A radial slot based leaky-wave antenna design for continuous one-sided beam scanning and broadside radiation

A leaky-wave antenna (LWA) for continuous beam scanning and broadside radiation is presented for microwave and millimeter-wave applications. The fabricated and measured LWA design is defined by a two layer parallel-plate guiding structure and power leakage is achieved by a radial configuration of rectangular slots etched in the top conducting plate. One-sided frequency beam scanning in the far-field is shown over a large radiating bandwidth (19.0 GHz to 25.7 GHz), and pointing angles ranging from -19.5° to +39.0° are observed in the E(x-z) plane. In addition, measurements are in agreement with the simulations and realized gain values are greater than 10 dBi from 20.9 to 24.2 GHz (inclusive) with a 14.6 dBi measured maximum gain at 23.4 GHz, and +15° away from the broadside direction.