Dual diagonally fed electric microstrip dipole antennas

Claim 1

A dual diagonally fed electric microstrip dipole antenna having low physical profile and conformal arraying capability; comprising: a. a thin ground plane conductor; b. a thin square radiating element for producing a radiation pattern being spaced from said ground plane; c. said square radiating element being electrically separated from said ground plane by a dielectric substrate; d. said square radiating element having a first feed point located along one diagonal line of the element and a second feed point located along the other diagonal line of the square radiating element, said diagonal lines being normal to one another; said first and second feed points being equidistant from the center point of said square radiating element and in from the outer edge of said square radiating element; e. said square radiating element being fed at said first and second feed points from a first and from a second coaxial-to-microstrip adapter, the center pin of said first and second adapters extending through said ground plane and dielectric substrate to said respective feed points on said square radiating element; f. the length of said square radiating element determining the resonant frequency of said antenna; g. the antenna input impedance being variable to match most practical impedances as said feed points are equidistantly moved along said respective diagonal lines between the center point and edge of said square radiating element; h. the antenna bandwidth being variable with the width of the square radiating element and the spacing between said square radiating element and said ground plane, said spacing between the square radiating element and the ground plane having somewhat greater effect on the bandwidth than the square radiating element width; i. first and second transmission lines having one end thereof connected to said first and second coaxial-to-microstrip adapters, respectively, for feeding said antenna; j. said square radiating element being operable to oscillate in two modes of current oscillation, each of said two modes being orthogonal to the other.