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Six Easy Steps That Explain The Radiation of Rectangular Patch Antenna
Six Easy Steps That Explain The Radiation of Rectangular Patch Antenna
Six Easy Steps That Explain The Radiation of Rectangular Patch Antenna
Karl F. Warnick
T
his article revisits a classic in anten-
na theory: the rectangular patch editors Note
antenna (RPA). The radiated elec- This issues Education Corner column features an article by Ren P. Meys and Ammar
tric field is computed from its physical Rouibah that provides a new way to visualize and calculate the fields radiated by one of
sources, i.e., the conduction and polariza- the most important antenna types in modern practice, i.e., the rectangular patch. This
tion currents, whose contributions are article ties the radiated fields to physically meaningful currents, which can in turn be
clearly identified. The symmetrical equiv- related to a pair of dipoles. As the authors conclude in the article, May the reader now
alent of the antenna is first analyzed, and understand this antenna somewhat better!
a coordinate system is chosen with the
z-axis parallel to the conduction currents.
The radiation of these currents appears as restrictions, only a summary of the 3) Superpose the elementary fields
close to that of two parallel dipoles carry- whole work can be presented. That is associated with all of the cur-
ing opposite currents, which means a very why we think this article is primarily rent elements.
simple and easy-to-understand system. intended for readers who have already This method is straightforward
It is further shown that the effect of the taken a course about the RPA or read whenever the currents can be rather
polarization currents is typically much a chapter in a textbook but arent com- easily defined with a reasonable accu-
smaller. The analysis is fully self-sufficient pletely satisfied with the information racy. The second method, which we
(no reference specific to the subject is they received. will call the virtual currents or indirect
needed). The radiation is summarized method, is derived from the electro-
by a figure with six parts that graphically TWO METHODS FOR CALCULATING magnetic theory [2]. It is based on the
explains the topic step by step. THE RADIATED FIELDS equivalence principle stating that the
There are two methods for computing fields radiated by any system can be
SCOPE OF THE ARTICLE the radiated electric field. The first is the computed if the fields on some arbi-
Many articles and books have been writ- physical or direct method and rests on trary surface enclosing the system are
ten about the RPA but, despite these the principles of radiation as established known and if these fields are replaced
efforts, many students and even engi- by modern physics [1]. According to this by adequate electric and magnetic cur-
neers dont consider the subject as evi- method, to compute the fields radiated rents that become virtual sources for the
dent. One reason may be that most by any system, you simply have to per- real fields. If applied without approxima-
articles have been written with research form the following steps. tions, both methods are rigorous and
in mind rather than education. The 1) Identify all (alternating) currents that equivalent. One should, however, be
approach presented in this article was, imply real charge movements; what aware that the second method leads to a
on the contrary, developed for teach- this means exactly will be explained vision of radiation that is completely dif-
ing purposes. However, due to space in a later section. ferent from the physically correct one.
2) Apply to all these currents the for- For example, according to the indirect
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MAP.2016.2613738
mula for the electric field radiated by method, a slot in a conducting sheet in
Date of publication: 1 December 2016 a current element. vacuum radiates while it is illuminated
Jvp
ulations indeed show that the conduction
currents are not uniformly spread over
l Jsc
l
the width w. They are somewhat small-
Jsc
er along the center line (at y = 0) than h 0
+h 0
along the edges (at y = w/2). In any x
x
analytical model, approximations have to
be made. In all classical models (i.e., the y y
w w
transmission line model or cavity model)
2h 2h
this variation is neglected, and we will do
the same here. From the Global Cur- (a) (b)
rent and Voltage Distributions on the FIGURE 4. The current densities on the symmetrical antenna: (a) the conduction
Symmetrical Antenna section, we know surface current density and (b) the polarization volume current density.
how the total current I depends on z.
This total current is, by definition, the This current density is part of the Combining (10) and (11) leads to the
integral of the surface current density total current density vJ v = vJ vc + vJ vp polarization current density
+w/2 and accordingly appears in Maxwells U (z) v
I (z) = # J sc (y, z) dy .(3) vJ vp (z) = - j~f 0 (f rd - 1) 1 .(12)
equation, giving the curl of the mag- 2h x
-w/2
netic field
With J sc that doesnt depend on y, (3)
v
ELECTRIC FIELD RADIATED BY
becomes v ) = vJ vc + vJ vp + f 0 2E
rot (H .(7) THE CONDUCTION CURRENTS
2t
The RPA is made of two parallel plates at
I (z) = J sc (z) w ,(4)
In classical electromagnetics, the vJ vp x = h and x = h carrying opposite current
or term is usually incorporated in the distributions J sc [as defined by (5)] and
displacement (in the vacuum) current Jlsc = - J sc . We first compute the electric
I (z ) v
vJ sc (z) = 1 = I m cos (b e z) 1v z .(5) term by writing ( | d being the suscep- field radiated by one plate that is supposed
w z w
tibility of the dielectric) to be at the origin. The electric field of
Other, less evident kinds of radiating v ,(8) both plates is then obtained through an
Pv = f 0 | d E
currents are polarization currents. array factor. The computation is further
The topic of polarization currents is v
vJ vp + f 0 2E v explained in Equivalent Length Calcula-
= f 0 (| d + 1) 2E
discussed in many electromagnetic 2t 2t tions. This leads to the following equiva-
v v
courses. However, in most cases, = f d 2E = f 0 f rd 2E , (9) lent length referred to as the maximum
these currents quickly disappear from 2t 2t current on the plates I m . (Those unfamil-
the equations, being hidden within where f 0, f d, f rd are the permittivity iar with the concept of equivalent length
the permittivity of the dielectric (see of the vacuum, the permittivity of the should simply view it as some normalized
[10]). When an electric field is applied dielectric, and the dielectrics relative form of the radiated electric field.)
to a dielectric, the atoms in matter permittivity, respectively.
vlemc (i, {) = 1 1
are somewhat distorted. More pre- This makes the polarization current r f re cos (i)
cisely, the center of negative charges disappear as a real charge current. To 1- ( )2
f re
(the cloud of bound electrons) and correctly compute the radiated electric # (sin (r f re L) cos (r cos (i) L)
the center of positive charges (the field using the direct method, we have to cos (i)
nucleus) split, making a small dipole extract it again as - sin (r cos (i) L)
f re
appear. Of course, when the sign of v
vJ vp = f 0 (f rd - 1) 2E # cos (r f re L)) (- sin (i))
the electric field changes, the dipole 2t sin (rW sin (i) sin ({))
also reverses, creating a real charge or #
rW sin (i) sin ({)
current. To deal with this effect, a
v .(10) # 2j sin (2rH sin (i) cos ({)) #1v i , (13)
polarization vector Pv is introduced vJ vp = j~f 0 (f rd - 1) E
that represents the volume density of where i and { are spherical angular
the elementary atomic dipoles. The Finding the electric field between coordinates; f re is the effective relative
polarization volume current density the plates is very easy, as we know the permittivity on the antenna considered
vJ vp is defined as voltage U(z): as a microstrip line; and H, L, and W
are dimensions of the antenna normal-
vJ vp = 2Pv .(6) v (z) = - U (z) 1v x .(11)
E ized by the free space wavelength m 0 .
2t 2h
Z -jb 0 r
1
Ev = - j 0 ( e ) vler I r ,(S1)
2 r P
Js
1r
where b 0 is the free space propagation factor and Z 0 is the P r 1
l r
characteristic impedance of vacuum. The vector quantity vler d T
is the normalized equivalent length of the antenna with I r
0
as the reference current. This current is often taken as the
input current of the antenna. However, here we will take x
the maximum current on the plates I m as the reference; one
reason being that we dont discuss the feed in this article. w y
For a surface current distribution vJ s and a volume current
distribution vJ v , the normalized equivalent lengths referred to
I m are [13] FIGURE S1. The geometry for calculating the electric field
radiated by the conduction currents (one current sheet at
the origin).
vJ sT (P l ) jb0 dl
vlem = 1 # e dSl ,(S2)
m0
Sl
Im
vJ vT (P l ) jb0 dl
vlem = 1 # e dV l .(S3) z
m0
Vl
Im
1
The integrations are extended to any point Pl on the antenna,
P
and the subscript T means that the current distributions have 1r
P
to be projected on the plane T transverse to the propaga J Vp r 1
l r
tion direction. d T
0
Application to the Conduction Currents
For a single plate at the origin, the sequence is (see Figure S1) x
y
v1i = cos (i) cos ({) v1x + cos (i) sin ({) v1y - sin (i) v1z,
v1{ = - sin ({) v1x + cos ({) v1y, w
v1r = sin (i) cos ({) v1x + sin (i) sin ({) v1y + cos (i) v1z, 2h
vr l = y l v1y + z l v1z,
d l = vr l . v1r = sin (i) sin ({) y l + cos (i) z l , FIGURE S2. The geometry for calculating the electric field
vJ s (P l ) = J s (P l ) v1z, radiated by the polarization currents.
J sT (P l ) = (vJ s (P l ) . v1i) v1i + (vJ s (P l ) . v1{) v1{ = J s (P l ) (- sin (i) v1i . (S4)
vr l =x l v1x + y l v1y + z l v1z,
The next step is to perform the integration involved in (S2) with vr l . v1r = sin (i) cos ({) x l + sin (i) sin ({) y l + cos (i) z l ,
dl =
vJ v (P l ) = J v (P l ) v1x,
J s (P l ) = J sc (z) = I m cos (b e z l ) .(S5) vJ vT (P l ) =(vJ v (P l ) . v1i) v1i + (vJ v (P l ) . v1{) v1{
w
= J v (P l ) (cos (i) cos ({) v1i - sin ({) v1{) . (S6)
If the result is multiplied by the array factor (2, 11) for two
plates carrying opposite currents and situated at x = h, The current distribution to be used is given by (12)
(13) follows. J v (P l ) = J vp (z) .(S7)
Application to the Polarization Currents Performing the integration leads to the result (15) for the
Following the same procedure, we get (see Figure S2) equivalent length associated with the polarization currents.
Some interesting consequences of a shortened dipole antenna, which on the microstrip/strip line (the dipole
can be derived from this formula. The means a dipole that is not a half wave is in fact somewhat shorter than a half
first factor is the equivalent length in free space but is about a half wave wave on the microstrip line due to
0 0
0.1 0.01
0.2
0.2 0.02
0.2 0.02
0.1 0.01 0.02
0 0.1 0
0 0.01
0.01 0
z 0.1 z
0.1 0.02 0.02 0.01
0.2 0.2
x y (a) x y (b)
0.02 0.02
0.01 0.01
0 0
0.01 0.01
0.02 0.02
0.02 0.02
0.01 0.02 0.01 0.02
0 0.01 0 0.01
0.01 0 0.01 0
z z 0.01
0.02 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.02
x y x y
(c) (d)
0.02 0.02
0.01 0.01
0
0
0.01 0.01
0.02 0.02
0.02 0.02
0.01 0.02 0.01 0.02
0 0.01 0 0.01
0 0
z 0.01 0.01 z 0.01 0.01
0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02
x y x y
(e) (f)
FIGURE 5. The six equivalent-length diagrams explaining the radiation of the RPA. (a) The shortened dipole. (b) The two
shortened dipoles carrying opposite currents. (c) The conduction currents. (d) The polarization currents. (e) The symmetrical
RPA. (f ) The real RPA.
similar (but not exactly equal) to that of the corresponding electric field is in Ecole polytechnique, Belgium. He is the
two parallel half-wave dipoles carrying phase but not parallel to the previous. author of 20 articles and one book in the
opposite currents. It has a linear polariza- We hope that readers now understand fields of circuit theory, noise measure-
tion along 1v i if 1v z is the resonance axis. this antenna somewhat better! ments, microwaves, and antennas. He is
The polarization currents in the dielectric a Senior Life Member of the IEEE.
add some radiated electric field, especial- AUTHOR INFORMATION Ammar Rouibah (amrouiba@ulb
ly around the 1v z axis, but this contribu- Ren P. Meys (rmeys@ulb.ac.be) is with .ac.be) is with the Universit libre de
tion is typically much smaller. Moreover, the Universit libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Ecole polytechnique, Belgium.
sharp drop in alpha waves, indicating but not the opposite. Now a similar birds-measure-magnetic-fields-using-long-lived-
that a set of neurons was firing in experiment is being conducted in Japan quantum-coherence
[2] E. Hand. (2016, Aug. 10). Polar explorer.
response to the magnetic field. Since by Kirschvinks colleagues, and that Science. [Online.] Available: http://science.sci-
the neural response came after a delay team, too, is starting to see repeatable encemag.org/content/352/6293/1508
of a few hundred milliseconds, Kirsch- EEG effects [2]. Maybe, just maybe, we [3] (2016, Aug. 10). Animal magnetoreception. Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urban-Champaign. [Online.]
vink characterized it as an active brain wont really need the magnetometer app Available: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/
response as opposed to an instantaneous for our smartphones. cryptochrome/
response that might occur by electric [4] I. Randall. (2016, Aug. 10). Electromagnet-
ic noise could set European robin adrift. Physics
currents induced in the brain by the References World. [Online]. Available: http://physicsworld.com/
magnetic field. Curiously, the alpha wave [1] M. Allen. (2016, Aug. 10). Birds measure mag- cws/article/news/2014/may/08/electromagnetic-
netic fields using long-lived quantum interfer- noise-could-set-european-robin-adrift
signal followed up-down and counter- ence. Physics World. [Online]. Available: http://
clockwise changes in the magnetic field physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2016/apr/07/
URSI 2017 G A S S
XXXIInd URSI GENERAL ASSEMBLY
& SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM
Digital Object
Digital Identifier
Object 10.1109/MAP.2016.2609978
Identifier 10.1109/MAP.2016.2542504
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MAP.2016.2594899