Investigation of Numerical Techniques for Analyzing Periodic Leaky-Wave Antennas Using Commercial Full-Wave Solvers

This paper presents a comparison of five different numerical techniques for using a commercial full-wave solver to obtain the complex wavenumber, i.e., the phase constant β and the attenuation (leakage) constant α, of a leaky-wave antenna. The methods used are: ABCD matrix method, Generalized Pencil of Function method, linear regression method, de-embedding methods, and an extra-cell method. The techniques are compared for two periodic leaky-wave antennas: a microstrip combline structure and a holey rectangular waveguide.