Hi Dan,

First thing you could do is:

1. Find the dimensions of the antenna using the resonant/center frequency.
This is easy as the equations are pretty standard. You can find them in any
antenna design textbook. I would suggest book Antenna Theory by Balanis.

2. Do you have any software to simulate the design or are you using any
in-house software using FEM, MoM ?. There are many softwares in the market
viz. Ansoft HFSS, Ansoft Designer, IE3D, Sonnet. The selection of  the
software depends on what frequency range are you looking at ?. Also the
selection is based on, if you require any scaling of your antenna dimensions
during simulation.

Thank You.

Regards,
Suraj Kumar Patil
Ph.D Student,
University of Texas, Arlington

On 6/30/06, Dan Gagich  wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I am trying to design a patch antenna and I am trying to keep it basic
> since
> antenna and communication theory is not my expertise.  I am working with a
> basic rectangular patch antenna with a microstrip feed line.  The
> application for this antenna is for the use with a SAW sensor
> device.  With
> using this basic antenna design to get the antenna to a small enough size
> (~2cm x ~3cm) the dielectric constant of the substrate the antenna rests
> on
> is ~85.  I was wondering if anyone had any experience with patch antennas
> or
> high dielectric materials?  I am looking to see if it's even possible for
> an
> antenna to work properly with such a high constant.  Note that bandwidth
> and
> efficiency are not of a huge concern since this is a short range (<100
> ft.)
> device.  Thanks for any feedback.