Gain enhancement of a SIW H-plane horn antenna using of metamaterial array

In this paper, a novel, compact and high gain H-plane horn antenna with Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology is examined for X-band applications. To increase the gain, an array of metamaterials is used by cutting the gap in the aperture area of the antenna in high metallization. After examining the size and position of the metamaterial unit cell and several array elements, which act as a focusing structure, and in addition, by reducing the electric permittivity coefficient of the substrate and consequently reducing the losses, an increase in gain is achieved. The performance of the proposed SIW horn antenna with metamaterials has been compared with the SIW conventional horn antenna without metamaterials. To highlight this point, the proposed antenna was designed with CST software. Then, it was fabricated and measured. Measurements show that the gain of the modified antenna is 9.2 dBi, which is 6.2 dBi higher than a conventional antenna.