Endfire Circularly-Polarized Antipodal Linearly Tapered Slot Antenna Fed by Slotted Width-Tapered SIW

A low-profile single-layer endfire circularly-polarized (CP) antipodal linearly tapered slot antenna (ALTSA) is proposed and investigated through simulations and experiments. This antenna is a composite structure consisting of a novel width-tapered slotted substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) and an ALTSA fed by the SIW. The former also serves as a radiator to produce vertically polarized radiation, which is crucial to achieve a fully planar endfire CP antenna when a thin substrate is deployed. Compared to the previous ALTSA fed by the SIW, this proposed antenna utilizes slots on the spare broad walls of the SIW to form an extra slotted width-tapered SIW radiator, which presents an extension of the conventional width-uniform slotted SIW. Moreover, there are no space harmonics in the slotted width-tapered SIW; it is a slow wave that produces the vertically polarized radiation. The proposed antenna is demonstrated at 28 GHz, which is one of the millimeter-wave bands specified for 5G. An experimental prototype of the antenna has an impedance bandwidth of about 9 GHz from 23.8 to 32.8 GHz and an axial ratio bandwidth of about 1.4 GHz from 27.35 to 28.75 GHz, which coincide well with simulated results.