A study of computational techniques for noncanonical microstrip antennas and arrays

Three major tasks were performed on the analyses of microstrip antennas and arrays with noncanonical patch shapes. All three efforts include the development of computer programs for analysis of a broad class of antenna configurations. The first task which was intended to provide a basis for microstrip antenna analysis, was the development of a general numerical method for analysis of an arbitrary Hertzian dipole in general stratified media. The Hertzian dipole can be vertical or horizontal, electric or magnetic. The media is a multi-layer with arbitrary layer thicknesses, and complex dielectric constants. The second task is the development of a computer algorithm for microstrip antennas in terms of an equivalent horizontal magnetic current along the periphery of the patch. The complex distribution of this magnetic current is determined by requiring that the radiated fields on the patch surface vanish. Although numerical convergence was not achieved. This technique is considered promising and continued research is recommended. Research on microstrip arrays was conducted for diode-switched microstrip panels with a radom cover. A moment method approach was taken with the aperture expanded in terms of exponential basis functions and a single mode in the diode-gap region. The computer program developed was checked against known data for the reflection and transmission of the basic sandwiched screen structure. Application of these techniques can be found not only in microstrip antenna and arrays, but also in integrated circuits and geophysics.