Novel Composite Right/Left-Handed Leaky-Wave Antennas Based on the Folded Substrate-Integrated-Waveguide Structures

In this paper, novel composite right/left-handed (CRLH) leaky-wave antennas based on folded substrate-integrated-waveguide (FSIW) structures are proposed. The proposed leaky-wave antennas were realized by periodically loading the radiating slots on the top metallization of the FSIW-based CRLH transmission lines. The structural advantages of the FSIW combined with the unique dispersion characteristics of the CRLH transmission line enable the proposed leaky-wave antennas to present continuous beam-scanning capability from backfire to endfire directions, occupy smaller footprint size, and provide more design flexibility than the conventional CRLH leaky-wave antennas. Two of such CRLH leaky-wave antennas were developed. In addition to the continuous beam scanning, it is found that the radiation efficiency and polarization of the FSIW-based leaky-wave antennas can be easily tuned by means of the slot size and slot orientation, respectively, indicating their potential for versatile applications. Calculated and experimental results are presented and compared. A good agreement is obtained. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that the leaky-wave antenna exploits both of the dispersion behavior of the CRLH transmission lines and the structural benefits of the FSIW configuration.