Flatness enhancement of Gap Waveguide Slot Arrays using a Ribbed-Grid Plate

This paper presents a useful and simple way to avoid possible assembly problems between the radiating layer and the feeding layer, especially tailored for high-gain and low-profile gap waveguide array antennas. This case is focused on an 8×8 array as demonstrator although it may be extended to larger antennas. The radiating layer, instead of being just a thin plate with slots cut on it, it includes a ribbed grid. These ribs provide improved robustness to the radiating layer without modifying the slot array performance.