Differential Feeding Technique for Active Integrated Antennas

A simple new structure for non-contact coupling of differential signals to an antenna is presented. In the new method, a differential signal generates voltage maxima on either side of a microstrip gap under a patch antenna. This technique effectively merges the front end balun or power combiner/divider into the antenna feed. This feeding method has been successfully applied to the design of simple passive microstrip antennas and active integrated antennas, AIAs. Simulated and measured results are included to validate the proposed feeding concept, and the relative merits of this and other reported differential feeding techniques are briefly assessed