Investigation of patch antennas based on crossed idiosyncratic PBG structure

The method of finite difference time domain (FDTD) was used, and characteristics of the patch antenna based on drilling periodic air holes in the substrate were studied, the results indicate that the surface waves which propagate along the surface of the substrate can be suppressed by the crossed idiosyncratic PBG (photonic crystal band-gap) structure because of its effect of forbidden-band, that it can radiate most of electromagnetic waves' energy in the substrate significantly, and that it has lower return loss (S11) compared to the conventional patch antennas, thus, a high gain is attained, its performance is improved. Due to these advantages, the use of photonic crystal patch antennas will be extended in areas such as mobile communication, satellite communication, aviation, etc. (C) 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.