Theses and Dissertations Collection

The first part of this thesis presents a new and novel method for realizing complex antenna designs. The method utilizes a printed circuit board stack that is appropriately contoured along the vertical direction in order create the antenna three dimensional structure. Selective copper etching and copper plated edges are used to create the antenna elements. The method is applied to an electrically small, hemispherical helix antenna for the realization of an otherwise complex structure. The design is then characterized in detail and compared with prior works.

The second part of this thesis investigates the Green's function method for solving inhomogeneous differential equations. An overview of the theory is presented and one dimensional examples are presented and compared to results obtained by using the finite-difference time domain method. Finally, the foundation is presented for using the Green's function method to determine the fields within a rectangular waveguide with a dielectric post.