MFIE MoM-formulation with curl-conforming basis functions and accurate kernel integration in the analysis of perfectly conducting sharp-edged objects

We present a novel technique to integrate analytically the highest-order terms of the Kernel of a low-order curl-conforming magnetic-field integral equation (MFIE) operator. In the computation of the bistatic RCS of moderately small perfectly conducting sharp-edged examples, we show that this curl-conforming choice yields very similar performance to that of the MoM-EFIE formulation and outperforms a MoM-MFIE formulation based on the RWG basis functions, both with very accurate Kernel integration. (C) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.