Recent advances in microstrip antenna analysis

The analyses of microstrip antenna element configurations discussed in earlier chapters were based on some degree of approximation concerning the current and field distributions. The results obtained show reasonable agreement with practical results in some cases, but various adjustments have to be made to the parameters used in the calculations to improve agreement. Examples of this are the use of effective widths of open circuit transmission lines rather than the physical width to calculate the radiation conductance and the allowances for fringe fields in calculating the resonant frequency of patch antennas. In this chapter, recent advances in the mathematical analysis of microstrip antennas are outlined and the extent to which they model the precise physical action is particularly discussed together with likely sources of error.