Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Trends in Antennas for Wireless Communication

During recent years, there has been rapid growth in the cellular, wireless and

satellite communication networks. As more and more people use these

services, networks operators are constantly forced to optimize their networks

so that the maximum amount of capacity together with quality coverage with

reduced power consumption can be squeezed out of these networks. As the

growing demand for wireless communication has stimulated, extensive

research started to find new solutions particularly to problems related with

antenna engineering. The field of antenna engineering is of course central to

all wireless technologies and place a significant role in successful deployment

and optimization of such systems. Every wireless device requires an antenna

for transmission and reception of signal and it is often taken granted but its

performance is censorious to the successful operation of any wireless system.

With the recent advancements, the communication devices become smaller

due to integration of electronic devices, antenna becomes a significantly larger

part of the overall package volume. This results in a demand for similar

curlailment in antenna size. However, reducing antenna size without

significantly crash gain and efficiency is a challenging task. As integration

1
increases, a single antenna is often required to support two or more of the

many wireless services across a broad frequency range. In order to meet the

requirement for communication equipment, researchers have given much

attention to compact multi-band and broadband antennas which will serve in a

wide range of applications.

1.2 Planar Antennas and Their Applications

Wireless communications have progressed very rapidly in recent years and

communication devices are becoming smaller and smaller. Broadband planar

antennas are in strong demand to cover various applications with fewer

antennas. In general, all the antennas comprising planar or curved surface

radiators and at least one feed are termed ‘planar antennas’. Printed microstrip

patch antennas, slot antennas, planar inverted-L antennas (PILA), planar

inverted-F antennas (PIFAs), suspended plate antennas, sheet monopoles and

dipoles and roll monopoles are typical planar antennas used in wireless

communication systems. Usually, they exhibit merits such as simple structure,

low profile, low cost, small size, high polarization purity or broad bandwidth.

For this reason, compact and broadband design techniques for planar antennas

have attracted much attention of antenna researchers. Many novel planar

antenna prototype to meet particular bandwidth specifications of today’s

mobile communication systems, including the worldwide system for mobile

communication (GSM; 890-960 MHz), the digital communication system

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(DCS; 1710-1880 MHz), the personal communication system (PCS; 1850-

1990 MHz) and the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS;

1920-2170 MHz) and outer space satellite communication system (2025-2300

MHz, 7145-7235 MHz, 8400-8500 MHz) have been developed.

Planar antennas are also very fetching for applications in communication

devices for wireless local area network (WLAN) systems in the 2.4 GHz

(2400-2484 MHz) and 5.2 GHz (5150-5350 MHz) bands and military satellite

communication (7000-8000 MHz) and satellite television broadcasting (7110-

7425 MHz). Novel planar antenna prototype for achieving broadband circular

polarization (CP) and dual-polarized radiation for overcoming multipath

fading problem and to boost system performance have been demonstrated

recently. In addition, surface-mountable antennas that can be simply integrated

on the circuit board of a communication device to lower the packaging cost

have also received much attention and related new designs for WLAN

operations have been reported recently.

1.3 Microstrip Patch Antennas

Microstrip patch antenna is a form of small antenna, printed over an infinite

grounded dielectric substrate with small thickness. Dielectric materials may be

considered as the mechanical backbone of microstrip patch antennas and

circuits as it provides stable support for the conductor strips and patches that

makes connecting lines, resonators and antennas. Microstrip elements are

3
often be constructed by etching the patch from a single printed-circuit board

clad with conductor on both of its sides. A microstrip patch antenna in its

simple form consists of a radiating patch on one side of a dielectric substrate

with a ground plane on the other side as shown in Fig. 1.1. The patch is

normally made by conducting material such as copper. The patch can be of

any shape and size but regular shapes are generally used to simplify analysis

and performance prognosis. The radiating patch and the feed lines are usually

photo engrave on the dielectric substrate. For attaining higher performance

from a patch antenna, the patch must be very thin such that t << λο, where t is

the patch thickness and λο is the free space wave length. The height h of the

dielectric must be within the range 0.3333λo ≤ h ≤0.05λo and dielectric

constant of the substrate Єr must be usually in the range 2.2 ≤ Єr ≤ 12. Ideally

the dielectric constant Єr should be low, so as to enhance the fringe fields

which account for radiation. However, other performance and design

requirements may dictate the use of substrates. Various types of substrates

having a large range of dielectric constants and loss tangents have been

elaborated.

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 Fig. 1.1 Structure of a microstrip patch antenna

Microstrip patch antennas radiate primarily because of the fringing fields

between the patch edge and the ground plane. For better antenna performance,

a thick dielectric substrate having low dielectric constant is required since this

provides larger bandwidth [1], more efficiency and better radiation. However

such a configuration leads to a larger antenna size.

Microstrip patch antennas come in variety of configurations [2]. Fig. 1.2

shows common shapes like square, rectangular, circular, triangular and

elliptical shape antennas used in various applications because their analysis is

simplified and performance prediction is easy. The Rectangular patch antenna

is likely the most popular patch antenna design accomplished by designers.

The circular microstrip patch antenna offers a number of radiation pattern

options not readily accomplished using rectangular patch antenna. The circular

patch produces lowest mode TM11 which gives radiation pattern that is similar

5
to the lowest mode of a rectangular patch antenna. The circular and elliptical

patches are moderately smaller and have narrow bandwidth and low gain in

contrast to rectangular patches. The triangular patch antenna produces even

lower gain and smaller bandwidth and has higher cross-polarization due to its

unsymmetrical geometry. The circular ring patch has relatively the smallest

conductor size but at the cost of bandwidth and gain.

Fig. 1.2 Common shape of microstrip patch antennas

Microstrip antennas have various advantages compared to the typical

microwave antennas and therefore these are used in many applications over a

broad frequency range. The main advantages incorporate:

(i) Light weight, low profile, low volume, planar configurations which can be

made conformal.

(ii) Low fabrication cost and simplicity of fabrication.

(iii) The antennas have low scattering cross section.

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(iv) Linear, circular (left hand or right hand) polarizations are possible with

simple alterations in feed position.

(v) Can be made thin hence they do no perturb the aerodynamics of host

aerospace vehicles.

(vi) These antennas may be easily mounted on satellites and missiles without

major alterations.

(vii) Dual frequency operation can be attained easily and cavity backing is not

a necessity.

(viii) Feed lines and matching networks may be fabricated simultaneously

with antenna structure.

(ix) Microstrip patch antennas are compatible with modular designs (solid

state devices such as oscillators, amplifiers, variable attenuators, switches,

modulators, mixers, phase shifters etc., can be added directly to the antenna

substrate board).

However, microstrip antennas also have some short-comings compared to

conventional microwave antennas including:

(i) Narrow bandwidth (commonly 1-2 % for single layer simple structures)

(ii) Higher losses hence have lower gain.

(ii) In general microstrip antennas radiate most of their energy into a half

plane.

(iv) Possibility of excitation of surface waves.

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(v) High losses resulting from surface wave excitation, conductor and

dielectric losses.

(vi) Poor end fire radiation performance and low power handling capability.

(vii) Poor isolation between the feed and the radiating elements.

(viii) Difficult to analyze - Typically a full-wave computationally intensive

numerical analysis is required

There are ways to minimize these limitations. For example bandwidth can be

increased to more than 67% by using special techniques [3] lower gain and

lower power handling limitations can be over come through an array

configuration. By careful designing of an array, it is possible to quantify the

impact of coupling between the elements and ways can be found to minimize

coupling effect, and give greater isolation between array elements. Surface

wave associated limitations such as poor efficiency, increased mutual

coupling, reduced gain and radiation pattern degradation can be overcome by

the use of photonic band gap structures or high impedance ground planes. In

this thesis, we have concentrated on bandwidth enhancement of antennas and

achieving circularly polarized radiations with them.

Looking these advantages and disadvantages of microstrip patch antennas,

their compact size and light weight properties attracted many industries to find

their possible applications. Notable system applications for which microstrip

antennas have been developed include cellular communication, satellite

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communication, remote sensing, biomedical radiator, radio altimeters, missile

guidance, missile telemetry, adaptive arrays, battle field communications and

surveillance etc.

1.3.1 Review of Literature on Microstrip Patch

Antennas

Deschamp [4] have the pride of proposing the concept of microstrip radiators

but, his work was not reported in literature until early 1970’s. He carried out

the first mathematical modeling of basic microstrip radiators.

The proposed design is very versatile as it can be used to cover many

frequency bands. The

Well known frequency bands covered are LTE 900 MHz, GSM 1800, WLAN

2450 MHz with several other bands as well. The proposed design provides at

least 10 dB isolation between its antenna elements [5].

The antenna was resonated at two distinct frequencies with orthogonal

polarizations and broad radiation characteristics. Unlike the tradional circular

patch, this antenna could be microstrip-fed to work at either of the resonances.

The two polarizations could be simultaneously excited using two

electromagnetically coupled ports with isolation better than -30 dB between

the ports. This antenna had an added advantage of size reduction of 44%

compared to the typical circular patch without any reduction in gain.

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The prototype antenna was designed to provide the highest possible gain in a

defined amount of space. Furthermore, the radiation beam was electronically

steerable to produce diversity and avoid requiring any action from the user. It

was reported that a four-sector antenna was selected. Each sector included two

circular microstrip patches stacked vertically. The microstrip patch antenna

was fed by a coaxial probe and was integrated within a cylindrical

electromagnetic band gap substrate, based on the mushroom-like substrate, to

increase the antenna gain. Rifaqat [5] proposed a three patch strips triple band

monopole antenna which operate at 2.45 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 5.8 GHz

frequency bands. The antenna has been simulated using CST software studio

and made on FR4 substrate. The proposed antenna produce triple bands in

which the bandwidth of 367MHz for 2.45 GHz, 799MHz for 3.5 GHz and a

bandwidth of 3.47 GHz for 5.8 GHz has been secured.

We can study the radiation properties of compact dual frequency broad

band circular patch antenna with U-slot designed on glass epoxy FR4 substrate

and compared that of a normal circular patch antenna. The measured

impedance bandwidth of about 19.8% with a centre frequency was reported.

An unequal cross-shaped slot on a ground plane was utilized as a perturbation.

By switching pin diodes mounted on the slot, the CP sense of each antenna

could be switched from left handed (LH) CP to right-handed (RH) CP and

vice versa. A reconfigurable patch antenna for dual-band operation which was

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composed of two square patches and embedded in the centre cavity of patch. It

was reported that frequency control was realized using a switching circuit

placed in the back side of the radiators without any switching components and

capacitor variable components. The antenna structure consisted of directly fed

main patch and electromagnetically coupled parasitic patch, both in the semi-

ellipse shape. Antenna was optimized to operate in the frequency band

between 3 to 11 GHz for 10 dB, omitting the undesired frequency band of 5.1

to 5.9 GHz and excellent agreement between simulation and experimental

results was found.

1.4 Feeding Techniques of Microstrip Patch Antennas

There are many configurations that can be used to feed microstrip patch

antennas. Selection of feeding technique determines the amount of efficient

transfer of power between the radiating patch and feed network, that is,

impedance matching between two. The way a patch antenna is excited also

determines the efficiency of the overall patch antenna, the purity and direction

of radiated fields, the ease of manufacturing of the patch antenna and its

robustness. There are four fundamental techniques to feed or excite a

microstrip patch antenna, namely probe feed, edge feed or microstrip line feed,

aperture-coupled feed and proximity-coupled feed. These can be further

simplified into direct feed (probe and edge) and non-contact feed (aperture-

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coupled and proximity-coupled) methods. A brief detail of these methods is

presented here in this section.

1.4.1 Probe Feed Technique

The probe feed or coaxial feed was proposed and demonstrated in the mid

1970s and is a very common technique used for feeding microstrip patch

antennas. As seen from Fig.1.3 (a), the inner conductor of the coaxial

connector extends through the ground plane and the dielectric substrate and is

soldered to the radiating patch, while the outer conductor is soldered to the

conducting ground plane. The location of feed point is determined for the

given mode so that the best impedance matching is achieved. As the excitation

source is in direct electrical contact with the patch, this feed technique falls

into the category of direct contact feed method.

(a) Probe feed patch antenna (b) Equivalent circuit

Fig. 1.3(a) and Fig. 1.3(b) Probe feed patch antenna and its equivalent circuit respectively

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This feed method is easy to fabricate and has low spurious radiation. The

equivalent circuit of a probe fed microstrip patch antenna is shown in Fig.

1.3(b). The feed is modeled by an equivalent inductance. The inductance

becomes larger as the length of central conductor is increased.

1.4.2 Microstrip Line Feed Technique

One of the excitation methods for a microstrip patch antenna is the microstrip

line feed technique or edge feed technique [6]. In microstrip line feed

technique, a conducting strip is connected directly to one of the radiating edge

of the microstrip patch as shown in Fig. 1.4.

Fig. 1.4 (a) and Fig. 1.4(b) Microstrip line feed patch antenna and its equivalent circuit

respectively

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The conducting strip is smaller in width as contrast to the patch and this kind

of feed arrangement has an advantage that the feed can be engraved on the

same substrate to provide a planar structure. As the excitation source is in

direct electrical contact with the patch, this feed method falls into the category

of direct contact excitation method. If thick, high dielectric substrate material

is used, it increases surface waves and spurious feed radiation increases, which

reduce the bandwidth of the antenna. The equivalent circuit for microstrip line

feed patch is shown in Fig. 1.4(b).Here the traditional RLC tank circuit

represents the patch antenna and the stand-alone inductor represents the feed

network. As the thickness of the substrate increases, the feed inductance

becomes larger.

1.4.3 Aperture-coupled Feed Technique

To overcome the shortcomings of the direct contact feed techniques like

narrow bandwidth and poor efficiency of surface waves, the non contact

feeding mechanism was investigated by Pozar [7]. In this type of feed

technique, two separate laminates are used for the feed network and the

ground plane. The ground plane as shown in Fig. 1.6(a) separates the radiating

patch and the microstrip feed line. Coupling between the patch and the feed

line is made through a slot or an aperture in the ground plane. The feed line is

terminated either with an open circuit or a short circuit stub. The amount of

coupling from the feed line to the patch is determined by the shape, size and

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location of the aperture. Since the ground plane segregate the patch and the

feed line, contrived radiation is minimized. Generally, a high dielectric

substrate material is used for the lower layer and low dielectric substrate

material is used for the upper layer to most effective radiation from the patch.

The equivalent circuit of an aperture-coupled microstrip patch is shown in Fig.

1.5(b). In this case, the patch is a load for the slot and then this combination is

discontinuing with the open circuit stub (capacitance).

Fig. 1.5(a) and Fig. 1.5(b) Aperture-coupled feed patch antenna and its equivalent circuit

respectively

1.4.4 Proximity-coupled Feed Technique

Another form of non contact fed patches was investigated to overcome the

shortcomings of the direct contact fed patches is the proximity-coupled patch.

In this case, the power from the feed network is coupled electromagnetically

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therefore sometimes it is also called as the electromagnetic coupling scheme.

As shown in Fig. 1.6(a), two dielectric substrates are used such that the feed

line is separating the two substrates and the radiating patch is on top of the

upper substrate. In this technique, the coupling system is capacitive in nature

which is in distinction to direct contact methods which are principally

inductive. The difference in coupling affects the achievable impedance

bandwidth and therefore the bandwidth of a proximity-coupled patch is

inherently more than direct contact patches.

The capacitive nature of this non-contact excitation technique is presented in

the equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 1.6(b). The main advantage of this feed

technique is that it removes spurious feed radiation and provides very large

bandwidth, due to overall increase in the thickness of the microstrip patch

antenna. Matching can be attained by controlling the length of the feed line

and the width-to-line ratio of the patch. The major disadvantage of this feed

scheme is that it is difficult to create because of the two dielectric layers that

need proper alignment.

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(a) Proximity-coupled feed patch antenna (b) Equivalent circuit

Fig. 1.6(a) Proximity-coupled feed patch antenna and (b) its equivalent circuit

Some of the advantages and disadvantages of various types of feed techniques

are listed in Table 1.1.

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 Table 1.1 Advantages and disadvantages of various types of feed techniques

Technique Advantages Disadvantages

• Impedance matching by probe • Impedance is highly inductive

location. when thick substrates are used.

• Probe location can selectively • bandwidth achieved with

excite additional modes. impedance matching is low

Probe feed • Feed network is isolated from

the radiating patch,

minimizing spurious

radiation.

• ease of fabrication • High Spurious feed radiation

• easy to control level of input • Narrow bandwidth

impedance of an edge feed • Must be inset or use transformer

Microstrip patch to

line feed • High efficiency match impedance

• High cross polarization in case

of thick, high dielectric constant

material

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 • Independent optimization of • Multilayer fabrication is required

the feed and antenna substrates • Small air gap between the

• Suitable for integration with dielectric layers can significantly

Aperture-
active devices alter the input impedance
coupled
• No spurious radiation from • Lossy bonding material lowers the
feed
feed efficiency

• No via connectors

Minimal cross polarization levels

• Better bandwidth in • Direct radiation from coupling

comparison to direct contact region

feed patches • Difficult to fabricate due to

Proximity
• Several degrees of freedom multilayer fabrication and
Coupling
available for matching/tuning. alignment is required

• Small air gap between the

dielectric layers can significantly

alter the input impedance.

• Lossy bonding material lowers the

efficiency

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1.5 Method of Analysis for Microstrip Patch Antennas

Although microstrip patch antennas are relatively simple structures, their

analysis is quite complicated. The analysis of microstrip patch as is

complicated due to dielectric inhomogeneity, inhomogeneous boundary

conditions, narrow frequency band characteristics, wide variety of feed

techniques, variety of patch shapes and substrate configurations. Thus, a

balance must be reached between the complexity of method and accuracy of

solution by compromising one or more of features of microstrip antenna. In

this section, various analytical and numerical approaches for the analysis of

microstrip patch antennas are discussed in brief. Antenna analysis is important

for several reasons like:

(i) It can reduce the number of costly cut and try cycles by aiding the

design process.

(ii) By carrying out antenna analysis, we can ascertain advantages and

limitation of microstrip patch antenna.

(iii) An intensive analysis of any patch antenna geometry may provide

information for designing new antenna geometries and possibilities of

modifications in existing designs.

A tremendous amount of research has gone into developing analysis

approaches and models. A model may be considered as a good model if it has

following characteristics:

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 a) Its results must be accurate enough for intended purposes

b) It must be able to calculate all impedance and radiation characteristics

of antenna under consideration.

c) It must be as simple as possible, while providing the proposed

accuracy in results.

d) It must lend itself to interpretation in terms of known physical

phenomenon.

There are many methods of analysis for microstrip antennas. Cavity model,

transmission line model and multi-port model are known as analytical

techniques which are simple in application though less accurate. These models

use simplifying assumptions but well suited for understanding physical

phenomenon. A major drawback of analytical models is the limited accuracy

in resonant frequency and input impedance for the substrates that are not thin.

Further they have limited capacity to handle problems such as mutual

coupling, surface wave effects, large arrays and different substrate

configuration. Full-wave methods have received attention due to their rigor

and higher accuracy at the expanse of numerical simplicity. These numerical

techniques can provide analysis of microstrip antenna in which all effects such

as space wave radiation, surface wave loss and coupling, mutual coupling

between the edges and fringing field don’t have to be modeled but these

features are integrated in the analysis technique through an accurate Green’s

21
function. These techniques are very accurate and powerful. A brief

introduction of some of these analysis techniques and their salient features are

included here for the benefit of readers.

1.5.1 Transmission Line Model

Transmission line model (TLM) was the first technique employed to analysis a

rectangular microstrip antenna. This model may be used to convert an

electromagnetic field problem into an equivalent network problem [8]. The

abstraction of transmission line model can be applied to any microstrip

antenna configuration for which separation of variables is possible. Since

rectangular patches have a physical shape acquired from microstrip

transmission line therefore these antennas can be modeled as a section of

transmission line. The characteristic impedance and propagation constant for

the line are determined by the patch size and substrate parameters.

Transmission line model is the simplest of all but it yields the minimum

accurate results and it lacks the versatility. This simple model did not consider

the effect of substrate on radiation and input impedance. This improved model

is still applicable for the rectangular and square patch antennas. The variation

of fields along the width of the patch was still not accounted in this model.

This model may be used for microstrip and coaxial feed only. Proximity

coupled and aperture coupled microstrip antenna still cannot be analyzed with

this model.

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1.5.2 Cavity Model Technique

Microstrip patch antennas resemble dielectric loaded cavities and they exhibit

higher order resonances. The normalized fields within the dielectric substrate

may be found accurately by treating that region as a cavity bounded by electric

conductors and magnetic walls along the perimeter of the patch. A rectangular

patch can thus be viewed as a cavity resonator with perfect electric conductor

at the top and the bottom. This allows one to solve the wave equations for the

electromagnetic field distribution inside the patch. The cavity model may be

applied to microstrip antennas because these are narrow band resonator

antennas and can be termed as lossy cavities. It is assumed that the fields in

the interior region don't vary with z, because h<<z0. The electric field is z

directed only and magnetic fields have only the transverse components in the

region bounded by the patch metallization and the ground plane. The electric

current in the patch has no part normal to the edge of the patch metallization,

which indicate that the tangential component of magnetic field along the edge

is negligible and magnetic wall may be placed along boundary.

The interior fields determined by cavity model were correct only to the first

order because loading effect produced by outer fields was not included to

determine interior field. In this model, mutual coupling between the apertures

was included in an implicit manner by considering power only which accounts

for mutual conductance but not mutual susceptance. Moreover it did not

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estimate the ratio of aperture fields correctly in microstrip antennas having

more than one aperture. Therefore this model was not much suitable for array

application.

Multi port network model (MNM) discussed is an extension of cavity model in

which impedance boundary condition at the periphery was enforced explicitly.

This model also takes into account the mutual coupling between different

edges. One of the major advantages of this model is that any disruption present

in the patch is also included in the analysis.

1.5.3 Full Wave Analysis Technique

The techniques discussed in the previous section make a number of

simplifying assumptions. Therefore, they suffer from a number of limitations.

Most of the limitations might be for overcoming in the full wave analysis.

They offer the most accurate results and may be applied to arbitrary structures.

The full-wave analysis includes formulations that are electromagnetically

rigorous as well as computationally extensive. The principal assumption of

this technique is that the substrate and the ground plane are infinite in lateral

dimensions. Some of the features of the full wave technique include accuracy,

completeness, computational cost and versatility. In this chapter, three most

popular full wave techniques are presented in brief. These are spectral-domain

full wave analysis, the mixed-potential electric field integral equation

approach and the finite-difference time domain analysis.

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1.5.4 Spectral Domain Full Wave Analysis

It uses exact Green’s function for the mixed dielectric nature of the microstrip

antenna. The Green’s function is employed in the electric field integral

equation formulation to satisfy the boundary conditions at the patch

metalization. The resulting integral equations are discretized into a set of

linear equations by means of method of moment to yield a matrix equation.

The solution of matrix equation provides the current distribution on the patch

metalization. The near field and far field characteristics of antenna are

obtained from current distribution and Green function.

1.5.5 Mixed Potential Integral Equation Analysis

Mixed potential integral equation analysis (MPIE) approach is perhaps

computationally more efficient than spectral domain technique. The starting

point for the MPIE is the solution of an integral equation arrived from the

boundary conditions for the electric field at the patch metallization. Different

types of potential Green’s functions are used in MPIE to set up integral

equation. Among several possible choices, Summerfield choice of potential is

the most popular approach for solving stratified media problems. In MPIE, the

integral equation was solved in the space domain. For this, the spectral domain

potential Green’s function should be transformed to the space domain. By

applying this approach, various types of patch shapes, feed types, stacked

geometries, anisotropic substrates and array geometries were analyzed.

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1.5.6 Finite-Difference Time-Domain Analysis (FDTD)

The finite-difference time-domain [FDTD] method was first proposed by Yee

[6]. The major difference between FDTD and other numerical techniques was

that analytical preprocessing and modeling were almost absent in this model

hence analysis of complex antennas was easy. This approach can be used to

incorporate the effect of finite substrate size and ground plane, which are very

important in designing many microstrip antenna particularly for portable

receivers. Interaction between the device and circuits at the field level can be

inclined using FDTD model. This is necessary for perfect analysis of

microwave active circuits and antennas. FDTD has been used very

successfully in the design of antennas for several applications ranging from

simple microstrip antennas to complex phased-array antennas. Some of these

antennas are currently being used in mobile communications (cellular,

personal communication systems and networks), satellite communications,

global positioning system (GPS), and aeronautical and radar systems. FDTD

has the following advantages over other techniques:

(a) From the mathematical point of view it is a direct implementation of

Maxwell’s curl equation. Therefore analytical processing of Maxwell’s

equations is almost negligible.

(b) It is capable of predicting broadband frequency response because the

analysis is carried out in the time domain.

26
(c) When the geometric and material configuration becomes very

complex, the algorithm complexity remains low. This is particularly

true when modeling highly inhomogeneous dielectric objects.

(d) It is capable of analyzing structures using different types of materials

e.g. lossy dielectric, magnetized ferrites, anisotropic plasma etc.

(e) This technique does not require a linear system solution (matrix

inversion).

(f) Because it is a time-domain technique, it can predict the transient

response of an electromagnetic system. When these transient data are

transformed to the frequency domain, they translate into a wideband

system response.

The FDTD method has been extensively used for calculating frequency

domain characteristics such as voltage or current distribution, propagation

constants, S parameters, driving point impedance and so on.

1.5.7 Finite-Difference Time-Domain Analysis (FDTD)

The finite-difference time-domain [FDTD] method was first proposed by Yee

[6]. The major difference between FDTD and other numerical techniques was

that analytical preprocessing and modeling were almost absent in this model

hence analysis of complex antennas was easy. This approach can be used to

incorporate the effect of finite substrate size and ground plane, which are very

important in designing many microstrip antenna particularly for portable

27
receivers. Interaction between the device and circuits at the field level can be

inclined using FDTD model. This is necessary for perfect analysis of

microwave active circuits and antennas. FDTD has been used very

successfully in the design of antennas for several applications ranging from

simple microstrip antennas to complex phased-array antennas. Some of these

antennas are currently being used in mobile communications (cellular,

personal communication systems and networks), satellite communications,

global positioning system (GPS), and aeronautical and radar systems. FDTD

has the following advantages over other techniques:

(a) From the mathematical point of view it is a direct implementation of

Maxwell’s curl equation. Therefore analytical processing of Maxwell’s

equations is almost negligible.

(b) It is capable of predicting broadband frequency response because the

analysis is carried out in the time domain.

(c) When the geometric and material configuration becomes very

complex, the algorithm complexity remains low. This is particularly

true when modeling highly inhomogeneous dielectric objects.

(d) It is capable of analyzing structures using different types of materials

e.g. lossy dielectric, magnetized ferrites, anisotropic plasma etc.

(e) This technique does not require a linear system solution (matrix

inversion).

28
(f) Because it is a time-domain technique, it can predict the transient

response of an electromagnetic system. When these transient data are

transformed to the frequency domain, they translate into a wideband

system response.

The FDTD method has been extensively used for calculating frequency

domain characteristics such as voltage or current distribution, propagation

constants, S parameters, driving point impedance and so on.

1.5.8 Method of Moments (MOM)

The MOM is the most powerful tool available nowadays for analysis of fairly

general electromagnetic field problems that involve linear media. This

technique proposed by Harrington, transforms the integral equation into a

matrix algebraic equation, which may be easily solved on a computer. The

method of moments is among the most widespread numerical technique in

electromagnetic and this technique uses two important concepts of

electromagnetic, namely Green’s functions and superposition. Details of this

approach may be found in standard books on microstrip antennas like one by

Balanis [6].

If we look into available papers on microstrip antennas published in past years

which are based on simulation analysis, we will find that a large number of

papers are based on MoM based Designer simulation software. In our present

work, we have also applied this software and published several papers by

29
applying this software. Ensemble software based on Full wave moment

method is popular simulation software among antenna designers. Other

commercially available simulation software based on this model are SONNET

EM SUITE3D, MULTISTRIP and SSTRIP-40 based on Moment Method and

use of correct Greens functions.

1.5.9 Finite Element Method (FEM)

The FEM is a technique that can be used to efficiently analyze electromagnetic

structures that include inhomogeneous and anisotropic materials. The FEM is

based on solving the field distribution or equivalently solving for the

potentials. The equation that is to be solved numerically is usually derived

from differential form of Maxwell’s equations following the so-called

variational approach, which is equivalent to applying the Galerkin method. In

this method, the region where the fields exist is divided into a large number of

subdomains, which are of a finite size. Within each subdomain, the field or

potential distribution is approximated by a basis function, which is most often

a linear or a quadratic function. [8]

Although the finite element method is simple in concept, it suffers several

disadvantages. The derivatives of the approximated solution are inaccurate,

the difficulty in imposing the boundary conditions along non-straight

boundaries, the difficulty in accurately representing geometrically complex

domains and inability to employ non-uniform and non-rectangular meshes.

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The finite element method has advantages over other computing methods.

First, a geometrically complex domain of problem is represented as a

collection of geometrically simple sub domains, called finite elements.

Second, over each finite element, approximation functions are derived using

the basic idea that any continuous function can be represented by a linear

combination of algebraic polynomials.[9]

1.5.10 Other Analysis Models

Some other analysis models which either have limited applications or they

have very limited scope in analysis are as follows:

1.5.10.1 Dyadic Green’s Function Technique

Dyadic Green’s function method is an alternative technique for evaluating the

characteristics of a microstrip antenna. Once the dyadic Green’s function is

known, the field from an arbitrary source distribution may be found by means

of superposition integral as discussed by Collin and Zucker [10]. Alexopoulos

and Nzuneeghn [11] developed a dyadic Green’s function by considering a

hertzian dipole printed on a grounded substrate.

1.5.10.2 Wire Grid Model

This method seems to give reasonably good results, it is very costly and

provides little understanding of the operation mechanism of an antenna.

Agarwal and Bailey [12] modeled an antenna as a grid of wires. They modeled

the microstrip patch and feed lines by using thin wire grid.

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1.5.10.3 Modal Expansion Technique

This model is though similar to cavity model described earlier, differs in a way

that in rectangular cavity, impedance boundary conditions are imposed at the

four radiating walls to obtain solution. The constraint involves considering the

external stored and radiated energy effects as complex wall admittances.

Carver and Coffey [13] formulated design equations for a microstrip patch

radiator based on modal expansion technique.

1.5.10.4 Aperture Model

This model in principle is applicable only to narrow microstrip line sections

ended by open circuits. The radiating element is a slot at the end of open

circuited microstrip. Detailed analysis was carried out by introducing more

accurate model of magnetic surface currents, effect of reflection at the

terminations and losses produced by radiation and by excitation of surface

waves.

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