Printed dipole millimetre-wave array using an insular guide feeder

A novel, basically slow-wave periodically modulated type of millimetre-wave array is presented which exploits the low-loss characteristics of the insular dielectric waveguide. The structure consists of an array of dipoles printed on a dielectric substrate of relatively low dielectric constant and fed by an insular guide. The methods of effective dielectric constants and simple array theory are used in determining the radiation characteristics of the array. The results of measurements on a prototype model are presented, which establish the feasibility of the approach and demonstrate the potential for frequency scanning.