Control Surface Waves by Modifying Surface Properties of a Microstrip Patch Antenna Array

The research is done externally at Thales Netherlands, at the branch located in Hengelo, responsible for naval, logistics, and air defence systems. Most of there systems rely on radar, and therefore this thesis is also connected to radar systems.The thesis investigates a very small part in the whole radar system and focuses on the antenna panel consisting of microstrip patch antennae. One of the possible ways to improve the antenna patterns of the radar is by the reduction of the interferences causes in the patterns by Surface Waves (SWs).