IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 53, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2005

3469

Microstrip Antennas With Suppressed Radiation in

Horizontal Directions and Reduced Coupling
Marija M. Nikolic, Antonije R. Djordjevic, and Arye Nehorai, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractMicrostrip (patch) antennas usually strongly radiate

in directions along the ground plane. This effect causes unwanted
radiation patterns and increased coupling among array elements.
Dielectric polarization currents are identified as physical sources
of this radiation. A general technique is proposed to compensate
these currents and suppress radiation in horizontal directions.
Index TermsAntenna array mutual coupling, antenna radiation patterns, microstrip antennas, microstrip arrays.

I. INTRODUCTION

ICROSTRIP (patch) antennas are known to strongly radiate in directions along the ground plane [1]. The gain
in a horizontal direction can be only a few dB below the gain in
the zenith direction. This radiation is undesirable in many cases,
so that it has to be suppressed. However, the radiation is low if
antennas are printed on low-permittivity substrates (like foam)
or located in the air, when the gain in horizontal directions is
typically 20 dB lower than in the zenith direction.
Another problem is encountered in arrays of patches that are
printed on the same substrate: strong coupling among the array
elements. For thicker substrates, the transmission coefficient
to
[1],
among adjacent elements is on the order of
[2]. This coupling is also undesirable in vector sensors [3], [4].
The coupling can be attributed to the following phenomena
near-field coupling;
far-field coupling;
surface-wave coupling.
The near-field coupling occurs when one antenna is in the
near-field zone of another antenna. This coupling is not clearly
recognized in the literature, although it can dominate when antennas are closely spaced. A typical example is an antenna array
printed on a low-permittivity substrate. In this case, the wavelength in the substrate is close to the free-space wavelength. The
dimensions of a patch are close to the center-to-center spacing
between adjacent array elements, so that the clearance between
two adjacent elements can be relatively small. The near-field

Manuscript received December 13, 2004, revised May 24, 2005. The work
of M. M. Nikolic and A. R. Djordjevic was supported in part by the Serbian
Ministry for Science and Environmental Protection. The work of A. Nehorai
was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grants
F49620-02-1-0339 and FA9550-04-1-0187.
M. M. Nikolic and A. Nehorai are with the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60607 USA (e-mail:
mnikolic@kondor.etf.bg.ac.yu; nehorai@ece.uic.edu).
A. R. Djordjevic is with the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro (e-mail:
edjordja@etf.bg.ac.yu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2005.858847

coupling is reduced with increasing the separation between adjacent antennas. It diminishes typically for 12 or 18 dB when
the distance between the antennas is doubled.
The far-field coupling is due to the patch radiation in horizontal directions. This coupling diminishes for 6 dB when the
distance between the antennas is doubled. This coupling can be
efficiently reduced only if the antenna radiation in horizontal directions is suppressed.
A patch antenna excites surface waves, which are guided by
the substrate and the ground plane [5]. The surface-wave coupling diminishes only for 3 dB when the distance between the
antennas is doubled. This coupling is important only when the
is on the order of
normalized substrate electrical thickness
(1)

or larger [6], where is the substrate thickness,

the freethe relative permittivity of the subspace wavelength, and
strate.
Extensive computed and experimental data are available in
the literature for the radiation pattern of microstrip antennas
and for coupling among such antennas. Various measures are
suggested to reduce the far field and the surface-wave coupling.
However, the two coupling mechanisms and their contributions
are not clearly distinguished in some papers: the surface-wave
coupling is treated, whereas examples are given for cases when
this coupling does not dominate.
An efficient technique for reducing the coupling is machining
the dielectric below the patch [2], so that there is air below the
patch, but the authors say that they cannot provide an explanation why this technique is successful.
Some techniques are explicitly designed to suppress the surface waves. They include optimizing the antenna dimensions so
that the surface wave is not excited [1], [7], grooving the dielectric [2], covering the patch by additional dielectric layers [8], or
making the dielectric be a bandgap structure by printing various
patterns on it [9], [10].
The physics of the surface-wave coupling has been covered
adequately in the literature. Hence, in Section II, we concentrate
our attention on the first two coupling mechanisms, which are
usually dominant for antennas printed on thinner substrates.
The strong radiation along the ground plane and the strong
far-field coupling occur simultaneously. We have established
that they have the same cause and same remedies. In Section III,
we identify the physical source of this radiation and coupling:
polarization currents in the dielectric substrate underneath the

0018-926X/$20.00 2005 IEEE

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patches. The effect of the polarization currents exists even when

the surface waves cannot propagate at all.
In Section IV, we propose an approach for suppressing this
radiation and the related coupling. We introduce a system of
conducting currents that cancel out the effect of the polarization
currents. To that purpose, we design an array of pins that interconnect the patch and the ground. We adjust the currents of the
pins by dimensioning their radii and locations.
Computations presented in the paper were carried out using
program WIPL-D1 of [11]. All major results and conclusions are
verified by extensive experiments.
The discussion and results are presented only for rectangular
antennas, but they are applicable to any antenna shape and operating mode.
II. NEAR-FIELD AND FAR-FIELD COUPLING
We consider a rectangular patch antenna, shown in Fig. 1(a),
as well as pairs of such antennas. As an example, followed
throughout the paper, the substrate is FR-4 (unless stated oth, the relative
erwise), the substrate thickness is
, and the loss tangent is
permittivity is
[12]. FR-4 is a substrate with pronounced losses. To exclude
the influence of the losses on the conclusions presented in this
paper, we have also investigated antennas on a lossless substrate
of the same thickness and permittivity. We have obtained similar results as for FR-4.
The patch length is and the width is . The antenna is
designed for the first resonant frequency at
(
). The patch is fed by a coaxial line, whose location is determined by the dimension . The conductor is copper,
whose conductivity is
, and the metallization
. To model properly the increased conthickness is
ductor losses due to the surface roughness, in the program, the
conductivity is reduced 4 times. In the computational models,
the ground plane is infinite, unless otherwise stated. In the experimental models, the ground plane is finite and extends at least
half wavelength around the antennas.
According to (1), the surface waves on FR-4 can be neglected
at 2.15 GHz and they become pronounced only above 4.5 GHz.
To verify this statement, we have compared two distinct antenna
designs. One is classic, shown in Fig. 1(a), where the dielectric
extends far away from the antenna. The second design, shown in
Fig. 1(b), eliminates any possibility of the influence of the surface waves on the coupling and the radiation pattern. In this design, the dielectric exists only underneath a patch or just slightly
around it. The surface waves cannot exist in this structure, as
there is no dielectric slab to support them. An array of such antennas resembles cookies placed on a large metallic tray (the
ground plane). In this design, only the near- and the far-field
coupling exist.
For the given resonant frequency, the dimensions of the clas,
, and
.
sical antenna are
of a
For the same resonant frequency, the dimensions and

1In this program, the dielectric is always finite. The program properly calculates coupling due to surface waves. When evaluating the radiation pattern, the
surface waves are not included.

Fig. 1. Top and side view of (a) classical microstrip antenna and (b) microstrip
antenna with the dielectric only under the patch (cookie). (c) Coordinate system
for coupled antennas.

cookie are slightly larger (for about 2 mm). This is due to different edge effects in the two cases.
We have performed extensive computations and experimental
verifications comparing the two designs. No significant difference in the coupling and the radiation pattern has been observed,
for the given substrate data, the operating frequency, and the distances between coupled antennas consider here.

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NIKOLIC

Fig. 2. Coupling between a pair of microstrip antennas, versus the distance

between the antenna feeds, at the resonant frequency, when the offset is along
coordinate (a) x and (b) y . Results for three cases are shown: antennas located
in the air, classic antennas printed on FR-4, and antennas with compensated
dielectric, printed on FR-4 (described in Section IV). Computed results for the
printed antennas are shown for realistic substrate parameters, and also when
dielectric losses are neglected. Isolated dots are experimental results.

In this section, we evaluate the coupling, at the resonant frequency, between a pair of identical microstrip antennas, printed
on FR-4 and located on the same ground plane. In one case,
the antennas are offset along the axis, like antennas #1 and
#2 in Fig. 1(c). In another case, the antennas are offset along
the axis, like antennas #1 and #3. The offset is varied beand
. If one antenna is excited, the other antween
tenna is located in the field of the first antenna, so that the
two antennas are coupled. The coupling (Fig. 2) is substantially
stronger when the antennas are offset along the axis. In this
direction, the far-field coupling dominates (decay of 6 dB per
doubled spacing). The near-field coupling dominates when the
antennas are offset along the axis (decay of 12 dB per doubled
spacing) because the radiation pattern has a deep null in the
direction (as will be shown in Section III). In both cases, if the
dielectric losses were not present, the coupling would be about

3471

10 dB stronger. (The conductor losses have a negligible effect

on the results.) This is illustrated in Fig. 2 by presenting results
for lossless classic antennas.
In Fig. 2, for comparison, we also show the coupling be,
tween patch antennas without dielectric (with
, and
). The antennas are located
in the air at the same height above the ground plane as the
metallization of the classic patches. In the experimental model,
the antennas are made of a tin and supported by the pins of the
SMA connectors. To obtain the same resonant frequency as for
of the
the antennas printed on FR-4, the dimensions and
times larger than the
antenna located in the air are about
dimensions of the corresponding classic antenna on FR-4. (The
effective permittivity is close to the relative permittivity of the
.)
substrate because the substrate is thin, i.e., because
When the distance between the antennas is larger than about one
wavelength, the maximal coupling between the antennas located
in the air is smaller than for the classic patch antennas. (The
if the dielectric losses are negligibly
crossover point is at
small.) This confirms the conclusion from [2] that the coupling
is reduced when the dielectric under the patches is removed.
In Fig. 2, we also give the coupling between two patch antennas described in Section IV, for which the influence of the
dielectric is compensated by pins. These antennas have reduced
coupling and radiation in the horizontal directions.
For the antennas in the air and for the antennas with pins,
when the offset is in the direction, the coupling diminishes for
18 dB when the distance is doubled [Fig. 2(a)]. This behavior
. Thereafter, the coupling diminishes for 6
is up to about
dB per doubled spacing. For the classical antennas shown in
Fig. 1(a), ultimately, at very large distances, the surface-wave
term dominates.
For all three antennas, the decay along the axis, in the range
shown in Fig. 2(b), corresponds to the near-field coupling (decay
of 12 dB per doubled spacing).
Hence, the near-field coupling is the dominant effect for adjacent array elements in many practical cases, as the distance be. The
tween these elements is typically in the range
far-field coupling mechanism is dominant for the classic patch
antennas offset in the direction. This mechanism is also dominant for distant array elements in any case, until overwhelmed
by the surface-wave coupling at very large distances (for antennas on a common dielectric substrate).
III. RADIATION PATTERN AND FAR-FIELD COUPLING
Fig. 3 shows the gain in the three principal planes of the
classic microstrip antenna, the antenna suspended in the air, and
the antenna with compensated dielectric. These are the same antennas as in Section II and they are assumed located above an
) is
infinite ground plane. The gain in the horizontal plane (
plotted versus the azimuthal angle, where 0 corresponds to the
direction of the axis in Fig. 1. The gain in the vertical planes
and
) is plotted versus the elevation angle, where, 90
(
corresponds to the direction of the axis in Fig. 1
The classic antenna has a prominent radiation along the horizontal plane. The gain in the direction of the axis is only for
3 dB lower than in the zenith direction (along the axis). (The

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 53, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2005

Fig. 3. Computed gain (in dBi) in three principal planes of a microstrip

antenna, at the resonant frequency. (a) Horizontal plane (Oxy ). (b) E -plane
(Oxz ). (c) H -plane (Oyz ). Results for three cases are shown: antenna located
in the air, classic antenna printed on FR-4, and antenna with compensated
dielectric, printed on FR-4 (described in Section IV). Antennas are above an
infinite ground plane.

Fig. 4. Copolar gain (in dBi) in two principal planes of a microstrip antenna,
at the resonant frequency. (a) E -plane (Oxz ). (b) H -plane (Oyz ). Results for
three cases are shown: antenna located in the air, classic antenna printed on
FR-4, and antenna with compensated dielectric, printed on FR-4 (described in
Section IV). Antennas are above a finite ground plane.

gain of the antennas printed on FR-4 is reduced for about 6.5

dB due to the substrate losses.) In contrast to this, the gain of
the antenna located in the air is for 27 dB lower in the horizontal direction than in the zenith direction. These results agree
with the results shown in Fig. 2: the strong coupling among the
classic microstrip antennas offset in the direction is associated
with the strong radiation in this direction.
Fig. 4 demonstrates a good comparison between measured
and computed radiation patterns for a finite ground plane. The
ground plane is a square plate, of 300 mm side. The antenna
[shown in Fig. 1(b)] is located in the center of the plate.
The key question is why the classic antenna on the dielectric substrate has a stronger radiation in the horizontal directions
than the antenna in the air. The answer is in the following physical reasoning.
An antenna can be visualized as a system of currents and
charges in a free space, which are sources of the electromagnetic field. In the far-field zone of the antenna, the intensities
of the electric and magnetic fields are inversely proportional to
. The far
the distance from the antenna, i.e., they decay as
field is determined solely in terms of the magnetic vector-potential, . The magnetic vector-potential due to a current element
is parallel to the current-density vector. The electric field in the

far-field zone is given by

, where and
is the
component of the magnetic vector-potential perpendicular to the
radius , i.e., perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation.
We consider an antenna above an infinite perfectly conducting ground plane. (The size of the dielectric slab is
assumed finite.) In a horizontal direction (i.e., on the surface of
the ground plane), the electric field can have only the vertical
component, i.e., the component perpendicular to the ground
plane. The horizontal component (tangential to the ground
plane) must be zero due to the boundary conditions.
To avoid dealing with the ground plane, we introduce the
mirror image of the antenna. Still, in the horizontal plane of
symmetry, the electric field has only the vertical component.
Fig. 5 shows a qualitative sketch of the surface charges ( ) and
currents ( ) in the patch and its image at two time instants that
are quarter-period apart. Fig. 5 also shows the current in the protrusion of the inner conductor of the feeding coaxial line and its
), the electric field under the patch ( ) and the poimage (
larization vector in the substrate ( ).
The magnetic vector-potential in the horizontal plane of symmetry has only the vertical component. This component of the
magnetic vector-potential can be produced only by vertically
directed currents. The only vertical conduction current of the

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Fig. 6. Microstrip antenna with compensating pins: top view and side view.

Fig. 5. Qualitative sketch of currents, charges, and fields of a rectangular patch

at two time instants when (a) the electric field is maximal and (b) quarter-period
later.

antenna is the current

[Fig. 5(a)]. The current of this conductor is usually much smaller than the total current of the patch
(obtained by integrating ) because the patch and the ground
plane form a good resonator and the feeder is relatively loosely
coupled to it.
This is a simple explanation why the radiated field (and, consequently, the gain) of the patch suspended in the air is small
in the horizontal directions. In addition, this explains why the
radiation pattern of the patch antenna suspended in the air, with
a single coaxial feed, is omnidirectional in the horizontal plane.
Furthermore, if the patch is fed by a microstrip structure, then
there is no vertical conduction current. The radiation pattern of
such a patch suspended in the air has a null in the horizontal
plane. Of course, if the ground plane is finite, the radiation pattern is somewhat different than for an infinite ground plane. In
that case, the radiated electric field has both the horizontal and
vertical components.
What can explain the strong field of the antenna printed on
a dielectric? The answer is simple: polarization currents in the
dielectric! In the space between the patch and the ground plane,
there exists a strong resonant field, whose structure is close to
a standing wave. For the rectangular patch considered here, the
resonant field resembles that of a half-wavelength microstripline resonator, whose length is .
Due to the small spacing between the patch and the ground
plane, the electric field has practically only the vertical component [Fig. 5(a)], except near the patch edges. If the antenna is
suspended in the air, nothing happens due to this field. If, however, the antenna is printed on a dielectric substrate, the electric
field polarizes the dielectric. The polarization vector is given by
and it has predominantly the vertical component [Fig. 5(a)]. The polarization is a time-harmonic function
(as the electric field). The charges of the dielectric molecules

move up and down in the rhythm of the electric field. This is

equivalent to having currents throughout the dielectric (polarization currents). The density of these currents is
[Fig. 5(b)]. In the electromagnetic-field analysis, the polarization currents are visualized as being located in a vacuum, in the
same way as we visualize the bound charges in electrostatics.
The polarization currents create a strong vertical component of
the magnetic vector-potential. Hence, there is a strong radiated
field in the horizontal directions.
For the rectangular patch considered here, at the first resonance, the electric field in the dielectric is counter-phased in the
two halves of the resonator, as indicated in Fig. 5(a). The polarization currents are also counter-phased [Fig. 5(b)]. In the direction of the axis, the radiated fields of these currents cancel
out. This explains the two deep nulls of the radiation pattern in
the horizontal plane. In the direction of the axis, the radiated
fields do not cancel out due to the difference in the traveled distance, resulting in a strong radiation.
IV. REDUCTION OF RADIATION AND COUPLING
In [2], the radiation along the ground plane is diminished by
machining the dielectric under the patch. This agrees with our
assumption: the radiation is reduced because the polarization
currents are removed. The technique for suppressing the radiation in the horizontal directions by placing a superstrate over
the patch [8] may also have an explanation in terms of the polarization currents. The superstrate has a high permittivity. Around
patch edges, the polarization currents in the superstrate have an
opposite direction with respect to the currents in the substrate.
Hence, the influence of the two polarization currents partly cancels out.
These two solutions are efficient, but may be expensive in
production. We propose another solution, which may be technically simpler for certain applications. The idea is to compensate the polarization currents by introducing a system of conduction currents that are counter-phased. These new currents
are also vertically oriented, so that their magnetic vector-potential cancels out the magnetic vector-potential of the polarization currents. These compensating currents can be introduced by
placing shorting posts (pins) between the patch and the ground
(Fig. 6). (In the practice of patch antennas, shorting posts are

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 53, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2005

introduced for various other purposes: to lower the resonant frequency and, hence, make the antenna more compact, to obtain
dual-band antennas, or to improve the bandwidth [13][15].)
A post is predominantly inductive. If properly designed, it
can carry a current that would almost fully cancel out the effect of the polarization currents located in its neighborhood. The
problem is how to design the post to carry the current of a proper
amplitude and phase.
We divide the surface of the microstrip antenna into a number
of small square (or almost-square) patches (Fig. 6). Each patch
and the ground plane form a parallel-plate capacitor. If is the
surface area of the patch, the capacitance is
, where
is the portion of the capacitance that exists when the dielectric is removed and
is the contribution due to the presence of the
dielectric.
We insert a pin into the center of the patch. This is equivalent to connecting an inductance between the electrodes of the
capacitor. From the circuit-theory standpoint, canceling out the
by the inpolarization currents is equivalent to resonating
ductance of the pin. Hence, at the operating frequency of the
, i.e.,
and form an antiresonant (tank)
patch,
circuit.
The next step is to estimate the inductance of the pin. The inductance of just a straight piece of wire is meaningless without
defining the return current path. In our case, this path consists
of the polarization currents distributed throughout the dielectric underneath the patch. For simplicity, we replace the square
patch by a circular patch of the same surface area. The radius
. Approximately assuming the
of the circle is , so that
polarization currents to be uniformly distributed (which is not
strictly true due to the presence of the pin), the per-unit-length
inductance of this coaxial structure can be calculated from energy considerations as
(2)
). The pin inductance is
where is the pin radius (
. The antiresonant condition yields:
(3)
and the pin radius can be evaluated form (2) and (3).
A pin and neighboring parts of the ground plane and the strip
act like a resonated Hertzian dipole. Placing an array of such
dipoles can be visualized as employing the concept of artificial
dielectrics or metamaterials [16]. The dipoles reduce the equivalent permittivity of the substrate to close to 1.
The smaller the patches we take (i.e., the more pins we make),
the better compensation of the far field due to the polarization
currents is achieved. Numerical experiments have shown that
to obtain
the pins should be located at a spacing of at most
a good compensation of the dielectric. However, if we take more
pins, the diameter of each pin diminishes. Consequently, limitations are imposed by the minimal diameter, as well as by the
production cost. If the required pin diameter is too small for production, we can take a feasible pin diameter and increase the pin

Fig. 7. Reflection coefficient of a microstrip antenna as a function of

frequency. Three cases are shown: classic antenna printed on FR-4, antenna
located in the air, and antenna with compensated dielectric, printed on FR-4.
Computed results for the antennas on FR-4 are shown for realistic substrate
parameters, and also when dielectric losses are neglected.

inductance by printing an inductive pattern at the pin-to-patch

junction.
For the example followed in this paper (the rectangular microstrip antenna printed on FR-4), we have adopted the diameter
of the pin to be 0.6 mm. This corresponds to taking 12 pins (12
of
small patches), as shown in Fig. 6. The dimensions and
the microstrip antenna have to be increased compared with the
classic printed antenna. Compensating the polarization currents
effectively removes the influence of the dielectric. The antenna
behaves almost like being in the air. Hence, the dimensions of
and
) are very
the antenna with pins (
close to the dimensions of the antenna located in the air. Note
) is strongly
that the optimal location of the feed (
influenced by the substrate losses.
The proposed technique dramatically improves the radiation
pattern, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The radiation in the direction is deeply suppressed. The radiation in the direction
is increased compared with the classic patch, but it is still very
low and comparable with the antenna in the air. The backward
radiation is suppressed for about 10 dB on average. The level of
cross-polar components of the compensated patch is about the
same as for the patch in the air.
The bandwidth of the antenna with pins is narrower than for
the classic antenna. This can be seen from the reflection coefficient (Fig. 7). The computed results in this figure are in a good
agreement with the measured data.
The reduced radiation significantly reduces the far-field coupling between array elements, as plotted in Fig. 2. The near-field
coupling is also significantly suppressed. The coupling is identical as for antennas in the air, except that the losses in FR-4 shift
the coupling curves downwards for about 13 dB.
V. CONCLUSION
Microstrip antennas often have pronounced radiation in horizontal directions, i.e., along the ground plane. In antenna arrays
and in vector sensors, an associated problem is strong coupling

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NIKOLIC

among antennas. These two unwanted effects are attributed in

the literature primarily to the surface waves. We have identified
polarization currents in the substrate to be the cause of these
effects even when the surface waves are not pronounced at all.
This explains why both problems can be cured by reducing the
relative permittivity of the substrate or by removing the substrate
underneath the patches.
We have also proposed a technique for reducing the radiation and coupling by compensating the effect of the substrate.
The microstrip antenna is printed on a substrate in the classical
manner. An array of shorting pins between the patch and the
ground is introduced and designed so that the inductive currents
in the pins cancel out the capacitive polarization currents. As
the result, in a narrow frequency band, the antenna behaves as
if there is no dielectric at all.
We have verified our conclusions by extensive computations
and experiments. A very good agreement between the computed
and measured results is obtained.
For example, a classical rectangular patch designed for the
and printed on FR-4,
first resonant frequency at
thick, has very strong radiation in horizontal
directions. For an infinite ground plane, the peak is only about
3 dB below the radiation in the zenith direction. The radiation
pattern of the antenna with compensated polarization currents
is similar to a patch located in air. The radiation of the compensated antenna in horizontal directions is very low: the peak is
about 15 dB below the classical microstrip antenna.
The classical microstrip antennas exhibit a particularly strong
coupling when they are offset in the -plane. This coupling diminishes for 6 dB when the spacing between the antennas is
doubled. The coupling between antennas with compensated polarization currents is significantly reduced. At the spacing of one
wavelength, the coupling is 15 dB lower than for the classical
antennas, and it decays for 18 dB when the spacing is doubled.
The proposed technique for compensating the polarization
currents is general, although it is elaborated only for rectangular
patch antennas on thinner substrates. Once the compensation
has been achieved, the microstrip antenna can be designed as
being in the air. Further investigation may include other antenna
shapes and antenna behavior on thick substrates (when the surface wave is important).

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[15] T. Chakravarty and A. Do, Novel method of extending frequency tunability of circular patch using two shorting pins, in Proc. Antennas and
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[16] R. W. Ziolkowski and N. Engheta, Metamaterial special issue introduction, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 51, pp. 25462549, Oct. 2003.

Marija M. Nikolic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, on

June 5, 1976. She received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from University of Belgrade in 2000 and 2003,
respectively.
Since 2001, she has been with the University
of Belgrade as a Teaching Assistant. Currently,
she is with the University of Illinois at Chicago
pursuing the Ph.D. degree. Her interests are in
numerical electromagnetics applied to antennas,
signal processing, electrostatics, microwave circuits,
and plasma etching.

Antonije R. Djordjevic was born in Belgrade,

Serbia, on April 28, 1952. He received the B.Sc.,
M.Sc., and D.Sc. degrees from the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, in 1975,
1977, and 1979, respectively.
In 1975, he joined the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, as a Teaching Assistant. He was promoted to an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor in 1982, 1988, and
1992, respectively. In 1983, he was a Visiting Associate Professor with the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Since 1992, he has also been an Adjunct Scholar with
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. In 1997, he was elected a Corresponding
Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. His main area of interest is numerical electromagnetics, in particular, applied to fast digital signal
interconnects, wire and surface antennas, microwave passive circuits, and electromagnetic-compatibility problems.

3476

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 53, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2005

Arye Nehorai (S80M83SM90F94) received

the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering
from the Technion, Israel, and the Ph.D. degree
in electrical engineering from Stanford University,
Stanford, CA.
From 1985 to 1995, he was a faculty member
with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Yale
University, New Haven, CT. In 1995, he joined the
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC),
as a Full Professor. From 2000 to 2001, he was Chair
of the departments Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Division,
which is now a new department. In 2001, he was named University Scholar of
the University of Illinois.
Dr. Nehorai is Vice President (Publications) of the IEEE Signal Processing
Society, as well as Chair of the Publications Board, a member of the Board
of Governors, and the Executive Committee of this Society. He was Editor-inChief of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL PROCESSING during 2000 to 2002
and is the Founding Editor of the Special Columns on Leadership Reflections
in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. He was corecipient of the IEEE SPS
1989 Senior Award for Best Paper with P. Stoica, as well as coauthor of the 2003
Young Author Best Paper Award, and of the 2004 Magazine Paper Award with
A. Dogandzic. He was elected Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE SPS for the
term 2004 to 2005. He currently serves as Chairman of the Chicago Chapter of
IEEE SPS. He is the Principal Investigator of the new multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) project entitled Adaptive Waveform Diversity
for Full Spectral Dominance. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society since 1996.