Influence of feeder bending and curved surface on microstrip antenna

Carrier antenna is the hub of communication between flight and ground station. This kind of antenna is generally curved conformal antennas and its spatial arrangement demands are high. In this paper, the contrast models are built on the plane and curved surface. By theoretical analysis and HFSS simulation, the influence of conformal surface and feeder bending on the performance of microstrip antenna are studied. The results show that the conformal surface will make the antenna performance worse, while the performance of the antenna is optimized with the feeder bending: conformal surface will make the resonance frequency offset, the S-parameter increased, which means more radiation loss and less radiation gain. On the contrary, feeder bending has little effect on the resonant frequency of the antenna, and at the same time, it can not only reduce the S-parameters, also increase the coverage area and gain value of antenna. These results provide a theoretical and simulation basis for the research and application of conformal microstrip antennas in the fields of communication and guidance.