Ultrawide-Angle and High-Scanning-Rate Leaky Wave Antenna Based on Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

An ultrawide-angle frequency beam scanning leaky-wave antenna (LWA) with a high scanning rate based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) waveguide is proposed in this communication. A row of elliptical patches is placed periodically near the SSPPs waveguide, which can shift the fundamental mode of SSPPs waveguide to the fast-wave region and radiate electromagnetic (EM) waves. The simulated results show that the proposed LWA achieves an ultrawide scanning angle range of 172 degrees over a narrow operation bandwidth of 9.8-12.28 GHz, which implies a high scanning rate. The simulated average gain of the proposed LWA is 10.13 dBi and its average total efficiency is 75.35%. The proposed LWA is fabricated and measured. The measured scanning angle range is 167 degrees in the frequency band of 9.9-12.25 GHz, and the measured average gain is 9.73 dBi. Good agreements between the simulated and measured results are obtained, validating the proposed design.