Periodic U-Slot-Loaded Dual-Band Half-Width Microstrip Leaky-Wave Antennas for Forward and Backward Beam Scanning

Half-width microstrip leaky-wave antennas (HW-MLWAs) are generally single band. Here, we present a new method to achieve dual-band operation from an HW-MLWA by periodically loading the antenna with U-shaped slots. These dual-band MLWAs are able to steer the beam in forward directions in one band and in backward directions in the other band. One of the antenna designs was prototyped and tested, and excellent agreement between the predicted and measured results were observed. The measured 10-dB return loss bandwidth of the first and second bands are 19.5% (5.24-6.37 GHz) and 13.2% (7.9-9.02 GHz), respectively. The antenna can steer the main beam from 30° to 65° in the first band and from -46° to -10° in the second band by sweeping the frequency from 5.25 to 6.25 GHz and 7.75 to 9 GHz, respectively. The measured peak gain of the antenna is 12.2 and 14.1 dBi in the first and second bands, respectively. Although the antenna parameters are optimized for dual-band operation, the radiation properties in another higher frequency band (third band) are also explored. In the third band, the antenna beam continuously scans from backward to forward direction as frequency increases. Moreover, this U-slot loaded single-layer half-width LWA is easy to fabricate.