A 400-GHz Low Cost Planar Leaky-Wave Antenna With Low Sidelobe Level and Low Cross-Polarization Level
Yiwen Wu, Zhengbo Jiang, Zhang‐Cheng Hao
Abstract
This letter proposes a 400-GHz leaky-wave antenna with low sidelobe level (SLL) and low cross-polarization level (CPL). Tapered radiation slots are designed for achieving a low SLL, virtual electrical walls are deployed to remove the loss from metal sidewalls by using a high-order mode feeding network, and a symmetrical layout with alternative-phase excitations is adopted for the array to suppress the CPL. The conventional computer numerical controlled metal-milling and printed-circuit-board processes are used to fabricate the designed prototype. Experiments are carried out to verify the design. The measured peak gain and radiation efficiency of the fabricated prototype are 21.32 dBi and 34.65% at 395 GHz, respectively. In addition, its measured SLL and CPL are about -25 and -30 dB, respectively. The proposed antenna shows merits of the low cost, low SLL and CPL performance for potential terahertz applications.