A new E-plane bend for SIW circuits and antennas using gapwave technology

The SIW (substrate integrated waveguide) technology makes use of metal vias in a dielectric substrate, electrically connecting two parallel metal plates, to make a waveguide. The main advantages of SIW are simple geometry, low manufacture cost and integratability with MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) or other circuits. It is often required to have E-plane bend components in the whole SIW circuits or antenna systems for the integration, for example, in multilayer configurations. However, it is difficult to make an E-plane bend by using only SIW technology. We present a new solution to E-plane bend for SIW circuits and antennas by combining the SIW technology and the so-called gap waveguide (or gapwave) technology in the paper, with the latter also realized in PCB (printed circuit board) technology, and therefore keeping its above-mentioned advantages.