Accurate analysis and modeling of slot coupled patch antennas by the TLM-IE and the FDTD methods

An accurate analysis and modeling of slot coupled patch antennas is proposed in this work. Two time- domain methods are used for the electromagnetic simulation of these structures, namely the hybrid Transmission Line Matrix-Integral Equation (TLM-IE) method and the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. In order to establish the accuracy of these approaches, an antenna, working at the frequency of 10 GHz, is fabricated and tested. The measured data are then compared with those obtained from the numerical simulations of the same structure. The antenna is characterized in the hypothesis of infinite ground plane and by neglecting the dielectric losses. The scattering parameters, as well as the input impedance and the far field radiated by the antenna, are evaluated by adopting, for both methods, the same uniform grid. The computed results are found to be in a good agreement with the experimental results. The capability to simulate accurately this kind of structures could be applied to the understanding of more complicated effects, such as the ground plane truncation.