ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF APERTURE-COUPLED MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNAS ANDARRAYS FED BY DIELECTRIC IMAGE LINE

This paper presents the analysis and design of aperture-coupled micros trip patch antennas and arrays fed by an dielectric image line. A theo ry based on the cavity model of the microstrip patch antenna and the c hange in the modal voltage of the image line at the aperture was devel oped to analyze the single element aperture-coupled microstrip patch a ntenna. The theory developed was combined with the array theory to des ign linear traveling wave arrays at X-band and Ka-band frequencies. Th e required taper in the excitations of the individual patches of the a rray was achieved by varying the aperture dimensions. Experiments show very good results for the antennas and the arrays.