Single-Beam Leaky-Wave Antenna with Wide-Scanning-Angle and High-Scanning-Rate Based on Spoof Surface Plasmon Polariton

Abstract A single-beam leaky-wave antenna (LWA) with wide-scanning-angle and high-scanning-rate transmission line (TL) is proposed based on spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) in this paper. The SSPP TL is etched with periodically arranged circular patches which can convert the slow-wave mode into the fast-wave region for radiation. The proposed LWA is designed, fabricated, and tested. The simulated results imply that the proposed LWA can not only achieve high radiation efficiency about 81.4% and high scanning rate of 12.12, but also has a large scanning angle with 176deg over a narrow operation bandwidth of 8.3-9.6 GHz (for |S11| < −10 dB). In addition, the simulated average gain of the LWA can reach 10.9dBi. The measured scanning angle range is 175deg in the operation band of 8.2-9.6 GHz, and the measured average gain is 10.6dBi. The experimental results are consistent with the simulation, which validate its good performance. The antenna with high radiation efficiency, wide scanning angle range, and high scanning rate has great application potential in radar and wireless communication systems.