Study of high efficiency and low sidelobe level CRLH leaky-wave antenna based on short-end and tapered cells

This paper presents a study that improves the radiation efficiency and the sidelobe level (SLL) of a composite right/left handed (CRLH) substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) leaky-wave antenna (LWA). Because of the constructive electric field interference on each interdigital slot of a SIW from short-end, a CRLH SIW LWA can have higher radiation efficiency. In addition, controlling leakage amount of an interdigital slot, we can make a LWA have lower SLL. For verifying the concept, the tapered CRLH SIW LWA with short-end is designed and fabricated. The measured results verify the study.