Modal analysis of a half-mode substrate integrated waveguide-fed slot-coupled dual-band patch antenna

This manuscript presents comprehensive modal analysis of a compact, half-mode SIW-fed slot-coupled dual-band antenna. The Characteristic Mode Analysis (CMA) is investigated in detail and presented for the first time to analyze the radiation behavior and frequency domain characteristics of the proposed structure. The number of dominant operative modes supported by the antenna is decided based on the number eigen factors, its corresponding values, and the characteristic angles. The antenna operates at 33 and 38.14 GHz with a return loss of 20.5 and 19.5 dB, a gain of 7.9 and 6.7 dBi, and an efficiency of 90% and 88%, respectively. Measured results are in close resemblance with the CMA, considering the difference between the conventional cavity modes and the characteristic modes of the proposed planar cavity configuration. The methodology can be extended to characterize any arbitrary shape radiating geometry.