Full space scanning leaky wave antenna with wide angle beam steering based on SSPPs

Abstract We proposed a leaky wave antenna based on spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) transmission line (TL) with unit cell of X-Shaped orthogonal metal patches. These patches are arranged in a couple of metallic patches along with semi-elliptical patches on both sides of the slot to attain the full space scanning (−90° to +90°) between the frequency range of 2.53 GHz and 5 GHz. The designed LWA shows that the continuous beam scanning range from −94° to + 2° (96°), with an average gain of 8.70 dBi, a radiation efficiency of 79.09%, and a scanning rate of 2.44°/% has been achieved over the frequency range of 5 GHz to 7.45 GHz. Furthermore, the antenna achieves a 174° scanning range from −172 to +2° between the frequency range of 100 MHz and 7.45 GHz, with an average gain of 8.33dBi, a radiation efficiency of 69.28%, a scanning rate of 0.88°/%, and obtains a lower side lobe level of less than −10 dB. The proposed antenna has a beam coverage range of 357° over the frequency range of 5 MHz-3.1 GHz. The antenna was fabricated using Rogger RT 5880 substrate with εr = 2.2. The total size of the structure is 180 × 30 × 0.508. With these features, this antenna is suitable for continuous beam scanning and full space scanning applications in mobile/wireless communication and microwave radar communication.