Full wave analysis of a metal grounded dielectric slab periodically loaded with thick metal strips

Attention is given to an antenna consisting of a metal grounded dielectric slab periodically loaded with metal strips, excited by a surface wave propagating along the slab. The mode matching technique is applied to the analysis of the infinite-extend structure with thick metal strips in order to study the influence of the thickness of the strips on the behavior of the structure. The finite width antenna can be analyzed directly by applying the effective dielectric constant method together with the proposed technique. Numerical results are presented.<>