2-D Planar Leaky-Wave Antenna with Fixed Frequency Beam Steering Through Broadside

A two-dimensional leaky-wave antenna fed by an array of fully integrated sources and able to provide fixed-frequency continuous beam steering through broadside is presented in this contribution. The structure is constituted by a “bull-eye” leaky-wave antenna fed by a proper arrangement of four surface-wave launchers, whose excitation coefficients are selected to control the beam pointing angle around broadside. The excitation of a dominant leaky-wave field over the aperture allows the structure to provide limited gain degradation scanning off broadside while steering in the elevation and azimuth planes in the far-field. Experimental results are reported, showing beam scanning in both planes at 20 GHz with gain values of about 10 dB
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at broadside. Such a novel design is based on a low-cost and low-profile technology and it can be useful for radar and satellite systems, as well as automotive and other communication applications.