Characterization of Printed Antennas with a Limited Ground Plane

A new numerical processing method is applied on the time-domain signal given by the Transmission Line Matrix method (TLM). It provides the possibility to characterize antennas such as stacked patches with a limited ground plane. We describe the techniques to obtain the radiation patterns, the input impedance and the wave polarization. The TLM simulates the propagation of electromagnetic waves in the time domain. Thus the characteristics can be obtained for a wide frequency band in a single TLM simulation. The effects of the limited ground plane are developped and shown on spatial representations of the electromagnetic fields. The results given by the TLM are compared with experimental ones.