Patent 7408510 was granted and assigned to Sanyo on August, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A patch antenna (10) includes a dielectric substrate (12), a patch conductor (14) and a ground conductor (18) formed on both surfaces thereof. A step (16) is formed on the lower surface of the dielectric substrate, which makes a spacing between the patch conductor and the ground conductor nonuniform in a direction of length of the patch conductor. By making nonuniform the spacing between the patch conductor and the ground conductor in the direction of length of the patch conductor, radiation efficiency and antenna gain are changed in that direction, resulting in asymmetrical directivity.