Analysis of microstrip structures of finite ground plane using the hybrid volume-surface integral equation approach

The hybrid volume-surface integral equation (VSIE) approach has been applied to calculate the input impedance of the printed structure with finite ground plane. The calculated results for a rectangular patch antenna have been compared with experiment and good agreement is observed. When the ground plane size increases, the input impedance converges to the result of infinite ground plane. An important advantage of the VSIE algorithm is that it can be used to simulate the printed structure of finite, arbitrary shaped ground plane.