High-gain Resonant Continuous Transverse Stub Array Using Ridge Gap-Waveguide Technology

This work presents an 8 × 8 continuous transverse stub (CTS) planar array operating at Ka-band with a pencil broadside beam in a series-feed configuration. For the purpose of maximizing the directivity of the antenna, ridge gap-waveguide (GWG) and short CTS elements are used. The ridge waveguides excite the stubs placed above them and a proper selection of the geometry and the dielectric leads to a close-to-uniform field distribution in both main planes. A beamforming network implemented in ridge-GWG technology is also designed and described. A maximum gain of 26.3 dBi is obtained for an antenna whose radiating area is 6.87λ
0
x 7.67λ
0
keeping side lobes level below -13 dB in both main planes. Some other simulation results will be shown to prove the potential of the proposed design.