Numerical analysis of arbitrarily shaped probe-excited single-arm printed wire antennas

A general integral equation technique is described for analysis of an arbitrarily shaped single-arm printed wire antenna excited through a vertical probe. A unified current integral equation is formulated on the basis of dyadic Green's functions and the reciprocity theorem. The current distribution is obtained by using a parametric moment method in which parameter segments are adopted for the printed wire instead of the commonly employed wire length segments. The radiation field solution involving both the printed antenna and vertical probe is also presented. The validity of the formulation is verified by comparing the numerically obtained input impedance and radiation patterns for a linear antenna and a meander antenna with measured data. A circular open loop and an Archimedian spiral are investigated to illustrate the applicability of the present technique.