Leakage control in the CRLH uniform ferrite-loaded open waveguide leaky-wave antenna using a transversally extending evanescent waveguide structure

A novel technique is presented for the control of the leakage factor in the composite right/left handed (CRLH) full-space scanning continuous open ferrite-loaded waveguide leaky-wave antenna of. The transverse dimension of the waveguide structure is extended beyond the ferrite region, leading to an evanescent parallel-plate waveguide used to reduce radiation; by adjusting the width of this extension, the leakage factor can be controlled with great flexibility. This will allow the realization of tapered structures for effective aperture enhancement, leading to higher directivity, and side-lobe level reduction, using conventional non-uniform antenna synthesis techniques.