Wide-Band Short Backfire Antenna

This application note is based on [1] by Ronglin Li et al of Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. In the paper, they describe how they have used MicroStripes in the design and development of a wide-band short backfire antenna (SBA). Following the MicroStripes modelling they went on to build a physical prototype of the antenna, and, as will be seen, a high level of agreement between the modelled and measured results was achieved. The original paper is available in the technical papers page.

Commenting on his use of MicroStripes, Li said "I have used a number of different EM simulation tools and MicroStripes is my favourite software. In the 5 years I have been using MicroStripes for solving different antenna problems, I have always found that it has a friendly user interface, a fully-microwave-covered post-processing capability and, its solutions are stable and accurate."

The short backfire antenna (SBA) has been widely used for mobile satellite communications, tracking, telemetry, and wireless local-area network applications due to its compact structure and excellent radiation characteristics. The SBA consists of a pair of reflectors and a circular rim and, is excited by an H-shaped slot which has been cut on a rectangular patch. The H-shaped slot is centre-fed at one side of the slot by a cylindrical wire probe that has been extended from the inner conductor of a coaxial line. The other side of the slot is shorted to the primary reflector through a straight pin which has the same size as the feed probe.