LAUSR

Transverse electric (TE) modes of microstrip patch antennas are investigated by applying proper boundary conditions. Conventional patch antennas are made of perfect electric conductors (PECs), exciting the transverse magnetic modes. As per the duality theorem, TE modes will be excited if the patch and the ground plane are replaced by perfect magnetic conductors. In particular, the TE10 mode is studied using artificial magnetic conductors (AMC) consisting of unipolar compact photonic bandgap unit cells. They are placed on the top and bottom walls of the cavity, enforcing the tangential component of the magnetic field intensity to zero and thus supporting the TE mode. It is shown that the AMC patch antenna excited at the TE10 mode is 44% smaller in size than the conventional PEC patch antenna. The effect of the ground plane size on gain, cross polarization, and −3 and −6 dB beamwidths is investigated and compared. The AMC antenna shows symmetric radiation patterns and improved cross polarization with reduced ground plane sizes, outperforming its PEC counterparts.