ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the specific properties of several representative classes of antennas that are commonly used. These include microstrip antennas, broadband antennas, phased arrays, traveling and leaky-wave antennas, and aperture antennas. The chapter provides enough information about the five types of antennas to allow the reader to obtain a basic overview of the fundamental properties of these major classes of antennas and to see how the properties vary from one class to another. Microstrip antennas are one of the most widely used types of antennas in the microwave frequency range, and they are often used in the millimeter-wave frequency range as well. One advantage of the microstrip antenna is that it is usually low profile, in the sense that the substrate is fairly thin. The radiation efficiency of the patch antenna is affected not only by conductor and dielectric losses, but also by surface-wave excitation-since the dominant TM0 mode of the grounded substrate will be excited by the patch.
