A new approach for analysis of microstrip phased arrays

The surface equivalence principle and multiport network method (SEMN) has been previously developed for analysis of arbitrary shaped printed antennas. However, the computation time for analysis of microstrip arrays by the SEMN method in spite of its generality makes it impractical. Here, a new algorithm that speeds up the calculation by fifty times the original SEMN approach are introduced that enables us to analyze microstrip arrays. The modified SEMN method is then applied to a four-element microstrip array antenna and the calculated results are compared with measurement. Additionally, an infinite periodic microstrip array antenna is analyzed by the modified SEMN method where the convergence rate of the involved double infinite summations is increased by the Shank´s method. The infinite periodic microstrip patch array antenna analysis is in excellent agreement with the MoM (method of moment) solutions.