Abstract
This study proposes a novel scheme based on the characteristics of leaky-wave antennas for the empirical design of broadband tapered microstrip leaky-wave antennas. This scheme can explain and approximately model the radiation characteristics of a linearly tapered leaky-wave microstrip antenna. A broadband feeding structure that uses the balanced and the inverted balanced microstrip lines to form a pair of broadband baluns is also presented. The measured return loss of the inverted balanced microstrip lines has a VSWR/spl les/2 from dc to 18.6 GHz and that of the back-to-back feeding structures has a VSWR/spl les/2 from 2.2 to 18.6 GHz. This feeding structure can be used to feed a broadband planar leaky-wave antenna with a fixed mainbeam that uses the tapered microstrip structure. The measured bandwidth of the antenna for a VSWR/spl les/2 exceeds 2.3:1.
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