Broadband Fixed-Beam Leaky-Wave Antenna With Consistent and High Gain Based on Ridge Gap Waveguide

Abstract

In most communication scenarios, antennas are often required to achieve broadband and directional radiation, and beam squint with frequency is unfavorable for broadband signal transmission. The traditional leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) have beam squint with frequency. In this letter, an LWA with fixed beam direction in a broadband is designed with consistent gain over the band. A ridge gap waveguide (RGW) is adopted to construct a nondispersive structure, and one lateral side is connected to a parallel plate filled with dielectric slab. Thus, leakage radiation is produced at the interface between the RGW and the parallel plate, generating a beam with fixed direction and high gain. The novelty is that in theory the fixed beam can be realized in infinite band owing to the nondispersive waveguide. Finally, a broad band of up to 58% (from 22 to 40 GHz) is achieved due to the limitations of the stopband structure and feeding port. The measured beam is fixed at 41° over the whole band, with a slight beam deviation of 2.6°. The realized gain is consistent over the band with a peak gain of 19.3 dBi. The designing method provides a simple and efficient way to realize the broadband fixed-beam LWAs.