Characteristics and design consideration of leaky-wave NRD-Guides for use as millimeter-wave antenna

Leaky-wave characteristics of a class of nonradiative dielectric (NRD)-guides with various shapes of trapezoidal cross section are systematically studied for their potential applications in low-cost millimeter-wave antennas. A numerical technique is applied to model these irregular structures. The technique is formulated by effectively combining a multimode network theory with a mode-matching method. Our emphasis in this work is on the investigation of parametric effects in connection with the trapezoidal dimensions on leakage properties of the NRD-guide. Extensive results are presented to derive some useful guidelines for the design considerations of new types of NRD-guide leakywave antennas. Index Terms- CAD, field modeling, leaky-wave propagation, millimeter-wave antenna, multimode network theory, nonradiative dielectric (NRD)-guide. © 1998 IEEE Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9480(98)09188-1.