Millimeter-wave Wide-angle Scanning Fully Metallic Periodic Leaky-wave Antenna

A millimeter-wave (MMW) fully metallic periodic leaky-wave antenna (PLWA) with continuous wide-angle beam steering from backward to forward is presented. In order to obtain large beam scanning angle, the guiding structure of the antenna is based on the bilateral corrugated parallel-plate waveguide (PPW) working in Ka band and the corrugations within each radiating unit are designed to have different depth. The same scanning range in the backward quadrant and forward quadrant is achieved through the overall longitudinally symmetric structure and the two ports fed by turns. The simulated results show that the beam scanning range is from -82 degrees to +82 degrees without gain dip and the antenna gain is in the range of 12.0-18.8 dBi. The radiation efficiency is higher than 78%, indicating the application potential in MMW imaging and radar systems.