The invention of antenna arrays opened up the door for microwave sensing and communications. In the 20th century, most applications of antenna arrays were in the defense and wireless communication areas, including defense and surveillance radar, multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication and radar systems, wireless sensor network, radio-frequency identification (RFID), radio astronomy, satellite navigation system, etc. For the last two decades, the focus has been extended to biomedical applications. This includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), microwave cancer diagnosis and treatment, and telemedicine for patient monitoring. In addition, significant interest has also been devoted to wireless power transfer.

The existence of mutual coupling, that is, the electromagnetic interaction between antenna elements, appears as an undesirable effect in most of the cases mentioned earlier. The signals can be significantly distorted such that the transmitted and received signals no longer depend solely on the antenna elements, but also on the array structure and the surrounding environment. Such distortions result in poor resolutions in imaging applications and reductions of channel capacities in wireless communications.

This special issue, which is the third one in this series, provides an international forum for researchers to disseminate their results and ideas to tackle some of these challenging research problems. In particular, papers on all topics related to scattering and mutual coupling effects in antenna arrays are welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Design, optimization, analysis, modeling, and characterization of antenna arrays and decoupling network subjected to scattering and/or mutual coupling
• Measurement, testing, and calibration methods for antenna arrays subjected to scattering and mutual coupling
• Decoupling and mutual coupling compensation methods
• Scattering and mutual coupling effects in
  • narrowband, broadband, and Ultra Wideband (UWB) antenna arrays and subsystems
  • complex electromagnetic environment with the presence of near-field scatterer in imaging, sensing, and communication applications
  • imaging, sensing, and communication in biomedical, defense, and surveillance areas
  • MIMO, wireless communication, wireless power transfer, radio astronomy, smart antennas, RFID subsystems, wireless sensor network, and related applications
• Novel applications and any other relevant topics

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijap/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ijap/mcaa13/ according to the following timetable: