Dielectric-Resonator-Based Composite Right/Left-Handed Transmission Lines and Their Application to Leaky Wave Antenna

Propagation and radiation characteristics of 1-D dielectric-resonator-based composite right/left-handed metamaterial structures with open mesh plates are investigated as a function of configuration parameters. The complex effective permittivity and permeability are estimated from the scattering parameters of the unit-cell structure. Based on this configuration, the single-mode transmission line is designed and the backfire-to-endfire frequency-scanned leaky wave antenna is implemented. It is found from numerical simulations that the 30-cell leaky wave antenna has a gain of 10 dBi with a scanning angle of over 90deg covering backfire-to-endfire directions. The measurement results show as wide beam-steering angles as numerically predicted.