Antenna design and characterization based on the elementary antenna concept

An antenna-design technique based on an elementary-antenna model (an infinitesimal pillbox structure carrying electric and magnetic currents and containing propagating TEM fields) is developed and demonstrated. An EM description of a waveguide aperture is obtained by applying approximate boundary conditions at specific points; the transmitted field is developed locally into a set of TEM field components to compute the radiation pattern; and aperture matching is achieved by calculating the aperture reflection as well. Parallel-plate, circular, and rectangular waveguides; two single-polarization TEM waveguide radiators (with and without dielectric filling); a dielectric-filled dual-polarization TE(01) waveguide radiator; and a hybrid reflector array with limited beam switching based on the TE(01) radiator are presented.