Modelling the effect of 3D conformity on single and multi-band patch antennas

Two patch antennas have been modelled when they are conformed to the shape of a sphere using a technique for drawing unusual shaped antennas and commercially available MoM electromagnetic modelling software. First, a simple L-band printed circular patch antenna on a square groundplane was modelled with the theoretical results showing good agreement with those obtained experimentally. Next, a circular patch antenna, conforming to a sphere, has been studied. Theoretical input reflection coefficient and polar radiation plots have been produced showing the effect of curvature. Next, an "E" shaped PIFA triple band antenna etched on a thin piece of copper foil designed for the GSM and PCS frequencies of 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz has been modelled on a spherical host for differing radii, producing reasonable results. The S11 and polar radiation plots have shown very little influence of curvature, perhaps due to the small distance of the antenna from the ground plane.