Characteristic Mode Formulations of Composite PEC and Lossy Dielectric Objects

Lossy dielectric substrate affects the performance of a nearby perfect electric conductor (PEC) antenna. This letter presents a set of formulae for characteristic mode analysis (CMA) of composite PEC and lossy dielectric objects. It is based on the volume-surface integral equation and substructure treatment that separates the radiation and dissipation powers of the composite structure. A narrow PEC plate (that represents a dipole antenna) is placed in proximity of a thick, lossy dielectric material, and CMA of this structure is presented as an example. The separation gap between the PEC and dielectric objects affects the resonance and radiation efficiency of the antenna, and it is shown that CMA accurately captures those effects. The influence of dielectric loss on the modal orthogonality is discussed. Since the PEC item dominates over the coupling one in the substructure operator, the computed modes maintain good orthogonality with low-loss dielectrics. Owing to the physical insights of CMA, it has many potential applications associated with lossy materials.