The design of a broadband microstrip patch sensor for high frequency remote sensing operations

©2004 COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering.Microstrip patch antenna arrangements offer several well known advantages over other sensors including their low profile (and hence conformal nature), light weight, low-cost in production and compatibility with packaged miniaturised monolithic integrated and optoelectronic integrated circuitry. The major drawback of microstrip patch sensing solutions remains its inherently narrow bandwidth of ~ 2%. Although there has been intensive research to enhance bandwidth based on different strategies e.g., implementing stacked planar parasitic patches and thick substrate configurations and adopting low inductive techniques for feeding microstrip antennas, best approaches for broadening bandwidth for high frequency miniaturised sensor operation (>10 GHz) remain unclear. This paper discusses the development of broadband microstrip sensors for high frequency radiometric sensing operations. It considers the design and fabrication of frequency scanning sensors for Ku (~17 GHz) band operation comprising a microstrip transmission line network of series linked junctions feeding pairs of rectangular patches.Hedley J. Hansen, Leonard T. Hall, Tien Cho Shum, and Wei Seng Seo