IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 37, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 1989

1345

An Impedance-Matching Technique for Increasing

the Bandwidth of Microstrip Antennas
Abshnct-The nature of the inherent narrow bandwidth of conventional microstrip patch antennas is considered. It is observed that, except
for single-feed circularly polarized elements, their bandwidth is limited
only by the resonant behavior of the input impedance and not by radiation pattern or gain variations, which usually are negligible over a moderate 10 to 20 percent bandwidth. Therefore, broad-band impedancematching is proposed as a natural solution to increase the bandwidth.
The maximum obtainable bandwidth is calculated using Fanos broadband matching theory. It is found that by using an optimally designed
impedance-matching network, the bandwidth can be increased by a factor of at least 3.9, the exact value depending OD the degree of matching
required. In view of practical realizations, a transmission-line prototype for a proper matching network is developed. Attention is paid to
the translation of this prototype network into a practical structure (e.g.
a microstrip or stripline circuit). Practical design examples along with
experimental results are given which clearly show the validity of the
technique.

I. INTRODUCTION

ICROSTRIP ANTENNAS have many interesting properties (e.g., low profile, light weight, cheapness), but
their application in many systems is impeded by their inherent narrow bandwidth [l]. Many elements with enhanced
bandwidth have already been investigated; e.g., electrically
thick elements [2], stacked multipatch, multilayer elements [3],
multiple-resonator elements [4], [5]. All these wider band elements, however, are characterized by increased complexity
and/or enlarged size of the radiating structure. Mostly, their
increased impedance bandwidth is also paid for by poorer
radiation characteristics. For example, multiple-resonator elements [4], [5] exhibit frequency-dependent array effects that
disturb, more or less, the radiation pattern. Increasing the
substrate thickness 121, [3], causes increased excitation of
substrate waves [6]. Apart from lowering the radiation efficiency, these substrate waves diffract at the substrate edges
and deteriorate the quality of the radiation pattern. Although
the excitation of substrate waves can be largely avoided by using substrate materials with very low dielectric constant (i.e.,
er x l), the application of electrically thick antennas only becomes feasible if proper feeding techniques can be developed
[11,[31, ~71.
In this paper, broad-band impedance-matching [8] is proposed as a method for bandwidth enhancement of microstrip
Manuscript received October 9, 1987; revised March 24, 1988.

H.F. Pues is with Emerson & Cuming Europe N.V., Nijverheidsstraat 7,

2431 Westerlo, Belgium.
A. R. Van de Capelle is with the Department of Elektrotechniek, Afd.
Microgolven and Lasers, B-3030 Leuven-Heverlee, Belgium.
IEEE Log Number 8929284.

antennas [9], [lo]. The method is unique in that it does not

alter the radiating element itself. Instead, a reactive matching
network is added to compensate for the rapid frequency variations of the input impedance. The validity of the technique is
based upon the relative frequency insensitivity of the radiation
pattern and gain characteristics as compared to the resonant
behavior of the input impedance. This is explained in Section
11. In Section 111, both the normally obtained bandwidth and
the bandwidth that can be obtained using broad-band matching, are calculated. Dividing the latter quantity by the former
one, a bandwidth-enlargement factor is found which depends
only on the bandwidth criterion expressed as a maximum allowable voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR). In Section IV, a
transmission-line matching-network prototype is derived that
can serve as a basis for practical designs. A complete design procedure for an impedance-matched microstrip antenna
is outlined in Section V. It is indicated that because of approximations in both the derivation of the prototype and the
translation of this prototype to a practical structure, good final
designs can be obtained only if proper use is made of computer simulation and optimization. Finally, in Section VI, two
practical design examples are described. Both concern S-band
microstrip antenna elements: a single substrate rectangular element with a coplanar microstrip matching network, and a
square multilayer element with a stripline matching network.

II. FREQUENCY
DEPENDENCE
OF ANTENNA
PARAMETERS
An experimental investigation of the frequency dependence of the operational characteristics of common microstrip
patch antennas clearly shows that the impedance variations
are the dominant bandwidth-limiting factor, whereas the gain
(=directivity x radiation efficiency) and radiation pattern variations are almost negligible over a moderate 10 to 20 percent
bandwidth. This behavior can be explained easily using the
theory of modal expansion in cavities [111 as applied in microstrip antenna cavity analysis models [121. According to
these models, the total input impedance can be written as
a sum of modal impedances where each modal impedance
behaves as a parallel-resonant circuit. In the same way, the
total radiation field can be written as a vector sum of modal
radiation fields where each modal field is given as the product of a nearly frequency independent normalized pattern and
a frequency dependent scalar excitation coefficient. Thus, it
follows that in all cases where only one dominant mode is excited, the input impedance will behave as a parallel-resonant
circuit, whereas the (relative) radiation pattern will show almost no frequency variation. Because the operation of single-

0018-926X/89/1100-1345$01.00

O 1989 IEEE

1346

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 31, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 1989

feed circularly polarized (SFCP) microstrip antennas [121,

[13] is based upon the simultaneous excitation of two orthogonal modes, the above does not apply for SFCP elements. But
in nearly all other cases, there will exist a band of some 10 to
20 percent, where the excitation level of higher order modes is
negligible, and the impedance is the only bandwidth-limiting
factor. This even applies to microwave scanning arrays [14].

feed l i n e

r e a c t i v e matching

r a d i a t i n g element

network

III. BANDWIDTH-ENLARGEMENT
FACTOR

Fig. 1. Principle of broad-band matching.

In the vicinity of its fundamental resonant frequency, the

input impedance of a microstrip antenna can be modeled by
either a series-resonant or a parallel-resonant RLC circuit.
Indeed, it suffices to choose a proper reference plane on the
feed line (preferably as close as possible to the element) or
to devise some very simple impedance-transforming circuit,
for such a behavior to occur in a more or less approximate
fashion. So, assuming an exp (jut)time dependence, the input
impedance can be written as either

in the series-resonant case, or as

zi, =

RO

+jQu

in the parallel-resonant case. In these equations Ro is the resonant resistance, Q is the quality factor and

Jr

(3)

where f is the frequency variable and f r the resonant frequency. If the feed line has a characteristic impedance Zo,
the input VSWR is given by

(4)
If the bandwidth criterion is taken to be VSWR 5 S, and f,
and f2 are the lower and upper band edge frequencies, respectively, so that VSWRCfl) = VSWR(j.2) = S , the bandwidth
is given by

It follows from (1)-(5) that

Note, however, that, in order to maximize B,it would be best

to take T = Topt# 1 where

Topt= I
2 (S

i).

The application of (8) turns out to be the most elementary form

of broad-band impedance-matching (case n = 1 as explained
below).
It is evident that the above-calculated bandwidth (7) can
be increased, at least in principle, by using an impedancematching network, as shown in Fig. 1. Ideally, this network
would transform the frequency-dependent complex antenna
impedance Zi, to a pure real resistance ZO over as large a
bandwidth as required. However, there appear to exist some
theoretical limitations on such a transformation which are imposed by nature itself [8]. Indeed, it is impossible to realize a
perfect match over a continuous band of frequencies by means
of a purely reactive (i.e., linear, passive and lossless) network.
The best one can do is to realize a constant (but not perfect)
match within the band of operation and a total mismatch outside this band. In that way, one can either optimize the degree
of matching if the bandwidth is given a priori, or maximize
the bandwidth if the degree of matching (e.g., VSWR 5 S)
is given. The maximum VSWR = S bandwidth obtainable
for a series- or parallel-resonant circuit, can be calculated in
a straightforward manner using Fano's theory 181, 1151. The
result is given by

(9)
This equation expresses that the maximum realizable bandwidth is inversely proportional to both the element quality
factor and the specified return loss (expressed in dB).
Because (9) represents the optimum that is theoretically achievable using broad-band matching and (7) gives
the normally obtained bandwidth, the maximum bandwidthenlargement factor is found by dividing both quantities:

where T = ZO/ROin the series-resonant case, and T = Ro/Zo

in the parallel-resonant case. Because, normdy, an antenna
is designed to be perfectly matched at its resonant frequency
(e.g., by properly locating the position of a coxial feed probe Fig. 2 shows this factor which only depends on S and has a
or by using a quarter-wavelength transformer), T normally minimum value of 3.90 for S = 2.64.
equals unity. Equation (6) then reduces to the well-known exIV. ~ N S M I S S I O N - LMATCHING-NETWORK
INE
PROTOTYPE
pression [121
For increasing the bandwidth by impedance matching, a
proper matching network has to be designed. In this sec(7)
tion, a transmission-line matching-network consisting of half-

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PUES AND VAN DE CAPELLE: INCREASING BANDWIDTH OF MICROSI'RIP ANTENNAS

Fig. 4. Intermediate matching-network prototype consisting of opencircuited transmission-line stubs and admittance inverters (series-resonant
case).

J1 1

sFig. 2. Bandwidth-enlargement factor versus specified VSWR

1
,
%
,

fie

Zc 1

and fLp is the low-pass frequency variable. By this frequency

transformation, parallel-C elements are transformed into parallel open-circuited half-wavelength stubs and series-L elements into series short-circuited half-wavelength stubs. Because the latter are not physically realizable, they are removed
from the matching network by using admittance inverters J
characterized by their Y-matrix

_
I
Fig. 3.

(a)
(b)
Transmission-line models for antenna impedance. (a) Parallelresonant case. @) Series-resonant case.

In this way, the intermediate matching-network of Fig. 4 is

obtained in the series-resonant case, and a similar one (containing an additional inverter J12) in the parallel-resonant case.
The transmission-line resonant models of Fig. 3 are almost
equivalent (at least over a moderate bandwidth) to the lumpedelement RLC-circuits used in Section I11 (using f L p = V / B
instead of (1 1) would have yielded these). Their quality factor
is given by

wavelength open-circuited stubs and quarter-wavelength interconnecting lines, is derived that is useful as a prototype for
practical realizations at microwave frequencies. This prototype has enough degrees of freedom to ensure practical realizability in microstrip or stripline, if the design bandwidth is
not less than about 4 percent. It is clear that other prototypes
could be devised depending on the desired practical realization
form of the matching network (e. g ., quasi-lumped-element
in the parallel-resonant case (Fig. 3(a)), and
prototypes for MMIC realizations or coupled-transmissionline prorotypes for compact interdigital realizations), but such
other prototypes are not considered in this paper (except for
some short references to lumped-element approaches in this
and the following section).
in the series-resonant case (Fig. 3(b)).
In general, the design of a broad-band matching network
With respect to Figs. 3 and 4, it can be observed that all line
is a difficult network synthesis problem. Therefore, published sections are a half-wavelength long at the resonant frequency
results are used as much as possible in the present derivation. f r , Ro is the resonant antenna resistance, Yci(Zci) is the
Particularly, the modified Chebyshev equal-ripple character- characteristic admittance (impedance) of the ith transmissionistic as proposed by Fano [8], is adopted. In [16], normalized line resonator, Jij+l is the admittance inverter between reslow-pass prototype element values for an LC-ladder circuit onators i and i + 1,Jn,,,+1 is a final impedance-scaling admithaving this characteristic, are given for the case of either a tance inverter, and 2 0 is the (real) system impedance (usually
parallel-RC or a series-RL load. These normalized design pa- 50 0). It can be seen that the first resonator (i = 1) berameters (called gi -parameters) are used below to synthesize longs to the antenna model itself, whereas the following ones
the present prototype.
(i = 2 , 3, . . . ,n) belong to the matching network. If one reThe parallel-RC or series-RL loads of the low-pass proto- stricts the antenna model to the patch element proper so it does
type are transformed to the band-pass resonant models of Fig. not include a possible feed probe inductance, the latter can be
3 by setting
included in the i = 2 resonator [7], [17], [18], as discussed
in Section V.
The different network parameters Yci and J i j + l must satisfy
the following:
where
I

t tan ( ; B )

(parallel-resonant case)

(16)

1348

IEEE TRANSACT1ONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 37, NO. 1 1 , NOVEMBER 1989

Fig. 5 . Final transmission-lineprototype for broad-band matching network

(series-resonantcase).

yC2=

(series-resonant case)

(17)

The g;-parameters are found from [16], and are a function of

the order of the network n (to be chosen by the designer) and
the decrement
A=-

7r

2AQ

(20)

Observe that, by definition, go = 1 and g l = 1/6.

To obtain a prototype that is practically realizable, the admittance inverters are replaced by quarter-wavelength lines.
Furthermore, to increase the number of degrees of freedom, the half-wavelength stubs are splitted up in two quarterwavelength sections with different characteristic impedances.
In this way, the final prototype is obtained which is depicted in
Fig. 5 for the series-resonant case. For the networks of Fig.
4 and Fig. 5 (series-resonant case) and their corresponding
ones (parallel-resonant case) to be approximately equivalent,
the following equations have to be satisfied for i = 2, 3, . . . ,n
[15]:

y Y + l = J ; j + l cos (:B)

microstrip antenna element. First, the antenna impedance is

made to be resonant at the center frequency of the band, as
explained in Section 111. Then, the antenna model parameters f ?, Ro, and Q are determined. This has to be done very
carefully, by preference trough accurate measurements, because most analysis models are not accurate enough for this
purpose [ 151.
Once the antenna parameters are known, the order n and the
bandwidth B (if not given a priori) are to be determined. Using (20) and [161, a deliberate choice can be made. The choice
of n typically reflects a trade-off between increased bandwidth
and/or degree of matching (the larger n , the nearer the optimum (9) will be approached) on the one hand and increased
complexity (the network will become larger and lossier) on
the other. Typical values for n are 2, 3, or 4. The case n = 1
is trivial and has been dealt with in Section I11 (8). The approaches of [7] and [17] could be described as n = 1.5 (feed
probe inductance resonated by series capacitor at center frequency without first optimizing the inductance value) whereas
[ 181 gives a real n = 2 lumped-element approach.
Knowing n and 6, the g;-parameters (i = 2, 3, . . . ,n ) are
found from [16]. The parameters of the intermediate prototype (Fig. 4) then follow from (16) or (17), (18) and (19).
Subsequently, the parameters of the final prototype are derived from (21)-(23). In this process, there are 2n - 3 degrees of freedom in the series-resonant case and 2n - 2 in the
parallel-resonant case. One could, for example, choose freely
the Yc;-parameters (except Yc2 in the series-resonant case)
and the a;-parameters. By making these choices in a deliberate fashion, it is normally possible to obtain a practically
realizable prototype, i.e., a prototype that, when translated to
a physical lay-out, yields line widths that are neither too wide
nor too narrow.
The final step of translating the prototype to a practical
circuit is a very critical one. Indeed, for getting good results, it is absolutely essential that the effects of discontinuities
(such as open ends, steps and T-junctions) are compensated.
Therefore, to avoid lengthy trial-and-error tuning procedures,
the application of computer simulation and optimization techniques is highly desirable. This also allows to compensate for
the different approximations in the design of the prototype itself, i.e., the use of approximate transmission-line models for
the antenna impedance (Fig. 3) and the approximation of the
intermediate prototype (Fig. 4) by the final prototype (Fig.
5).
VI. APPLICATIONS

where

r =tan

(:B)

and the ai-parameters can be freely chosen. In the parallelresonant case, (21) also applies for i = 1, and in the seriesresonant case, the first term between the inner parentheses in
(22) vanishes for i = 2.

A . Single-Substrate Impedance-Matched
Rectangular Antenna

The first design example concerns an integrated impedancematched antenna consisting of a rectangular microstrip antenna
and a coplanar microstrip impedance-matching network. The
whole structure is laid out on top of a 20 cm x 15 cm x 1.6 mm
RT/duroid 5880 substrate (er = 2.20), as shown in Fig. 6. A
V. DESIGN
PROCEDURE
FOR AN IMPEDANCE-MATCHED
ANTENNA similar antenna with a shielded-microstrip matching network
This section summarizes the complete procedure for de- (where the shield height was tuned to optimize the network
signing a broad-band impedance-matching network for a given response), has been described elswehere [lo], [ 191.

1349

PUES AND VAN DE CAPELLE: INCREASING BANDWIDTH OF MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS

Fig. 6 . Layout of rectangular impedance-matched antenna (antenna #l).

The following antenna parameters, calculated from an improved transmission-line model [20], were used in the present
design: fr = 3.027 GHz, Ro = 48.88 R and Q = 22.64
(parallel-resonant case). The design of the circuit was based
on the following choices: n = 3, B = 10 percent, Z:3 = 130
R, Yc2 = Yc3, and a2 = a3 = 1 . With Z O = 50 51, this
yielded: 2: = 65.72 R, Z:4 = 72.28 R, ZL2 = 2: = 25.78
R and ZL3 = Z f 3 = 25.33 R. When translating these values
to the microstrip circuit shown in Fig. 6, both the i = 2 and
i = 3 resonators were realized as two parallel identical stubs
in order to reduce their line width.
To be able to judge the performance of this impedancematched antenna properly, a reference antenna (Fig. 7) has
been built in the same process (a piece of substrate cut from
the same sheet was used). This reference antenna is completely
identical to the impedance-matched antenna except that the
matching network is replaced by a simple 50 R microstrip line.
Note that the calculated edge-fed impedance of the antenna element (i.e., 48.88 51) is very nearly equal to 50 R. Hence,
the reference antenna should be well matched at f = fr. Fig.
8 shows the return loss of both antennas. The reference antenna has its best match at 3.025 GHz (-21.5 dB) and has
a higher order mode dip at 3.424 GHz. This higher order
mode dip is very much suppressed by the matching network
as shown by the other curve. Within the band of operation,
the impedance-matched antenna has its worst match at 3.035
GHz (-8.8 dB). It can be seen, that the bandwidth at this
level (S = 2.14) has been increased by a factor of 3.2 to
a value of 275 MHz or 9.1 percent, whereas the theoretical maximum bandwidth-enlargement factor for this degree
of matching equals 4.0 (Fig. 2).
It is clear from Fig. 8 that, except in a small band around

Fig. 7. Layout of reference antenna (antenna #2).

Si1

L M

l o g MAG

REF 0 . 0 dB
2 . 5 dB/

2.600000000 GHz
3.600000800 R l z

START
STCP

Fig. 8. Return loss versus frequency of antennas #1 and #2.

fr, the mismatch loss of antenna #1 (impedance-matched antenna) within its band of operation is less than that of antenna
#2 (reference antenna). However, because the matching network will inevitably be somewhat lossy, one could ask if the
decrease of the mismatch loss is not annihilated by the increase
of the dissipation loss. That this is not the case, is demonstrated by Fig. 9 which shows the transmission performance
of both antennas. Particularly, a radiation link was established
between a standard gain horn on the one side and antenna #1
or
The figure shows the transmission co_ _ &2
,, - on
_ the
.
. ~
~other.
~ .
~~~~

--U

1350

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 31, NO. 1 1 , NOVEMBER 1989
Sal 8 M

REF - 2 8 . 0

l o g MAG

dB

2 . 0 dB/

2.600000000
3.400000000

START
STOP

GHz
GHz

Fig. 9. Transmission characteristic versus frequency of antennas #1 and

#2.

+
+

+
-t
Cu - C l a d

Fig. 10

Multdayer impedance-matched antenna (antenna #3).

efficient measured in these two cases. This characteristic is

almost proportional to the realized gain. It follows that antenna #1 is a more efficient radiator over the 2.832 - 2.988
GHz band and the 3.055 - 3.174 GHz band, whereas antenna
#2 is more efficient in between. The maximum difference
in this center band equals 0.61 dB and occurs at 3.026 GHz
(i.e., the frequency of best match of antenna #2).
Concerning radiation patterns, E- and H-plane cuts for both
antennas have been measured at 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 GHz [15].

They do not show any appreciable difference, which proves

that the matching network, although it is coplanar with the
patch, does not affect the radiation characteristics. It is to be
observed, however, that only copolar patterns were measured.

B . Multilayer Impedance-Matched Square Antenna

The second design example concerns a multilayer square
microstrip antenna with a stripline matching network situated underneath the antenna ground plane. A similar antenna

1351

PUES AND VAN DE CAPELLE: INCREASING BANDWIDTH OF MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS

l o g MAG

521 B M

REF - 2 5 . 0

dB

2 . 5 dB/
- 2 9 . 4 8 dB

1
START
STOP

2.800000000 GHz
3.800000000 GHz

Fig. 12. Transmission characteristic of antenna #3 and standard gain horn (antenna #4).

with an underneath microstrip matching network has been de- aided simulation and optimization, adjustments were made to
scribed elsewhere [2 l].
compensate for the different approximations. The measured
The present antenna is shown in Fig. 10. It is a sandwich return loss diagram is shown in Fig. 11. Considering the
structure consisting of (from top to bottom) a 0.5 mm Cu-Clad -16.44 dB (or S = 1.35) level, which is the maximum level
217 substrate bearing the antenna patch, a 6.4 mm Eccofoam in the band of operation, a bandwidth of 324 MHz or 9.9
PP-2 layer, a first metal ground plate (the antenna ground percent is obtained. Using (7) and (15), the unmatched anplane), two 1.6 mm Cu-Clad 217 substrate layers bearing the tenna is found to have a bandwidth of only 4.2 percent at
stripline matching netwbrk, and a second bottom ground plate this level. Observe also that a better match than -14 dE3 is
onto which an OSM 203-1 stripline connector is attached. obtained within the design bandwidth of 12 percent.
The transmission performance is illustrated in Fig. 12.
The overall dimensions (apart from the connector and four
This figure shows the transmission coefficient between a
connecting screws) are 70 mm x 70 mm x 14 mm.
The antenna model parameters were fr = 3.28 GHz, log-periodic dipole array antenna on the one side and the
RO = 33.3 R and Z,1 = 151.5 R (series-resonant case). impedance-matched antenna or a standard gain horn (Narda
Choosing n = 2, b = 12 percent, a2 = 0.3 and Z O = 50 R, Model 644)on the other side. It follows that the realized gain
the design was carried out straightforwardly. Using computer- is about 8 dB over a bandwidth of 12 percent. This high gain

1352

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 37, NO. 1 1 , NOVEMBER 1989

I
,
dB

-5

-10

to-polar

dB
-25

tI
Fig. 13. (a) Measured radiation patterns at 3.100 GHz of antenna #3. (b) Measured radiation patterns at 3.300 GHz of antenna #3.
(c) Measured radiation patterns at 3.500 GHz of antenna #3.

PUES AND VAN DE CAPELLE: INCREASING BANDWIDTH OF MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS

1353

(C)
Fig. 13. (Continued.)

value for a single square element is partly due to the deliberate choice of the horizontal dimensions (70 mm x 70 mm).
Mounted on a large ground plane, the gain would be somewhat less.
Finally, Fig. 13 shows the E- and H-plane CO-and crosspolar patterns at 3.1, 3.3, and 3.5 GHz. These patterns do
not show any significant change within the band of operation.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, broad-band impedance matching has been
proposed as a powerful technique to increase the bandwidth of
microstrip antennas. The theoretical limitations have been described and a practical design method for the required matching networks has been outlined. The validity of this design procedure has been illustrated by two representative design examples. However, it should be stressed that impedance-matching
is a very general technique and that many other design procedures and realization forms could be devised, which possibly
could yield better results.
REFERENCES

[l] D. M. Pozar, An update on microstrip antenna theory and design

[2]
[3]
141
[5]

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C. H. Chen, A. Tulintseff, and R. M. Sorbello, Broadband two-layer
microstrip antenna, in ZEEE Antennas Propagat. Soc. Znt. Symp.
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G. Kumar and K. C. Gupta, Directly coupled multiple resonator
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H. Pues, J. Bogaers, R. Pieck, and A. Van de Capelle, Wideband
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A. K. Bhattacharyya and R. Garg, Effect of substrate on the efficiency

of an arbitrarily shaped microstrip patch antenna, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-34, pp. 1181-1188, Oct. 1986.
K. S. Fong, H. F. Pues, and M. J. Withers, Wideband multilayer
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R. F. Harrington, Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields. New
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K. R. Carver and J. W. Mink, Microstrip antenna technology, ZEEE
Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-29, pp. 2-24, Jan. 1981.
P. C. Sharma and K. C. Gupta, Analysis and optimized design of
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Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-31, pp. 949-955, Nov. 1983.
J. S. Lee and W. J. Furlong, An extremely lightweight fuselageintegrated phased array for airborne applications, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-29, pp. 178-182, Jan. 1981.
H. F. Pues, Study of the bandwidth of microwave integrated antennas:
Development of design models for wideband microstrip antennas (in
Dutch), Ph.D. dissertation, Microwaves and Lasers Div., Catholic
Univ. Louvain, Louvain, Belgium, 1983.
G. L. Matthaei, L. Young, and E. M. T. Jones, Microwave Filters,
Impedance-Matching Networks, and Coupling Structures. New
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J. M. Griffin and J. R. Forrest, Broadband circular disc microstrip
antenna, Electron. Lett., vol. 18, pp. 266-269, Mar. 18, 1982.
D. A. Paschen, Practical examples of integral broadband matching of
microstrip antenna elements, in Proc. 1986 Antenna Appl. Symp.,
Monticello, IL, Sept. 17-19, 1986.
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microstrip resonator antennas, in Inst. Elec. Eng. Conf. Pub. 195
(Antennas and Propagation), pt. 1, pp. 402-405, Apr. 1981.
-, Accurate transmission-line model for the rectangular microstrip
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H. Pues, A. Van Kauteren, J. Vercruysse, and A. Van de Capelle,
Broadband microstrip radar antenna element, in Proc. Znt. Conf.
Radar, Paris, May 1984, pp. 298-303.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 37, NO. 1 1 , NOVEMBER 1989

Hugo F. Pues (S76-M82) was born in Leuven,

Belgium, on May 2, 1954. He received the degrees
of Electromechanical Engineer in 1977 and Doctor
in Applied Sciences in 1983, both from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
His doctoral research focused on bandwidthenhancement techniques for microstrip antennas. In
1983-1984, he worked for ERA Technology Ltd.,
Leatherhead, UK, in the field of antenna design and
numerical analysis of electromagnetic problems. He
then returned to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
where he was involved in research work on microstrip antennas and circuits,
nucrowave power applications and numerical analysis. Since January 1987,
he has worked for Grace N.V., (formerly Emerson & Cuming Europe N.V ),
Westerlo, Belgium, where he is now the R & D manager of the Microwave
Product Line with interests mainly directed towards computer-aided measurement and design of advanced absorbing materials.

Antoine R. Van de Capelle (S70-M84) was born

in Nazareth, Belgium, in 1946. He received the
M.Sc., Ph.D., and Special Doctors degrees from
the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1970, 1973,
and 1979, respectively
In 1970 he joined the Department of Electrical
Engineering of the K. U. Leuven, where he is now
a Professor. In 1974 he established a research group
on antennas, which for the past 15 years has been
concentrating on microstrip antennas. The groups
current research programs involve radio communication systems with projects on maritime satellite terminals, antenna measurement techniques, propagation on high-frequency communication links,
S.S.R.-radar systems and mobile telephone systems. As a Professor at the K.
U. Leuven, he teaches courses on telecommunication systems and antennas
and propagation.