Title :
A Novel Broadband Microstrip Leaky Wave Antenna with Inhomogeneous Substrate
Author :
Jiang, Hai ; Pasala, Krishna M. ; Kempel, Leo M. ; Schneider, Stephen M.
Author_Institution :
Dayton Univ., OH
Abstract :
This work seeks to improve the bandwidth performance of the Menzel´s simple microstrip leaky wave antenna (LWA) by incorporating a substrate that is inhomogeneous. Several different inhomogeneous substrate profiles and leaky wave antenna configurations are considered. The finite elements (FE) technique is particularly suitable to model inhomogeneous dielectric profiles and is used to evaluate the fields and performance of the LWA´s considered here. It is demonstrated that it is possible to obtain a significant improvement in the bandwidth performance by choosing an appropriate inhomogeneous profile. The complex propagation constant corresponding to the leaky wave mode can be deduced from the fields computed using the FE technique and is compared to the values obtained using the transverse resonance method
Keywords :
broadband antennas; electromagnetic wave propagation; finite element analysis; leaky wave antennas; microstrip antennas; broadband microstrip leaky wave antenna; complex propagation constant; finite elements technique; inhomogeneous dielectric profiles; inhomogeneous substrate profiles; leaky wave mode; transverse resonance method; Antenna feeds; Antennas and propagation; Bandwidth; Dielectric substrates; Frequency; Impedance; Leaky wave antennas; Microstrip antennas; Propagation constant; Resonance;
Conference_Titel :
Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium 2006, IEEE
Conference_Location :
Albuquerque, NM
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0123-2
DOI :
10.1109/APS.2006.1711567