Design of a Microstrip Leaky-Wave Antenna for Two-Dimensional Bearing Tracking

Two back-to-back, air-filled microstrip leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) are designed to achieve two-dimensional bearing tracking. The frequency scanning property of the microstrip LWA is used to determine the target bearing in azimuth. Two such elements are then placed into a back-to-back configuration and used as an interferometer to determine the target elevation information. In order to pack two LWAs for interferometry, a new design is proposed to achieve a minimal disturbance on the azimuth and elevation beam patterns. The design is measured with three acoustic subwoofers as Doppler targets to demonstrate the capability in forming a two-dimensional azimuth-elevation image.