Design of continuous long slot leaky-wave antenna for millimeter wave application

A simple and efficient design scheme of the continuous long slot leaky-wave antenna is developed. The key steps involved in the scheme are summarized. First, the cut-off frequencies of slot waveguides with different slot offsets are obtained by 3D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Second, the attenuation function αra is estimated by the aperture distribution, and the attenuation function αrs is determined by the slot radiation. Finally, the attenuation function αra is combined with the attenuation function αrs by the coefficient K. And an example in Ka band is presented. Moreover, the return loss of the E-plane Tee-junction (ET) and the radiation pattern of leaky-wave antenna are simulated. The scheme is verified by comparing with the experimental result.