An improved near- to far-zone transformation for the finite-difference time-domain method

Near- to far-zone transformation for the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method can be performed by integration of the equivalent electric and magnetic currents originating from scattered electric and magnetic fields on a surface enclosing the object. Normally, when calculating the surface integrals, either the electric or magnetic fields are averaged since the electric and magnetic fields are spatially shifted in the FDTD grid. It is shown that this interpolation is unnecessary and also less accurate than if an integration is performed on two different surfaces. It is also shown that the accuracy of the far-zone transformation can be further improved if the phase is compensated with respect to a second-order dispersion corrected wavenumber. For validation, scattering results for an empty volume, a circular disk, and a sphere are compared with analytical solutions.