UNEQUALLY SPACED AND EXCITED RESONANT SLOTTED-WAVEGUIDE ANTENNA ARRAY BASED ON AN IMPROVED RESONANT-SLOT COUPLED CAVITY CHAIN COMPOSITE RIGHT/LEFT-HANDED WAVEGUIDE

This paper presents a new unequally spaced and excited resonant slotted-waveguide antenna array. It is realized by employing an improved resonant-slot coupled cavity chain composite right/left-handed (CRLH) waveguide. As the CRLH waveguide works at the infinite wavelength frequency, all the slot elements along the waveguide wall are excited in-phase. Thus both the element spacings and excitation amplitudes are introduced into the synthesis to realize a resonant slotted-waveguide antenna array. A seven-element unequally spaced and excited antenna array which generates pencil beam is synthesized, simulated and fabricated. The results show, with comparison to the equally spaced but unequally excited resonant slotted-waveguide antenna array, the proposed unequally spaced and excited array produces a lower peak sidelobe level (PSLL).