An explanation of some E-plane scan blindnesses in single-polarized tapered slot arrays

It has been found that a guided wave on a corrugated surface is a reasonably good predictor of some of the scan blindnesses observed in E-plane scan of tapered slot antenna arrays. The dependence of the blindness angle on the difference between array element spacing and thickness and its insensitivity to /spl epsi//sub r/ indicate that the metallization of the stripline antenna is the dominant factor in the blindness and not the dielectric substrate. The simple model presented here is, however, only a partial solution to the problem of predicting and eliminating scan blindnesses. It is noted that, in order to properly account for the loading effects of the periodic slots along the y direction, a moment method solution for the modes of such a structure should be developed.<>