Turning substrate integrated nonradiative dielectric waveguide into leaky-wave antenna

An open periodic waveguide with a large via spacing supports the propagation of leaky-wave modes and a substrate integrated nonradiative dielectric (SINRD) waveguide is built up of periodically arranged via-holes. As such, an SINRD waveguide can thus be used for the design of a leaky-wave antenna in connection with its leakage loss. A finite difference frequency domain method (FDFD) developed for modeling periodic guided-wave and/or leaky-wave structures, due to its versatility, is used to analyze the characteristics of the proposed periodic leaky-wave antenna. Two modes (LSM11 and LSM12) are investigated in detail, which suggest that the LSM12 mode be a better candidate in support of a leaky-wave antenna design.