UWB, Non Dispersive Radiation From the Planarly Fed Leaky Lens Antenna— Part 1: Theory and Design

An efficient directive antenna is described that can be used to realize essentially non dispersive links over extremely large bandwidths. The antenna is a significantly enhanced version of previously proposed Leaky Lens antennas that use a frequency independent leaky slot radiation mechanism. A theoretical breakthrough now allows the use of this mechanism also in the presence of purely planar structures. This step allows the realization of the feed of a leaky lens antenna in a unique planar structure that is then glued to a standard circularly symmetric elliptical dielectric lens, as integrated technology requires in the mm and sub-mm wave domains. The first part of this sequence deals with a theoretical breakthrough, the consequent antenna concept and a description of the basic physical mechanisms inside and outside the lens antenna. It is shown that Leaky Lens antennas have the potential to be used to realize antenna links over bands exceeding a decade with minimal dispersion, high efficiency and high directivity. The second part of this sequence deals with the demonstration of these claims via the measurement of two prototypes.