Design of PCB leaky-wave antennas for Wide angle beam steering

Abstract

A PCB based leaky-wave antenna (LWA) design for wide angle beam steering is presented. This design employs longitudinal slots inserted into a substrate-integrated waveguide for operation in the mm-wave V-band. It is optimized for a reduced open-stopband and linear through broadside beam steering. The base design is outlined and adapted for three high frequency laminates with different dielectric constants. It is further described how the dielectric constant directly affects the beam steering properties of the LWA and how to scale the achieved beam angle for the given design by only changing the PCB material. The three LWA designs achieve beam steering from about 45° at Sr =2.2, over 60° at Sr =6.15 to 75° at Sr =10.2. The simulated radiation patterns show a flat gain of up to 18.0 dBi, 17.85 dBi and 15.27 dBi respectively. Furthermore, the effect of the modified PCB permittivity on the radiation efficiency as well as multiuser support with a beam per user is investigated.