Radiation by a magneto-dielectric loaded patch antenna

Radiation by microstrip patch antennas have been studied for well over thirty years. Their popularity in array, especially for massive arrays, is due in no small part to their construction methods. They are, in the simplest configuration, a leaky capacitor consisting of a metallic patch sitting atop an electrically thin grounded dielectric slab. The antenna is fed in some manner and if designed well, will radiate over a rather narrow bandwidth of a couple percent. More capable microstrip patch antennas inevitably involve more complex construction and a fairly complex feed structure (since the most simple feed mechanism tends to limit the operational bandwidth). In this paper, a perturbation in the construction of the antenna is considered to provide another means to tune the behaviour of this ubiquitous radiator. This perturbation will involve the inclusion of loop inductors and a magneto-dielectric material.