Design Procedures for a Frequency-Scanned Traveling Wave Antenna Vol. 1 : Air-Filled Waveguide

A leaky waveguide antenna is investigated through a combination of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. We developed a design procedure based on the analysis of Goldstone and Oliner for an aperture in the narrow wall of a rectangular waveguide. We can phase scan the antenna by adjusting the propagation constant of the guiding structure, and we can frequency scan it by taking advantage of frequency dispersive behavior. A combination of frequency and phase scanning can be used to steer the beam. We describe how the aperture illumination function is synthesized for a constant width aperture and we present the design equations. We use a numerical simulation of the leaky waveguide section to obtain the radiation efficiency. We then calculate the realized gain to evaluate the frequency scan range and radiation pattern characteristics. The results demonstrate that the main beam position can be scanned in the range of 100 to 300 from broadside over a narrow frequency range without corrupting the radiation pattern.Army Research Lab Adelphi is the author of 'Design Procedures for a Frequency-Scanned Traveling Wave Antenna Vol. 1 : Air-Filled Waveguide', published 2001 under ISBN 9781423550624 and ISBN 1423550625.