EXPERIMENTAL-VERIFICATION OF THE 2-D ROOFTOP APPROACH FOR MODELING MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNAS

Radiation pattern and input impedance measurements for a rectangular microstrip patch are used to establish the accuracy of a general moment method approach. The approach uses two-dimensional (2-D) rooftop basis functions to model arbitrarily shaped, three-dimensional (3-D) composite, conductor-dielectric structures. The numerical results show agreement with the measurements. However, both the experimental and theoretical results show considerable differences when compared with previously published analyses using pulse-basis functions. These differences and others that are pointed out cast series doubts on the validity of using pulse basic functions to model scattering or radiation from composite structures.