Design of a leaky-wave antenna for broadside radiation

This paper presents a technique to shift the frequency of the leaky-wave stop band, thereby allowing efficient broadside radiation of the n = -1 spatial harmonic. This technique can be used for any periodic antenna structure operating in the leaky-wave band. To demonstrate the technique, a microstrip line over a periodic lattice of holes is investigated. This structure, previously studied in N. Gagnon et al., (2004), was selected due to its simplicity. It is shown that the broadside gain can be significantly improved by periodically perturbing the spacing of the hole lattice