Electronics and Communications in Japan, Part 1, Vol. 71, No.

2 , 1988
T r a n s l a t e d from D e n s h i T s u s h i n G a k k a i K o n b u n s h i , Vol. 69-B, No. 9 , S e p t e m b e r 1 9 8 6 , pp. 941-948

Numerical Analysis of the Microstrip Printed Dipoles

Masanobu Kominami and Katsu Rokushima, Members

Faculty of Engineering, University of Osaka Prefecture, Sakai, Japan 591

SUMMARY radiated into the dielectric and the surface

wave modes excited along the substrate is
The moment method in the Fourier-trans- strongly related to the substrate parameters.
formed domain has been used widely as a
rigorous numerical method for analysis of The cylindrical dipole with an ex-
-5
patch antennas, microstrip lines, finlines tremely small radius (10 - 4 A. - 10 Xo) on a
and planar circuit structures. In this paper,
this methodhas beenapplied to aplanar printed grounded dielectric substrate has been anal-
dipole on the grounded dielectric substrate. yzed in detail by solutions of the Pockling-
The integrand in Sommerfeld-type integrals ton integral equation by a moment method
with a slow convergence rate has been modi- [5, 61. In these analysis methods, the Som-
fied by means of an effective dielectric merfeld-type integral that provides the
constant determined from the asymptotic Green's function in the cylindrical coordi-
values for large spectral components so that nate converges rather slowly and hence
the convergence can be improved signifi- numerical treatment is cumbersome [6].
cantly. The method of computing the matrix
elements in the moment method, evaluation of In this paper, the moment method in
the effective radius of a planar dipole and the Fourier transform domain used in the
separation of the radiated power and the sur- previous analysis of a printed dipole or a
face wave power are discussed. Finally, the slot on a semiinfinite dielectric substate
validity of the method is confirmed by com- 131 is applied to the problem of a planar
parison with measured data. In addition, the dipole on a grounded dielectric substrate.
effect of the substrate thickness on the an- In this method, the effect of the surface
tenna performance is discussed. waves guided along the dielectric substrate
can easily be separated from the radiation
field. A method is presented in which the
1. Introduction convergence of the Sommerfeld-type integral
is accelerated by separation of the imped-
A printed dipole made of a strip con- ance matrix elements by way of the effective
ductor on a dielectric substrate has been permittivity into the portion with a closed
used widely as an element of various arrays. form and the infinite integrals with fast
For instance, in the microwave frequencies, convergence. To evaluate the effect of the
it is used for array antennas for radar [ l ] width of the planar dipole accurately, the
and phased array antennas [ 2 , 31. In the choice of the distribution of the current
millimeter-wave frequencies, the applica- perpendicular to the axis is studied in con-
tions include imaging antennas [ 4 ] and plasma nection with the effective radius. Finally,
diagnostics antennas [ 4 ] . In the design of the validity of the method is confirmed by
these arrays, it is important to determine way of numerical examples and the effect of
the impedance, resonant length, bandwidth, the substrate thickness on the antenna char-
radiation patterns and radiation efficiencies acteristics is presented.
of the individual unit element.

The characteristics of the printed 2. Theory

dipole antenna depend strongly on the thick-
ness, permittivity and loss of the dielec- 2.1 Moment method
tric substrate on which the dipole is placed,
in addition to the length and width of the The structure of a printed dipole on
dipole itself [ 5 ] . This is because the a grounded dielectric substrate is shown in
coupling between the electromagnetic fields Fig. 1. The thickness o f the substrate is

113 1SSN8756-6621/88/0002-0113$7.50/0
Q 1988 Scripta Technica, Inc.
 I' where
(3)

GROUND PLANE
condition at -
When Eq. ( 2 ) is applied to the excitation
d , the following equation
on the current distribution in the Fourier-
Fig. 1. Printed dipole on a grounded dielec- transform domain can be obtained:
tric substrate.
i?,,( k , ,k,, d ) 7, ( k , , k , ) + Ea( k , ,k , ) =go( k , ,k , , )
(5)
d , the relative permittivity is E~ and the where E_(x, y) is the excitation electric
3
loss tangent is tan 6. The dipole is made
field defined on the dipole and E (x, y) is
of a sufficiently thin conducting plate of 0
length L and widih W. It is assumed that the unknown electric field outside the di-
the dipole is excited at the center with an pole.
ideal 6 function-type electric field Es(x,
y) - -v0m. J,(Z,
To determine the current distribution
Y), it is expanded in terms of known
The electromagnetic field in the struc- functions J X n ( x ,y) as follows:
ture made of two media attached to each other
is not TEM, but hybrid in nature. The elec-
tromagnetic fields in each region can be ex- N
pressed in terms of two scalar functions I,(..,y)=C I J (..,y> (6)
n=1
satisfying the Helmholtz equation [ 3 ] . Since
the structure is layered in the z direction,
a Fourier transform where I n is the unknown constant. When the
moment method in the Fourier transform is
applied to Eq. (5), the following algebraic
?<k , , k , I =jlIr (z I Y) e
j(k,z+$u)
d x d y (1) equation is obtained:

N
is applied to a function in the spatial co- C Z, I,, =Vm (m=1 ,2 , * * a , N) (7)
n= 1
ordinates f ( x , y). The formulation is car-
ried out in the transformed domain. The
symbol ( - ) indicates Fourier-transformed where
quantities.

Similar to the case f o r a semiinfinite

substrate [ 3 ] , the boundary conditions at
z = 0 and d are considered for derivation of

It is assumed here that the width of the di-

pole is sufficiently smaller than the free by virtue of Parseval's theorem, Eq. (9) be-
space wavelength and the length. The Green's comes
function K (kx, k , 2 ) is given as follows:
X? Y
K,, ( kz k, =) (rn in the region containing the source)
- vo r 2 ( k t - k k ) c o s r l d + j rl(k,2-ki) sinr,d =
--J Gg T* Tm
0 (rn in other regions)
(10)

114
Solution of Eq. (7) determines the unknown 2.3 Current expansion functions and
expansion coefficients In' effective radius

The expansion function Jxn(x, y j for

2.2 Improvement of convergence of the
infinite integrals the current distribution is chosen as

The matrix elements 2m in the imped- J,, ( x ,Y ) = S , , ( x ) U , , ( y > ( 5)

ance matrix can be evaluated by numerical For S (x), a piecewise-sinusoidal function
integration. Convergence of the integral n
is improved by modification of the inte- is used:
grand.

If the dipole with the dimensions iden-

tical to those in Fig. 1 is placed in a
homogeneous dielectric material with the
relative permittivity of E ~ ke
, = ne JEekO,
= y,/s;e' and y,' = ke
2
* kx
2
- kY2 , then the where ke = JEekO is the wavenumber in the
Green's function is
effective homogeneous material obtained in
the previous section. As U n ( x ) , the follow-
ing two equations are considered:

1 (static distribution)
From the condition that Eqs. ( 3 ) and (11)
2 (1 7a)
become equal for a sufficiently large (kz

+ k 2 ) , the relative permittivity ce is de-

Y
termined as U,,(Y) = w (uniform distribution) (17b)

E =- 1 + 6,
When Eqs. (15) and (16) are applied to
2
the space coordinate expression (A3) for
h
Now, Eq. (8) is divided into two terms Zm, the integrations on the variables x and

z,, = Zkn + A zm, (14)

X' can be performed readily [7], and the re-
sult is
where

- Z ; , ( k z , k, ,a!)) z ( k , , k,) a! k,d k, (14b)

h
Zm coincides with the results for the
moment method solution of Pocklington's
equation for the dipole in a homogeneous
medium. If the effective radius presented
in the next section is used, the result can
be expressed in a closed form. On the other
hand, AZm can be evaluated efficiently as
the convergence is improved compared to Eq.
(8) since the integrand quickly approaches
2 2
zero for a large value of kx + kY'
115
R is the term to evaluate the y direction These equations have roots in the range
dependence of the current distribution and
is defined as
where 6 (= Jk: + k2)
Y
is ko 6 G.
Modification of these equations results in
the characteristic equations

It is well known that for a cylindrical di-

pole with a radius a,

2 A x,,
9=2 l o g y Figure 2 illustrates this situation. Since
the treatment of the surface wave pole is
detailed in [8], only the results relevant
is chosen as the value corresponding to the to the analysis of printed dipoles are pre-
foregoing [7]. sented.

When the two equations in Eq. (17) are When the relative permittivity E~ and
substituted into Eq. (20) and the integra- the thickness d of the substrate are given,
tion is carried out, one obtains
the (integer) number of the surface wave
modes is in the range of
9 = 2 log -
8 A x (static distribution) (22a)
w
x -4
2 k, d <Np I
; k, d +1 (25)
2Ax
9 = 2 log
W In Fig. 2, when yld is increased from 0 and
(uniform distribution) (22b)
hence 6 is decreased from G F k O , the roots
(see Appendix 2). Comparison with Eq. (21)
of the characteristic equations are TM and
indicates that the printed dipole in a
TE in an alternate order and their values
homogeneous material can be treated as a
are in the range
cylindrical dipole if the effective radius
of ae = 0.25 W is used for the static dis-
tribution, and ae = 0.233 W for the uniform
distribution. Then Eq. (14a) can be ex-
pressed in a closed form.
(P= 1 2 .* ,Np) (26)
2.4 Radiation field and surface waves
The thickness d of the substrate for which
the pth mode is cut off is
In Fig. 1, a portion of the electromag-
netic wave radiated from the dipole into
the dielectric material propagates along the
substrate while the total internal reflec-
tions are repeated at the interfaces to the
air and the ground plane. This is the so-
called surface wave which is detrimental
from the viewpoint of antenna design. For
instance, it may reduce the radiation effi-
ciency [4], generate the blindness due to
mutual coupling by way of the substrate [ 2 ] ,
and excite parasitic oscillation due to
coupling to an active device.

The effect of the surface wave on the

impedance matrix may be evaluated by the
integral near the pole,(residue) in Eq. (14b).
The pole of Eq. ( 3 ) is given as a root of the
following equations: 84 :
/<ko TMa TED TMI TElko

Fig. 2 . A graphical solution of the charac-

teristic equations.

116

When d(mm) is given, the frequency f(GHz) at
which the pth mode is cut off is
Since the Green's function in a homo-
geneous material has no pole, the effect of
the surface wave in the impedance matrix
element Zm is not contained in the first
term Zh If
m but in the second term A Zm'
Tm or Te in Eq. ( 4 ) is Taylor expanded with
the surface wave pole as the first-order
term, the integral near the pole can readily
be carried out as in the case of a micro-
strip patch antenna [ 9 ] . If the dielectric
loss is neglected, Zm can be given as the
sum of the contributions from the radiation
field and the surface waves:
zmn= ZZd +pc=
NP
22,".
1 2
The power supplied from the source to
the dipole antenna is given in terms of Eqs.
(6) and (7) as
eat=,Re1
1 seen from this figure, convergence of the
=-Re
2 reactance is poor with Eq. ( 8 ) and the upper
Further, if Eq. (29) is used,
N.,
where Pradand P are the radiated power
swP
and the surface wave power given by
M M
m= 1 n= 1
} (32b)
The radiated power Pradcan also be evaluated
by integrating the power density given by
the far-field expression obtained from the
method of stationary phase over a semisphere
of sufficiently large radius [ 3 1 .
In the absence of dielectric loss, the
surface wave poles are real numbers and the
radiated power and the surface wave power
can be separated in the calculation of the
infinite integral in Eq. ( 8 ) . However, if '
there is a loss in the dielectric material,
the surface wave poles are complex numbers
and the separation of the radiated power
and the surface wave power cannot be done
from the integral calculation of Eq. ( 8 ) .
In such a case, the radiated power must be
calculated from the integral of the far
field.
3. Numerical Results
In this section, the characteristics
of the printed dipole on a grounded dielec-
tric substrate are investigated in accord-
ance with the theory presented above. In
the calculations, Rexolite 1422 ( E =
~ 2.53
2 0.03, tan 6 = 0.00066 (10 GHz) is assumed
as the substrate.
First, to study the convergence of the
infinite integral, the relationship between
(29)
the upper limit of the integral 8,
-
(= 0
X
+ kY ) and the impedance is shown in Fig. 3
when Eq. (8) is obtained directly from the
moment method or Eq. ( 1 3 ) is obtained by
modification by means of the effective di-
electric constant. The current on the di-
pole has been expanded in terms of five-
section piecewise-sinusoidal functions in
the axial direction and the static distribu-
tion (17a) in the transverse direction. As
limit of the integral must be more than 100
On the other hand, it is only 10 ko if
ko.
Eq. (13) is used. Hence, convergence is im-
proved significantly.
Next, the input impedance is compared
in Fig. 4 for the dipole length of L from
0.1 A. to 1.2 A 0 with the current distribu-
tion in the transverse direction approxi-
mated with the static distribution (17a) or
the uniform distribution (17b). It is found
that little difference exists between two
choices of basis functions.
Figure 5 shows the frequency depend-
ence of the input admittance of the dipole
of length L = 35 mm on the substrate of
thickness d = 3.02 mm for a number of values
of W (W = 1, 5, 10 mm). The symbol o in
the figure indicates the measured results of
the resonant frequency of the printed di-
poles coupled loosely to a microstrip line
feed [ l o ] . In all cases, the difference
117
 - 0.8 W=llOrnrn E== 2.53
0.6- 1 tan6=0,00066
Er=2 -53
tan6=0.00066 z
e -200
(L

5
c, -400O K

-0.4 - _ _B ,
::
:' ':, 0 MEASURED

0 50 100 150 200 2,2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3,O 3 . 2 3

UPPER LIMIT B,,,/ko FREQUENCY ( GHz 1

Fig. 3. Convergence of the input impedance. Fig. 5 . Dependence of the input admittance
on the strip width.

1.4
0
n
W
>
W
1.2
V
.z
LL
a
\ * 1 1.n-
-.

0.2 0,4 . 0 , 6 0.8 1 , O 1.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0,8

LENGTH L ( X o THICKNESS d/Ao

Fig. 4 . Dependence of the input impedance Fig. 6 . Surface wave pole vs. substrate
on the basis functions. thickness.

between the measured and computed results is

less than 1.5 percent.

To study the effect of the substrate

thickness on the antenna characteristics,
Fig. 6 presents the surface wave pole B lk
P O
vs. the substrate thickness dlAO. The com-
plex roots of Eqs. (24a) and (24b) have been
obtained by the Newton-Raphson method and the
real parts of the roots are shown. It is
clear from this figure and Fig. 2 that there -2001 I I
is no cutoff in the TMo mode which exists 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
even if the substrate is extremely thin. As THICKNESS d/am
the substrate thickness is increased, the
higher-order modes appear successively. Fig. 7. Input impedance vs. substrate
thickness.
Figure 7 shows the input impedance vs.
the substrate thickness dlAo for the dipole
lengths of L = 0.5 Xo and 1.0 ho. In the this figure, it is found that both the re-
sistance and the reactance start from 0 and
figure, also shown is the value for the di- approach the value for the dipole on a semi-
pole on a semiinfinite substrate [ 3 ] . From infinite substrate while oscillating.

118
 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0,s
THICKRESS d/A. THICKNESS d/Ae

Fig. 8. Radiation efficiency vs. sub- Fig. 10. Variation of powers with substrate
strate thickness. thickness ( L = 1.0 X o ) .

2 .o
lSW+
I

2sw -+- 3sw - 4sw

SEMI-

90' I
'

(a) E-plane ( $ = O 0 )
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
c a 4
THICKNESS d/X, n.

Fig. 9. Variation of powers with substrate

thickness ( L = 0.5 X o ) .

Figure 8 presents the results of the

radiation efficiency defined by

7j =- Prad x loo(%) (33)

Ptot ( b ) H-plane ( $ = g o o )
-
from Eqs. (30) and (32) for the dipoles with
the same dimensions as before. From this
-_-
d - 0.5
d 0.1
____- -
d 0.03 A.
A.
Xo
figure, it is found that about 10 percent of
the input power is consumed for excitation Fig. 11. Radiation patterns of resonant
of the surface wave in the case of a half- printed dipoles.
wave dipole on a substrate of about 1 mm
thickness made of PTFE (polyethylene) which that the total input power increases from 0
is used often in the microwave applications. to the one for the dipole on a semiinfinite
substrate while undulating [ 3 ] . The power
The total input power P tot' radiated consumed as the surface waves increase from
power Pradand surface wave power in each the cutoff point of each mode and decay after
the maximum point, is reached when the sub-
mode Psw vs. the substrate thickness dlXo strate thickness is increased. The location
P of the peak point and the generating rate of
are shown in Figs. 9 and 10 for L = 0.5 Xo
each mode depend on the antenna length.
and 1.0 Xo. It is assumed that the dipole
is excited with a 1-V constant voltage Finally, the radiation characteristics
source. From these figures, it is found vs. the substrate thickness are studied.

119
Figure 11 shows radiation patterns of a
series resonance dipole on three different
substrates. These thicknesses are chosen
such that one is for a usual value in strip-
line configuration ( d = 0.03 X 0 ) and others
are for one and three surface modes ( d = 0.1
Xo, d = 0.5 A o ) . For a constant width of
W = 0.011 Xo, the resonant length of the di-
pole in each configuration is L = 0.3445 ho
(d = 0.03 X ) , L = 0.325 Xo ( d = 0.1 h o ) and
0 Trans, Antennas and Propag., AP-29,
L = 0.347 X ( d = 0.5 h o ) . From this fig-
0
ure, it is found that the beamwidth is re-
duced in the E plane (+ = 0 " ) as the sub-
strate thickness increases. In the H plane
(+ = go"), the band widths are little dif-
ferent for d = 0.03 ho and 0.1 Xo while the
beam is split into two for d = 0.5 Ao.
4. Conclusions
The basic characteristics of a planar
printed dipole on a grounded dielectric sub-
strate have been analyzed by means of the
moment method in the Fourier-transformed
domain, Relatively slow convergence of the
Sommerfeld-type integral has been acceler-
ated by modifying the integrand with the ef-
fective dielectric constant determined from
the asymptotic value for a large spectral
component. The method of calculations for
the matrix element, and the relationship
between the current distributions in the
transverse direction of the printed dipole
and the effective radius have been presented.
The evaluation of the surface mode along the
substrate has been described and the effect
on the antenna characteristics has been
studied numerically.
The present paper treated only a single
dipole. However, this method can be applied
to dipole arrays including the mutual inter-
action and to the patch antenna. If the re-
action equation by Richmond is combined with
the present moment method in the Fourier-
transform domain, the problem of coupling
[ l o ] between the printed dipole and the
microstrip line can be analyzed rigorously.
Suppression of the surface wave and the
intentional use of the surface wave are the
subject of future study. It is also import-
ant to study the design of dipole array an-
tennas including practical excitation
methods.
120
Acknowledgement. The authors thank
Prof. S . Mori and Dr. J. Yamakita of Uni-
versity of Osaka Prefecture for helpful
discussions.
REFERENCES
1. R.S. Elliott and G.J. Stern. The de-
sign of microstrip dipole arrays in-
cluding mutual coupling, part I:
Theory, part 11: Experiment, I.E.E.E.
p p . 757-765 (Sept. 1981).
2. b:M. Pozar and D.H. Shaubert. Scan
blindness in infinite phased arrays of
printed dipoles, I.E.E.E. Trans. An-
tennas and Propag., AP-32, pp. 602-
610 (June 1984).
3. M. Kominami, D.M. Pozar and D.H. Schau-
bert. Dipole and slot elements and
arrays on semiinfinite substrates,
I.E.E.E. Trans. Antennas and Propag.,
AP-33, pp. 600-607 (June 1985).
4. D.B. Rutledge and M.S. Muha. Imaging
antenna arrays, I.E.E.E. Trans. An-
tennas and Propag., AP-30, pp. 535-
540 (July 1982).
5. P. Katehi and N.G. Alexopoulos. On the
effects of substrate thickness and per-
mittivity on printed circuit dipole
properties, I.E.E.E. Trans. Antennas
and Propag., AP-31, pp. 34-39 (Jan.
1983).
6. I.E. Rana and N.G. Alexploulos (sic).
Current distribution and input imped-
ance of printeddipoles, I.E.E.E. Trans.
Aptennas and Propag., AP-29, pp. 99-
105 (Jan. 1981).
7. Uchida and Mushiake. UHF Antennas,
Corona Publ. (1955).
8. Koyama and Nishihara. Optoelectronics,
Chap. 8, Corona Publ. (1978).
9. D.M. Pozar. Input impedance and mutual
coupling of rectangular microstrip an-
tennas, I.E.E.E. Trans. Antennas and
Propag., AP-30, pp. 1191-1196 (Nov.
1982).
0. M. Kominami, T. Takei and K. Rokushima.
A printed dipole electromagnetically
coupled to a microstrip feed line,
Proc. ISAP'85, 023-1, pp. 93-96 (Aug.
1985).
1. R.F. Harrington. Time-Harmonic Elec-
tromagnetic Fields, McGraw-Hill Book
Comp., New York (1961).
12. W.L. Stutzman and G.A. Thiele. Antenna
Theory and Design, John Wiley ti Sons,
Ch. 7, New York (1981).
13. Moriguchi, Udagawa and Hitotsumatsu.
Mathematical Formulas I, p. 164, 217,
Iwanami Publ. (1956).
 APPENDIX

1. Expression of Z in terms of
mn
space coordinates

When a dipole with the same dimensions

as the one in Fig. 1 is placed in a homogene-
ous medium with the relative permittivity of
E the electric field generated in the re-
e’
gion 0 5 z 5 d due to the nth current expan-
sion function is given from Eq. (2) as

This result coincides with the one obtained

by solution of the Pocklington integral
equation for a strip dipole in a homogene-
ous medium by Galerkin’s method [12].

where S is the region in which the nth cur- 2. Derivations of Eqs. (22a) and (22b)
n
rent expansion function is defined (15 - Substitute Eq. (17a) into Eq. (20) and
2’1 5 h, I y I 5 W/2). When Eq. (11) is sub- perform change of variables y = -(W/2) cos
stituted and the integral expression of the 2q7, y ’ = -(W/2) cos 2 ~ ’ . After modifi-
Green’s function in a homogeneous medium [ll] cation, one obtains
is used,

When the integration is carried out with the

help of the integration formula [131

-jk, J ( ~ - z ’ ) * + ( y - y ’ ) ~ + ( 1 - d ) ~

1 J;x-& )2 + (y -y ) + 2 ( 2- d )
one obtains E q . ( 2 2 a ) .

When Eq. (17b) i s substituted into Eq.

-
- jk , J ( z - z‘ ) + ( y - y ’1 + ( z +d)’ d x‘ d y’ (20) and the change of variable I-I = y - y’
is used,
J (x-x( ) ’+ ( y - y l y + ( Z + d ) 2 .
, m,

Hence, by virtue of Parseval’s theorem and

the preceding equation, Eq. (14a) becomes

121
With the integration formula [131
--)m+l
1 (m+l)

one obtains Eq. (22b).

AUTHORS (from left to right)

Masanobu Kominami graduated from University of Osaka Prefecture, Dept. of Electrical

Engineering in 1969 and completed the Master's program in 1971. In the same year he became
an Research Associate of the same University. From 1983 to 1984, Visiting Fellow at the Uni-
versity of Massachusetts. His research interest is in antenna and microwave circuits. Doc-
tor of Engineering and Member, I.E.E.E.

Katsu Rokushima graduated from Osaka University, Dept. of Electrical Engineering,in

1950. In the same year he joined the University of Osaka Prefecture, Dept. of Electrical
Engineering. Since then he has been engaged in research of microwave circuits, antennas and
optical waveguides. Presently, he is a Professor of the same University. Doctor of Engineer-
ing and Member, I.E.E.E.

122