"Distribute along line option". Difference in results?

[VigneshYork]

Hi,

I would like to confirm the difference between the option "distribute along line" in the sources settings.
Does not choosing the option introduce a time delay/phase delay for the antenna (patch antenna) for example? Is there a method of calculating the time delay for an antenna?

Thanks,
Vignesh

[halder]

When using a long line as "normal" edge source, the discretization will result in one edge being the actual source and rest of the line being discretized as PEC filament. This can lead (depending on the excitation frequency, the length of the source line and the setup) to inaccuracies due to the additional capacitance introduced be the PEC filaments. An alternative that is, in most cases, a more accurate source representation is using the "Distribute Along Line" option, the source is equally distributed over all the discretized edges of a line element (see image, right). That prevents any PEC filaments and therefore makes the injection of the signal more realistic.

Time delay = distance between the transmitter and receiver*sin(theta)/c where theta is the angle of antenna. I would suggest looking into antenna array literature for theoretical background on calculating this quantity.