A dielectric rod leaky-wave antenna with a conducting ground plane

The effect of a conducting ground plane on the radiation pattern, voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR) and gain of a dielectric rod leaky-wave antenna is investigated. Experiments are performed using copper strips as perturbations on a rod of dielectric constant 2.54. The metallic strip perturbations were on the broader side of the rectangular dielectric waveguide. The conducting ground plane was on the opposite side of the perturbed face. The E-plane radiation patterns were plotted in the X-band with strips of width 1 cm, for various perturbation spacings such as 1.75 cm, 1.9 cm, 2 cm, 2.1 cm and 2.25 cm. The experimental results reveal that the presence of the conducting ground plane improves the performance of the antenna.<>