Planar Vertically Polarized Unidirectional Dielectric Radiator Fabry–Perot Antenna Fed by Embedded Thin Slotted Substrate Integrated Waveguide

Abstract

This work devises and investigates a Fabry–Perot-styled planar unidirectional dielectric radiator (UDR) antenna fed by a thin embedded slotted substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). The proposed UDR-SIW antenna consists of two identical dielectric substrates and an embedded feeding SIW between the two dielectric substrates. This diligently mingled multilayer structure makes it possible to not only use the thick dielectric substrates to narrow down the E-plane pattern for symmetrical radiation but also facilitate its integration with RF subsystems through the thin embedded feeding SIW, thereby achieving a compact size and an effective excitation. An experimental prototype of the URD-SIW antenna is simulated, fabricated, and measured. It features a size of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.96\lambda _{0}\,^\ast \,0.65\lambda _{0}\,^\ast \,0.33\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and a nearly symmetrical endfire radiation pattern. The antenna presents a measured impedance bandwidth of 9.4% from 26.3 to 28.9 GHz, a gain varied from 8.2 to 10.3 dBi, which is over 10 dBi from 27.7 to 28.4 GHz, and a front to back ratio over 20 dB from 27.5 to 29 GHz. The proposed UDR-SIW antenna has vertically polarized radiation pattern that is different from a conventional UDR antenna; thus, it is an appropriate candidate to replace the SIW H-plane horn in certain applications.