A Wide-Angle Narrowband Leaky-Wave Antenna Based on Substrate Integrated Waveguide-Spoof Surface Plasmon Polariton Structure

In this letter, a wide-angle narrowband leaky-wave antenna (LWA) based on substrate integrated waveguide-spoof surface plasmon polariton (SIW-SSPP) structure is proposed. Periodic slots are etched on both the top and bottom surfaces of SIW to introduce an SSPP mode. The periodic slots on the top surface are sinusoidally modulated to realize bidirectional LWA radiation. The problem of open stopband is solved by the asymmetrical design of the top and bottom slots. Thus, a wide bidirectional scanning range from −60° to +63° is achieved. Besides, the relative bandwidth of the fabricated antenna is reduced to only 9% by introducing the slow-wave effect of SSPP. It means the proposed antenna has a large scanning rate, or equivalently beam scanning range/bandwidth ratio.