Scattering from a microstrip patch

Abstract

A solution to the problem of plane wave scattering by a rectangular microstrip patch on a grounded dielectric substrate is presented. The model does not include the microstrip feed, and thus doe not include the so-called 'antenna mode' component of the scattering. The solution begins by formulating an electric field integral equation for the surface current density on the microstrip patch. The integral equation is solved using the method of moments. Computed data for the patch radar cross section (RCS) is found to be in close agreement with measurements over a broad frequency range. The microstrip RCS versus frequency consists of a number of large peaks which are identified as impedance or pattern factor resonance peaks.