A High-Efficiency Full-Space Scanning Leaky-Wave Antenna based on SSPPs

A novel full-space frequency-scanned leaky-wave antenna (LWA) employing dual-side antisymmetric T-shaped (DSAT) spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) is presented. The proposed SSPPs cell exhibits enhanced field confinement capabilities and high-efficiency odd-mode transmission. Through theoretical derivation of the single -1st harmonic radiation condition, full-space beam scanning is achieved by integrating periodically modulated dipole radiators. Tapering the terminal SSPPs unit height to match free-space propagation constants reduces the longitudinal dimension to 5.33<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">λ</i>₀ at 10.05 GHz. Experimental validations demonstrate fine agreement with simulations. The proposed LWA realizes 360° continuous beam scanning across 8.0 – 12.65 GHz (relative scanning rate: 4.0°/%) with 93.0% average radiation efficiency and 10.4 dBi gain, while featuring a compact structure, flat gain, low sidelobe levels, and superior cross-polarization suppression. This enables new possibilities for automotive radar, airborne detection systems, and next-generation wireless communications.