Planar Conical Beam Leaky-Wave Antenna with High Scanning Rate and Out-of-Roundness

This article introduces a method for generating a conical beam utilizing leaky-wave antenna (LWA) technology. By employing periodic concentric slots into the parallel plate waveguide, an omnidirectional conical beam leaky-wave antenna (CBLWA) with broad scanning capability is achieved. The proposed antenna comprises three primary components: a radiator layer, a matching layer, and a feeding layer. A one-toeight power divider is designed to feed the CBLWA at the center of the feeding layer. Due to the symmetry of the antenna structure, the cross-polarization is well suppressed over the entire operating band. The leaky-wave antenna operates within the frequency band of 30–37.3 GHz. The proposed antenna features a scanning angle of 46°, with a scanning rate of 2.1°/GHz across the operating band. Furthermore, the out-of-roundness (OoR) level is less than 2.2 dB, and the cross-polarization suppression is less than -25 dB. The characteristics of the proposed antenna, including its simple structure, high scanning rate, and effective cross-polarization suppression, make it a competitive choice for satellite communications and targeted area coverage.