Conformal tapered microstrip leaky-wave antennas

We present the design of a width-tapered half-width microstrip leaky-wave antenna operating at 15 GHz, which is conformed to a cylindrical surface. Leaky-mode tapering dispersion curves and modulation of the strip width W along the curved antenna length are presented to synthesize a directive radiation pattern with a main beam scanning at an angle of 45° in the far-field. The simulated performance of the tapered conformal antenna is compared with the non-tapered rectilinear and with the non-tapered conformal counterparts, illustrating the effectiveness of the tapering approach for the synthesis of highly directive conformal scanning leaky-wave antennas. Moreover, the proposed design has been validated by using commercial full-wave software.