Analysis of radiating microstrip structures using the contour integral method

In this paper, we discuss the possibility of numerically solving electromagnetic radiation problems from microstrip structures with only contour discretization of the radiating elements. We demonstrate that such a numerical method can be realized by exploiting the underlying physics of microstrip surfaces, and combining the so-called contour integral method with the equivalence principle. Such a numerical technique requires fewer unknowns and can potentially lead to significant computational savings in the simulation of large microstrip structures such as arrays, reflectarrays, metasurfaces, etc. Preliminary results show that the technique can accurately predict the input impedance and radiation pattern of a patch antenna in an array environment.