Using Mathematica in microstrip antenna education

This paper discussed the usage of the software Mathematica™ as an auxiliary tool in microstrip antenna education. For the undergraduate courses and employing the empirical model, the Mathematica™ package has been used for analyzing and designing elementary geometries and simple array configurations. For the first graduated discipline, a semiempirical model has been shown to be an excellent tool for derivation of an exact Green´s function related to multilayered structures. Examples for a short dipole printed on a grounded biased ferrite were presented. Then, a linear array of three collinear nonuniform slots was discussed. Moreover, a directivity function for a printed flat half-wavelength dipole was also plotted. For both cases, excellent agreement between commercial package (IE3D™ and Ensemble™) simulations and Mathematica™ prediction were observed. It can be concluded that the usage of the Mathematica™ is a very effective way to introduce the microstrip antenna concepts in undergraduate and graduate courses.