Modelling microstrip patch antennas with thin wires

A microstrip patch antenna is a shaped conducting patch printed on an electrically thin, grounded dielectric substrate. Rectangular patch antennas can be fed either by a stripline at the patch edge or a coaxial wire through the substrate and groundplane. Energy is lost as radiation at the open circuit ends of the patch as a result of current flowing to its edges which set up fringing electric fields whose vertical and horizontal components cancel and add up respectively. Maximum radiation is therefore in the broadside direction normal to the groundplane. Analysis of a patch antenna structure is complicated by inhomogeneity, its ability to support various waves (radiated, guided, diffracted, leaky, and surface), finite patch and groundplane dimensions, and the presence of a feed