Characteristics of microstrip leaky wave antenna using the method of moments

An efficient MoM algorithm is introduced to analyse large travelling-wave structures, exemplified with a microstrip leaky wave antenna. The method utilises a combination of travelling-wave and subdomain basis functions for the current expansion to minimise the number of unknowns in the analysis. The propagation constants which characterise the modal expansions are evaluated efficiently by the algorithm for the implementation of the travelling-wave basis functions. As a result the model overcomes computer memory problems encountered by the conventional MoM model in analysing large antennas where a large impedance matrix is needed. The algorithm is capable of generating results as accurate as that of the conventional method while achieving substantial reduction in computation time and resources.