Chapter 8: Microstrip Antenna Subarray Design Using Simulation-Based Optimization

Subarrays of microstrip antennas are important elements of contemporary low-profile arrays (Mailloux, 2005; Haupt, 2010). The low profile and low fabrication costs of microstrip subarrays justify their utility. Moreover, they can also be produced with the same fabrication techniques that are used to realize elements of amplitude and phase control, amplification, as well as other necessary antenna arrays elements, all on the same substrate (Garg et al., 2000; Waterhouse, 2003). At the same time, microstrip patch antennas are characterized by narrow fractional bandwidth when built on thin substrates and in their basic configurations (Jackson, 2007)…