Optimization of the mounting position and angle for RKE antennas

Abstract

This paper proposes optimization of a mounting position and angle for vehicle RKE antennas. To take into consideration the platform effect that degrades the radiation characteristic of the antenna, both interior and exterior vehicle structures are re-modeled as piece-wise mesh elements in a full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulator. The optimum placement is found by evaluating radiation characteristics for all possible placements, and its average gain is improved by 4.7 dB, while the minimum gain is increased by 8.4 dB, compared to the conventional placement. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is suitable for maximizing the reading distance of the antenna by minimizing the platform effect.