High-Tc superconducting rectangular microstrip patch covered with a dielectric layer

• We model a microstrip antenna with a dielectric cover and superconductor patch.
• The extended full-wave analysis is used to solve for the antenna characteristics
• The accuracy of the method is checked by comparing our results with published data
• The superconducting patch affects the resonant characteristics of the antenna
• Patch on substrate–superstrate configuration is more advantageous than the one on single layer.

This paper presents a full-wave method to calculate the resonant characteristics of rectangular microstrip antenna with and without dielectric cover, to explain the difference of performance with temperature between superconducting and normal conducting antenna. Especially the characteristics of high temperature superconducting (HTS) antenna were almost ideal around the critical temperature (Tc). The dyadic Green's functions of the considered structure are efficiently determined in the vector Fourier transform domain. The effect of the superconductivity of the patch is taken into account using the concept of the complex resistive boundary condition. The computed results are found to be in good agreement with results obtained using other methods. Also, the effects of the superstrate on the resonant frequency and bandwidth of rectangular microstrip patch in a substrate–superstrate configuration are investigated. This type of configuration can be used for wider bandwidth by proper selection of superstrate thickness and its dielectric constants.