Analysis of planar microstrip antennas using the finite element method

The popularity and usefulness of microstrip antennas has made it increasingly necessary to find a method to accurately determine the radiation patterns of these antennas through the modeling process. One such tool studied was MSC/EMAS and MSC/XL, which are programs that utilize the finite element method. In this paper, these programs are used to construct and analyze several microstrip antennas such as a patch antenna, a square spiral antenna and an equiangular spiral antenna (the spiral antennas have become popular due their very large bandwidth and circular polarization). The far-field patterns were obtained and verified with a suitable reference, such as experimental data and/or theoretical data. The current density distributions on the radiating conductors were also examined to provide insight into the radiation of these antennas.