How do I match a cylindrical microwave patch antenna.

[ronglatt]

I am building an 8" diamerer continuous microwave patch antenna with 50 ohm coax feed. I plan to feed the antenna from the back by drilling through the ground plane and soldering the cable to the radiating surface (I am using 8 feed lines evenly spaced). I have read the antenna design handbook, but they feed the patch from the edge. Also I don't believe their calculation for the input impedence is correct. I have also read an article from "Mink and Carver" on how to feed a patch antenna from the back but that article only covers square and rectangular patches.
Does anyone have any input for calculating the input impedence for a continuous cylindrical patch antenna with multiple feeds?

 

[rodgma]

Hi. I dont have any direct references on this but this structure could be modeled with a 3D EM simulator like Ansoft HFSS. I have used this tool before and this app looks like a perfect fit for it. The hardest part is learning how to do solids modeling. If you are AutoCAD literate, it is a breeze to learn. I know it is not cheap but they do lease it by the month. You would need access to a Sun Workstation with lots of RAM to run it. I have simulated 10 GHz launches with it and gotten very good correlation in the lab. I would also search the IEEE website if you are a member. If there would be any papers written on it, I bet the Antennas group would have it. If you are not a member of IEEE and a member of that society, it will still give you abstracts to do a paper search at a university library.