Half Mode Substrate Integrated Waveguide Periodic

Leaky Wave Antenna With Antipodal Tapered Slots

Robert Henry, Michal Okoniewski
Electrical Engineering
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
rjhenry@ucalgary.ca

Abstract—A new broadside scanning half mode substrate

integrated waveguide fed periodic leaky wave antenna using
antipodal tapered slot radiating elements is presented. The feed
polarity of adjacent elements is alternated to reduce the antenna
size by allowing two radiators to exist per unit cell.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) is a low loss pla-
nar transmission line that is gaining popularity in mm-wave
frequency (30–300GHz) applications. [1] In this work a half
mode SIW (HMSIW) [2] fed periodic leaky wave antenna
(LWA) is presented. The new architecture makes use of HM-
SIW to feed periodically spaced antipodal tapered slot antenna
(ATSA) elements that are successively reversed in polarity to
reduce the antenna size. The open-stop band observed at the
broadside scan angle frequency in periodic LWAs is reduced
by the addition of matching networks to each unit cell. [3]
The new design is validated using full wave simulator Ansys
HFSS and prototype measurements.
II. P ROPOSED A NTENNA
The periodic nature of the proposed antenna means its
geometry is primarily defined by its unit cell parameters which
are shown in Fig 1. In this work the proposed antenna consists
of 10 cascaded unit cells excited by tapered microstrip and
terminated in a matched load.
III. D ESIGN
A. HMSIW Design
The cutoff frequency and dispersion characteristics of HM-
SIW (defined by d, p, w and ǫr in Fig 1) can be roughly
approximated by SIW design equations in [4]. An approximate
cutoff frequency of 6.37GHz was chosen for X-band antenna
operation.
B. Radiating Element Design
The ATSA element geometry is fully described by parame-
ters wf eed , lf eed , r and ellipse axis ratio b. HFSS was used to
find parameter values that would result in a broad beamwidth
(to maximize scan range), and weak perturbation of the guided
mode. A periodic LWA radiating at broadside through the
n = −1 space harmonic requires a 360o phase shift between
adjacent radiating elements. The proposed design introduces
‫݌‬ ݀ ݀௠௔௧௖௛
݈௠௔௧௖௛
‫ݓ‬ ‫ݓ‬௠௔௧௖௛
‫ݓ‬௙௘௘ௗ
݈௙௘௘ௗ
‫ݎ‬
ܾή‫ݎ‬
‫ݏ‬௘௟௘௠௘௡௧
Fig. 1. HMSIW Periodic LWA Geometry (length units in mm): p = 0.76,
d = 0.508, w = 7.51, lmatch = 4.12, wmatch = 6.12, dmatch = 2.14,
wf eed = 0.42, lf eed = 3.42, r = 3.9, b = 1.06 , selement = 14.60,
ǫr = 10.2
180o of phase separation in the the feed network (HMSIW)
and an additional 180o by reversing the polarity of adjacent
ATSA elements. Each unit cell of the periodic LWA is then
allowed to contain two radiating elements where traditionally
only one is realized.
C. Broadside Open-stop band mitigation
Two identical matching sections are included in the unit
cell to reduce reflections from each ATSA element at the
desired broadside frequency (9.7GHz). The matching section
was parameterized in terms of its width, length, and distance
to the ATSA element (Fig 1 wmatch , lmatch , and dmatch ,
respectively) and optimized such that the unit cell s11 was
reduced to -26dB at 9.7GHz.
D. Prototype Manufacturing
A 20 element (10 unit cell) prototype was fabricated and is
shown in Fig 2. The antenna is 22.7cm long and 1.2cm wide.
The bottom copper layer has a tapered ground plane to allow
ATSA elements to tap off the open sidewall of the HMSIW.

978-1-4799-3540-6/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 1284 AP-S 2014

 80

60

40

20

Angle o
0

−20

−40

−60
Theory
−80 HFSS
Fig. 2. Fabricated Prototype Measured
−100
8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12
Frequency [GHz]

Fig. 4. Angle of Maximum Radiation

IV. R ESULTS

A. S-Parameters 11

The simulated and measured prototype S-parameters are 10

shown in Fig 3. The insertion loss and return loss should 9
both be greater than 10dB over the antenna bandwidth to
Antenna Gain [dBi]
ensure efficient excitation of the structure as well as less than 8
10% power dissipation in the load (as is standard in LWAs). 7
The prototype insertion loss is too low between 10.3GHz
and 10.5GHz (extending above 10dB) however this would be 6
rectified by increasing the number of unit cells. The impedance 5
bandwidth of the structure is then taken to extend from 8.5– HFSS (Interpolated)
Measured (Interpolated)
12GHz (34%). 4 HFSS Data
Measured Data
3
0 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12
Frequency [GHz]
−5
Fig. 5. Antenna Gain
−10
S Parameter [dB]

−15
V. C ONCLUSION
−20
A new scanning periodic HMSIW LWA has been presented
−25
with broadside radiation enabled. A gain of greater than 9dB
−30 is obtained from 9–11GHz (20%) offering a 67o scan range.
S11 Measured
S21 Measured
−35 S11 HFSS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
S21 HFSS The authors would like to thank NSERC for their support.
−40
8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12
Frequency [GHz] R EFERENCES
[1] M. Bozzi, a. Georgiadis, and K. Wu, “Review of substrate-integrated
Fig. 3. Simulated and Measured S-Parameters waveguide circuits and antennas,” IET Microwaves, Antennas and Prop-
agation, vol. 5, no. 8, p. 909, 2011.
[2] W. Hong, B. Liu, Y. Wang, Q. Lai, and H. Tang, “Half Mode Substrate
Integrated Waveguide : A New Guided Wave Structure for Microwave
and Millimeter Wave Application,” IRMMW-THz 2006, vol. 152, p. 4244,
B. Radiation Characteristics 2006.
[3] S. Paulotto, P. Baccarelli, F. Frezza, S. Member, and D. R. Jackson, “A
The radiation pattern is a narrow fan beam with maximum Novel Technique for Open-Stopband Suppression in 1-D Periodic Printed
radiation occurring in the plane of the antenna. Fig 4 shows Leaky-Wave Antennas,” IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation, vol. 57,
no. 7, pp. 1894–1906, 2009.
the theoretical (obtained using periodic structure and LWA [4] F. Xu and K. Wu, “Guided-wave and leakage characteristics of substrate
analysis [5], [6]), measured and simulated angle of maximum integrated waveguide,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and
radiation for the proposed antenna. Techniques, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 66–73, Jan. 2005.
[5] R. Collin, Foundations for Microwave Engineering, 2nd ed. McGraw-
The simulated and measured antenna gain corresponding to Hill, 1992, ch. 8.
the angle of maximum radiation at each frequency is shown [6] A. Oliner and D. Jackson, Antenna Engineering Handbook. McGraw-
in Fig 5. Hill, 1993, ch. 11.

1285