Experimental studies of magnetically scannable leaky-wave antennas having a corrugated ferrite slab/dielectric layer structure

The radiation characteristics of a magnetically scannable leaky-wave antenna using a corrugated ferrite slab supported by a Teflon waveguide have been demonstrated experimentally. A corrugated polycrystalline yttrium iron garnet (YIG) slab having the dimensions 150.0 mm*15.0 mm*10 mm has been fabricated. The corrugation depth, corrugation spacing, and number of corrugations are 150.0 mu m, 2.0 mm, and 55.0, respectively. Experiments have been carried out in the millimeter-wave frequency range from 40.0 to 50.0 GHz. The main beam direction of the leaky wave shifts continuously about 41.0 degrees at the operating frequency 46.8 GHz by altering the DC magnetic field up to 1.4 T. It is found that the corresponding half-power beamwidth varies from 3.2 degrees to 3.6 degrees and a maximum scanning rate is 1.0 degrees /0.02 T. Experimental results are compared with theory based on the dispersion relation of the ferrite slab/dielectric layer structure.<>