Planar single-wire antennas at millimeter-wave frequencies

Single-wire waveguides are becoming deeply studied at high frequencies due to their low-loss and low-dispersive behavior. In this paper, a planar version of this waveguide is used to design two kinds of antennas. Firstly, a surface-wave antenna is designed taking advantage of the slow-wave behavior of the fundamental mode. This low-loss antenna (it does not use any dielectric) presents an end-fire pattern. To obtain a different pattern, a periodic leaky-wave antenna is proposed. This antenna is obtained by attaching dipoles to the laterals of the waveguide. The resulting structure has a beam that scans from backward to forward as frequency varies. Both antennas are ideal for millimeter and submillimeter-wave frequencies due to the ease of fabrication and low losses. This paper shows both designs and presents several results.