Ricerc@Sapienza

A low-cost compact planar leaky-wave antenna (LWA) is proposed offering directive broadside radiation over a significantly wide bandwidth. The design is based on an annular metallic strip grating (MSG) configuration, placed on top of a dual-layer grounded dielectric substrate. This defines a new two-layer parallel-plate open waveguide, whose operational principles are accurately investigated. To assist in our antenna design, a method-of-moments dispersion analysis has been developed to characterize the relevant TM and TE modes of the perturbed guiding structure.

The design of a K-band radial leaky-wave antenna is presented for polarization diversity applications. The antenna structure is constituted by an annular, radially periodic, and metallic strip grating printed on top of a single-layer grounded dielectric slab. The integrated feeding system is defined by a 2 × 2 array of planar slot sources for cylindrical surface-wave excitation.