate Research Associate from
1991 to 1996 and a Post-Doctoral Researcher from
1996 to 1998 with the ElectroScience Labora-
tory (ESL), OSU. He is currently a Distinguished
Professor with the Graduate Institute of Communi-
cation Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Taiwan University. He has authored or coauthored more than 500 journal
and conference papers. He holds 40 patents. His current research interests
include wireless communication networks, antenna design, antenna measure-
ment, electromagnetic scattering, asymptotic high-frequency techniques such
as uniform geometrical theory of diffraction (UTD), novel Gaussian beam
techniques, and UTD-type solution for periodic structures.
Dr. Chou is an IET Fellow and an Elected Member of the URSI Inter-
national Radio Science U.S. Commission B. He was a recipient of many
awards to recognize his distinguished contributions in the technological
developments, including the Distinguished Contribution Award in Promoting
Inter-Academic and Industrial Cooperation from the Ministry of Education,
the Distinguished Engineering Professor Award from the Chinese Institute
of Engineers, the Distinguished Electrical Engineering Professor Award from
the Chinese Institute of Electrical Engineering, and the University’s Industrial
Economics Contribution Award in 2008, the National Industrial Innovation
Awards—Key Technology Elite Award in 2011, and the Industrial-Academia
Collaboration Award in 2017 from the Ministry of Economics. He was also a
recipient of the Best Chapter Award in 2012, the outstanding branch counselor
awards from IEEE including IEEE Headquarter, R-10, and Taipei Section,
respectively, and the IEEE Technical Field Undergraduate Teaching Award
in 2014. He was elected as one of the nation’s ten outstanding young persons
by Junior Chamber International, in 2004, the National Young Person Medal
from China Youth Corps of Taiwan, in 2005, and as one of the top ten rising
stars in Taiwan by the Central News Agency of Taiwan. He has served as
the Chair for the IEEE AP-S Taipei Chapter and is currently the Chair of the
EMC-S Taipei Chapter.