Received January 23, 2022, accepted February 15, 2022, date of publication February 18, 2022, date of current

version March 16, 2022.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3152905

Slotted Waveguide Frequency-Scanned

Slow-Wave Antenna With Reduced Sensitivity of
the Closed Stopband at Millimeter-Wave
Frequencies
AMIRMASOUD OHADI , (Graduate Student Member, IEEE),
AND GEORGE V. ELEFTHERIADES , (Fellow, IEEE)
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G4, Canada
Corresponding author: Amirmasoud Ohadi ([email protected])

ABSTRACT In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a frequency-scanned slotted
waveguide antenna with a closed stopband which has a low sensitivity to the fabrication errors. The antenna
is implemented as a slotted slow-wave waveguide by loading a standard WR22 waveguide with elliptical
posts. A systematic design approach for scanning through broadside and closing the stopband with a reduced
sensitivity to fabrication tolerances is discussed in the paper. This approach allows for fabricating the antenna
using CNC machining with a tolerance of +/−0.13 mm for the waveguide and a tolerance of +/−0.05 mm
for the posts. The antenna beam can be steered from −38◦ to +27◦ by changing the frequency from 27 GHz
to 34.7 GHz. The effective radiating length of the antenna is 27.6λ corresponding to a 1.75◦ half-power
beamwidth while its radiation efficiency changes between 54% and 90% throughout the steering range.

INDEX TERMS Antennas, beam steering, slotted waveguide, frequency control, slow-wave, millimeter-
wave, leaky-wave.

I. INTRODUCTION the frequency. This can be achieved by meandering a waveg-

The need for low-cost, efficient, and extendable beam- uide which results in an increased phase change between
steerable antennas at millimeter frequencies has been ris- the consecutive slots with changing the frequency. Serpen-
ing due to their expanding applications in communication tine waveguides can provide any desired scanning rate by
systems, medical imaging, autonomous vehicles radars, and varying the length of the meandered branches [11]. However,
remote sensing [1]–[7]. Electrical beam-steerable antennas due to their large width, they cannot be placed side-by-
can be classified into fixed-frequency beam-steerable anten- side to narrow the beam in the non-scanning plane. On the
nas and frequency-scanned antennas. Due to the consider- other hand, frequency-scanned antennas can be implemented
able drop in the efficiency of tunable electronic components by periodically loading a waveguide to support a slow-
at millimeter-wave frequencies, frequency-scanned anten- wave. Slow-wave waveguides can be placed side-by-side
nas can provide better efficiencies at this frequency range, for beam-shaping in the non-scanning plane as their width
especially if a long electrical length is needed for a small can be close to half-wavelength [12]–[14]. Nevertheless, the
half-power beamwidth (HPBW) and a large gain [8]–[10]. scanning rate of slow-wave frequency-scanned antennas is
Moreover, at millimeter-wave frequencies, the use of metallic limited to how much the guided wavelength can be decreased.
waveguides is appealing due to their reduced losses and the The performance of frequency-scanned antennas at broad-
high cost of low-loss dielectric substrates. Hence in this work side radiation is degraded due to the constructive addition
we adopt a waveguide approach. of reflections from each radiating element. One approach to
Frequency-scanned antennas are implemented by increas- close the stopband at broadside radiation for waveguides is
ing the phase dynamics of the guided wave with changing to use an additional post in the unit cell to cancel this reflec-
tion [15]. However, in slow-wave waveguide structures, as the
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and guided wave is confined in a smaller volume, which results
approving it for publication was Mohammad Zia Ur Rahman . in a smaller wavelength, closing the stopband becomes more

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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challenging. This is because there may not be enough space

to add a new post. Therefore, one has to perturb the features in
the unit cell structure to achieve this goal. Furthermore, due to
the decreased feature sizes in a unit cell, the closed stopband
becomes more sensitive to any variations in the fabrication
due to the limited tolerance. As a result, the scanning rate has
a trade-off with the sensitivity of the closed stopband.
Different fabrication processes have different tolerances.
For example, implementing a slow-wave frequency-scanned
antenna using PCB fabrication provides a typical tolerance
of +/−0.01 mm. This is approximately equivalent to a good
percentage tolerance of about 1% at millimeter frequen-
cies assuming the smallest feature size of about 1 mm. FIGURE 1. The structure of the unit cell including the sizes of different
features.
Nevertheless, PCB substrate-based antennas operating at
millimeter-wave frequencies suffer from a low efficiency due
to the substrate loss. This drawback manifests itself more
for electrically long antennas. On the other hand, silicon
micro-machining can allow for a much smaller tolerance of
+/−2 µm [16]. However, this fabrication technique is limited
by the size of the antenna as well as the cost of fabrication
which makes it more useful for sub-millimeter frequencies.
CNC machining is another versatile approach that can be used
for fabricating electrically large antennas at a reasonable cost
at millimeter frequencies. However, the drawback of CNC
machining is its relatively poor tolerance. A typical tolerance
in CNC machining is +/−0.13 mm which could be reduced
to +/−0.05 mm at an additional cost. Therefore, it is very
important to reduce the sensitivity of the closed stopband to
the fabrication error when the antenna is implemented using
FIGURE 2. The dispersion diagram for the proposed loaded slow-wave
CNC machining. This becomes even more important when a wave-guide. d is the distance between consecutive posts which is
high scanning rate is needed. 1.5 mm.
In this paper, we propose a frequency-scanned slow-wave
slotted waveguide antenna at millimeter frequencies using
CNC machining. In [10], a related antenna has been proposed. tric (LSE) modes. The latter are hybrid modes consisting of
However, it could not scan through broadside resulting in a both longitudinal electric and magnetic fields resulting in a
limited steering range and functionality. The new antenna has hybrid propagating mode in the slow-wave waveguide. This
a closed stopband with a low sensitivity to the fabrication analysis is done through approximating the posts using strips
error. A systematic approach for designing the antenna with and diaphragms which simplifies the structure and allows for
a closed stopband and reduced sensitivity is proposed in the derivation of the dispersion relation analytically.
sections II-V. A prototype of the antenna was fabricated and Fig. 2 shows the dispersion relation of the proposed loaded
measured. The simulation and measurement results are com- waveguide. Modes 1 and 2 are the perturbed forms of the
pared and a comparison is made with other relevant research TE10 mode in a regular WR22 waveguide while mode 3 is the
works in sections VI-VII. perturbed form of its TE20 mode. The latter has the minimum
electric field magnitude in the middle of the waveguide at the
II. DESIGN OF THE SLOW-WAVE WAVEGUIDE location of the posts. Therefore, this mode is perturbed the
The proposed slow-wave waveguide antenna is based on least (mode 3 in the slow-wave waveguide). Nevertheless,
periodically loading the bottom wall of a regular WR22 mode 2 is very similar to mode 3 since the posts act as a
waveguide with cylindrical posts. Fig. 1 shows a picture of wall dividing the waveguide into two identical waveguides
the fundamental unit cell of the proposed loaded waveguide. with half the original width. As shown, the waveguide is
It should be noted that the height of the loaded waveguide single-moded in the shaded region when operating in its first
is 0.5 mm smaller than that of a standard WR22 due to mode below 40 GHz. This mode will be used for the proposed
a fabrication constraint. An analytic approach to derive an waveguide which is the hybrid mode that has been calculated
approximate dispersion relation for the loaded waveguide analytically in [10].
is shown in [10]. The derived slow-wave propagating mode One important characteristic of the proposed waveguide is
in [10] is a superposition of the TE10 mode of the regular the confinement of the fields and the current to the middle
waveguide as well as evanescent longitudinal-section elec- of the waveguide. Fig. 3 shows the current confinement in

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FIGURE 3. Complex magnitude of the current density in the slow-wave

waveguide.

one unit cell of the periodic waveguide. This current confine-

ment is contrary to other classes of frequency-scanned anten-
nas such as serpentine waveguide antennas and corrugated
waveguide antennas. In split-block rectangular waveguides
fabricated using CNC machining, the E-plane is usually used
for splitting the structure in order to reduce the Ohmic loss in
FIGURE 4. a. The tapered section. b. Simulated and measured return loss
the gap after assembly [17]. However, due to the presence of of the proposed waveguide excited through the tapered section.
the posts, the proposed slow-wave waveguide should by cut
in the H-plane. This current confinement reduces the Ohmic
loss due to the gap in the middle of the side walls after
assembly resulting in an increased radiation efficiency which
proves important for series-fed leaky-wave antennas (LWA).
Furthermore, due to the field confinement in the middle of
the waveguide, one can further reduce the lateral width of the
proposed waveguide without changing its dispersion relation
considerably. As a result, by placing several of them side-by-
side, one can do beam-steering in the H-plane without the
formation of grating lobes when scanning close to the grazing
angle.
The excitation and the termination of the waveguide is FIGURE 5. The dispersion for the slow-wave waveguide with a. 3 unit
through two tapered sections at the two ends. The tapered sec- cells and b. 4 unit cells between consecutive slots.
tions consist of 10 posts with increasing heights in 10 linear
steps as shown in Fig. 4.a. The simulated and measured return
loss of a prototype of the proposed waveguide excited through change in the wavenumber by varying the frequency becomes
the tapered section is shown in Fig. 4.b. very fast at the ending part of the dispersion diagram for the
The top wall of the waveguide is loaded by slots with fundamental unit cell. Therefore, in order to avoid this part
appropriate lengths to achieve the desired radiated power. of the dispersion diagram which has very high dynamics, the
The slots are placed periodically after a specific number of radiating modes should be associated with the middle part
fundamental unit cells (N). Introducing the slots increases the of it. As a result, we need to use at least 4 unit cells between
period of the slow-wave waveguide by a factor of N. There- consecutive slots to achieve this goal (see Fig. 5). On the other
fore, we first derive the dispersion relation of the slow-wave hand, in order to avoid the formation of grating lobes near the
waveguide without the slots but assuming an increased period grazing angles, slot spacing cannot be more than 4 unit cells.
by a factor of N. The desired dispersion is composed of N Therefore, we choose 4 unit cells as the slot spacing.
truncated parts of that of the fundamental unit cell as shown In the next step, we investigate the effect of introducing the
in Fig. 5 for 2 different values of N. As shown, N modes are slots on the dispersion of the waveguide with the increased
associated with the N truncated parts of the first mode of the periodicity by a factor of 4. Adding the slots after each
fundamental unit cell in each case. In order to have a contin- 4 unit cells introduces a stopband at the 3 boundaries of
uous backward-to-forward scanning, modes 2 and 3 should the truncated sections in the dispersion diagram as shown in
be used for radiation (as highlighted in Fig. 5). Moreover, the Fig. 6. In order to achieve a continuous backward-to-forward

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FIGURE 6. The stopband at the boundaries due to the reflections from

the slots with a length of 3.8mm.

scanning, one needs to close the open stopband between FIGURE 7. The unit cell of the slow-wave slotted waveguide. The features
used for perturbation are shown.
modes 2 and 3. Due to the strong field confinement in the
middle of the waveguide and the limited space in this region,
it is not possible to close the stopband by adding another post TABLE 1. The dimensions for the optimized unit cells.
to cancel the reflection from the slots. Therefore, we need to
perturb the structure itself to achieve this goal. Nevertheless,
due to the small size of the features in the unit cell compared
with the fabrication tolerance, the closed stopband becomes
very sensitive to any fabrication error. As a result, it is of the
utmost importance to reduce the stopband and its sensitivity
to the variations simultaneously.

III. REDUCING THE STOPBAND AND ITS SENSITIVITY

In order to reduce the stopband and its sensitivity to the
fabrication error simultaneously, we need more degrees of
freedom to perturb the unit cell. Therefore, we allow the In this way, due to the symmetry, the optimized cell should
posts to be elliptical so that we can change their 2 radii also be symmetric. Therefore, we change the height, spacing,
along its minor and major axes independently. As shown in and radii of the two middle posts and the two outer posts
Fig. 1, the smallest features of the unit cell are the radii of simultaneously resulting in 8 degrees of freedom as shown
the posts and the spacing between them. Therefore, we focus in Fig. 7.
on minimizing the stopband by perturbing different features, We perturbed and optimized the features of the unit cells
as well as, reducing its sensitivity to the variations in the radii with slot lengths of 3.4mm and 3.8mm to achieve the smallest
and the spacing of the elliptical posts. We define the criteria stopband and the lowest stopband sensitivity. The optimized
for the maximum acceptable stopband and its sensitivity in feature sizes are tabulated in Table 1. It should be noted that
the following. due to a CNC machining constraint, we had to elevate the
According to Fig. 6, broadside radiation occurs at 32GHz spacing between the outer posts by 0.3mm. Comparing the
because at this frequency, 4βd is equal to 2π where 4d is the values in Table 1 with the dimensions in Fig. 1 shows that
slot spacing. Therefore, we assume a stopband of less than the perturbed values are close to the non-perturbed values.
0.2% fractional bandwidth at broadside radiation frequency Therefore, a slight change in one of the features can have a
as a closed stopband. Furthermore, we define the acceptable huge effect on the closed stopband. As a result, reducing the
sensitivity of the stopband to be within the limit of 1% of the sensitivity of the stopband to the fabrication errors becomes
broadside radiation frequency with a +/−0.05mm change in as important as reducing the stopband itself.
a feature size. These definitions are equivalent to assuming Fig. 8 shows the dispersion diagram of the perturbed unit
a stopband of less than 62MHz as a closed stopband and a cell with a slot length of 3.8mm. As shown, the stopband
maximum stopband of 320MHz with +/−0.05mm variation between modes 2 and 3 which occurs in the radiation region
in the fabrication as an acceptable stopband sensitivity. is closed. However, the other two stopbands, occuring at
In order to make the unit cells with the slots symmetric and the mode transitions, become wider. This results in slightly
to make the optimization process easier, we placed each slot higher dynamics of the dispersion relation at the two ends
on the top wall in the middle of the consecutive 4 unit cells. of the radiation region. The two ends of the radiation region

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FIGURE 8. The dispersion diagram for the optimized unit cell with
elliptical posts and the slot length of 3.8mm.

correspond to radiation angles at 0◦ and 180◦ resulting in a

complete 180◦ steering range. However, the achieved steering
range is limited by the operating frequency-band and the
formation of grating lobes which will be discussed in the next
section.
Fig. 9 shows the bandwidth of the stopband for different
variations in the size of D22 , D21 , and d2 for the optimized
perturbed unit cell with the slot length 3.8mm. It should
be noted that D22 and d2 are the smallest features in the
unit cell. As shown, the stopband with no fabrication error FIGURE 9. The bandwidth of the stopband for different variations in a.
is 33 MHz which is consistent with the defined criteria for D22 and D21 and b. d2 .

a closed stopband. Furthermore, the stopband remains less

than 1% of the center frequency even with a fabrication error
of +/−0.075mm which is equivalent to a 10% fabrication ever, the sensitivity of the stopband would be more than the
variance in D22 . Fig. 9.a also shows that both the stopband specified limit. Therefore, the optimized unit cell is achieved
and its sensitivity can be optimized considerably better when by simultaneously reducing the stopband and its sensitivity
using elliptical posts instead of cylindrical. As shown, the such that both of them remain within their specified limits.
sensitivity of the stopband to the fabrication error for the
diameters of the elliptical posts along their minor and major IV. ARRAY DESIGN
axes is considerably lower compared to that of the case when The proposed antenna is a 40-element uniformly excited
using cylindrical posts. linear array. The ratio of the radiated power over the incident
Physically, elliptical posts provide additional capacitance power is shown in Fig. 10 for different slot lengths at 33 GHz.
periodically along the waveguide and confine the fields in In order to achieve a uniform excitation, we have to increase
the middle of it. Therefore, they should be placed in the the slot length as we move away from the feed point. As a
middle of the magnetic walls. Placing them on the electric result, the designed antenna array is composed of 20 opti-
walls does not allow achieving these goals. Furthermore, the mized unit cells with a slot length of 3.4mm followed by
elliptical shape of the posts provides more degrees of freedom 20 optimized unit cells with a slot length of 3.8mm. The
in order to close the stopband with a reduced sensitivity. two ends of the antenna are connected to the tapered section
The longitudinal diameter of the elliptical posts controls the shown in Fig. 4 for excitation and termination.
coupling between the evanescent fields in the vicinity of them The directivity of the antenna can be found from equations
that constitutes the propagating Floquet mode as discussed 1-3 [11]. N is the number of slots, 4d is the slot spacing,
in [10]. On the other hand, the transverse diameter of the posts β is the guided wavenumber, and k0 is the wavenumber in
tunes the additional capacitance introduced by them period- vacuum. EF is the directivity of a single slot.
ically in the waveguide. By changing these two parameters
simultaneously, we could effectively close the stopband and D(θ ) = AF(θ) × EF(θ) (1)
reduce the antenna sensitivity to fabrication errors. sin(N ψ/2)
AF(θ ) = (2)
It should be noted that the stopband could be reduced even sin(ψ/2)
further to a considerably smaller value than 33 MHz. How- ψ = k0 .4d.sin(θ) − β.4d (3)

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FIGURE 10. Radiated power ratio for different slot lengths at 33 GHz. FIGURE 12. Probability density function of the fabrication error for three
fabrication tolerances of 25 µm, 50 µm, and 100 µm.

FIGURE 11. Radiation angle for different frequencies.

FIGURE 13. S11 of the antenna with 20 consecutive unit cells with slot
The radiation angle can also be found from equation 4. length 3.4mm and the fabrication tolerance of a. 0 µm b. 25 µm c.50 µm
Using (4) and the dispersion relation shown in Fig. 8, the d. 100 µm. The black dotted line shows the average value of S11
calculated radiation angle for different frequencies is shown throughout the closed stopband.

in Fig. 11. As shown, the antenna beam steers from −33◦ to

+35◦ as the frequency is changed from 27 GHz to 34.7 GHz.
The steering range shown in Fig. 11 is limited to −33◦ from three different fabrication tolerances. We constructed differ-
the lower frequencies by the operating frequency-band. For ent antenna samples composed of 20 optimized unit cells
frequencies below 27 GHz, the return loss increases substan- placed side-by-side with a random fabrication error using the
tially due to the proximity to the cut-off frequency of WR22. given probability density functions. The random fabrication
On the other hand, the steering range is limited to +35◦ from error for each feature in each unit cell is assumed independent
the high frequencies by the formation of grating lobe. of the others. We used three different tolerances of 25µm,
50µm, and 100µm for the fabrication errors as shown in
1 π
θ = 90 − acos( (β − )) (4) Fig. 12. Finally, we compared the simulation results for their
k0 2d return loss with that of the ideal proposed antenna.
Fig. 13.a shows the return loss of the ideal antenna com-
V. SIMULATION RESULTS FOR STRUCTURES WITH posed of 20 unit cells with slot lengths 3.4mm throughout the
RANDOM FABRICATION ERRORS closed stopband. As shown, the maximum return loss is 14 dB
The stopband and a unity reflection coefficient occurs in an and the average return loss throughout the closed stopband is
ideal infinitely long periodic structure which is simulated 24 dB. On the other hand, Fig. 13.b, Fig. 13.c, and Fig. 13.d
using Eigenmode solvers. However, the proposed antenna show the return loss for the same antenna but with a random
has a finite length and the fabrication is a stochastic process. fabrication error with a triangular distribution function for
Therefore, we need to study the effect of random fabrication 3 different fabrication tolerance values of 25 µm, 50 µm, and
errors on the characteristics of the proposed antenna. 100 µm respectively.
We assume a triangular probability density function for The black dotted line shows the average values of S11
the fabrication error of all the features in the proposed unit calculated over the given frequency band including all the
cells. Fig. 12 shows the probability density functions for samples. Fig. 13 shows that the random fabrication error has

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TABLE 2. Statistical parameters for the randomly generated samples.

FIGURE 15. Laser microscope image from a unit cell in the fabricated
antenna.

FIGURE 14. The fabricated antenna.

a huge effect on the return loss which makes reducing the

sensitivity of the closed stopband to the fabrication error very
important. It should be noted that in practice, the S11 for a
fabrication tolerance of +/− 0.05 mm will be better than
the samples in Fig. 10.c. This is because the real distribution
function of the fabrication error is not triangular, but similar to
a Gaussian distribution with more probability density around
0 mm fabrication error and less towards the two ends.
Interestingly, there is a strong correlation between the
return loss of the samples generated using the same proba-
bility distribution functions. These are tabulated in Table 2.
As shown, the maximum value of S11 and its mean value
throughout the given frequency range for the samples with
the same fabrication tolerance are very similar. This shows FIGURE 16. Measured normalized radiation pattern (frequencies are
the important effect of the fabrication tolerance on the return in GHz).
loss of the fabricated antennas. As shown in Table 2, the fab-
rication tolerance of +/− 0.05 mm can provide a return loss
of less than 5 dB in the stopband frequency range according
to the derived statistical data.

VI. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS

Fig. 14 shows a picture of the fabricated antenna. Two
2.92mm coax-to-WR22 adapters are attached at its two ends.
The left adapter is used for excitation while the right adapter
is connected to a matched load to absorb all the remaining
power and prevent any reflections. As shown, the total length
of the antenna is 276mm and its width is 40mm while the
width of the waveguide is only 5.69mm. The additional width
is to support the flanges.
FIGURE 17. The measured gain and radiation angle versus frequency.
Fig. 15 shows a picture captured by a laser microscope
from a unit cell of the fabricated antenna. Analyzing the data
from the microscopic imaging shows that the fabrication error −38◦ to +27◦ by changing the frequency from 27 GHz to
varies from +48 µm to −45 µm with a distribution similar to 34.7 GHz. As shown, the antenna half-power beamwidth is
a Gaussian function but not equal. This is because a Guassian 1.75◦ and the maximum sidelobe level is −10 dBi. Fig. 17
distribution allows for an infinite range of fabrication error. shows the measured and simulated gain of the antenna as
In order to limit the fabrication error to the given tolerance well as the radiation angle for different frequencies. The
and to consider the worst case scenario, we chose a triangular relation between the radiation angle and the frequency is
distribution function for the simulations. a linear function which is necessary for frequency-scanned
The measured normalized radiation pattern for the fabri- frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radars. The
cated antenna is shown in Fig. 16. The beam is steered from antenna has a maximum gain of 19 dBi at 33.5 GHz. The

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FIGURE 18. Simulated radiation efficiency.

FIGURE 19. The measured and simulated HPBW of the proposed antenna
versus frequency.

gain of the antenna changes between 11.5 dBi and 19 dBi

throughout the operating frequency range. The measured gain
of the antenna is lower at lower frequencies. This is for two
reasons. First, due to the smaller electrical length of the slots
at lower frequencies, they radiate less power at this frequency
range. Therefore, there is more non-radiated power that is FIGURE 20. The measured and simulated radiation patterns for a. 27 GHz
b. 31.7 GHz and c. 34.7 GHz.
absorbed by the matched load at lower frequencies. This can
be redeemed by adding optimized unit cells with a larger slot
length. However, another reason for the lower gain at lower results which was 0.25◦ . As shown, the HPBW has its mini-
frequencies is the lower radiation efficiency at this frequency mum value of 1.5◦ around the broadside radiation angle and
range. Fig. 18 shows the simulated radiation efficiency of the increases as the beam is scanned away from broadside. This
designed antenna. As shown, the radiation efficiency changes is due to the decrease in the effective radiating length of the
from 54% to 90% and it is lower at lower frequencies. This antenna.
is because the lower frequency range is closer to the cut-off Fig. 20 compares the simulated and measured radiation
frequency where the Ohmic loss is higher in the waveguide. patterns for 3 sample operating frequencies. As shown, both
This is analogous to the higher conductor loss in rectangular the maximum gain as well as the radiation angle match very
waveguides closer to the cut-off frequency which is due to the well between the two. The low-level back-lobe at 27 GHz
increased number of the times the wave is reflected from the is due to the small radiation from the reflected wave inside
walls per unit length of the waveguide. Lastly, it should also the waveguide which is formed because of operating close to
be noted that the electrical length of the antenna is shorter at the cut-off frequency. Fig. 21 shows the measured S11 and
lower frequencies which also contributes to a lower gain. S21 for the fabricated antenna. As shown, S11 is less than
Fig. 19 shows the measured and simulated half-power −10 dB throughout the operating frequency range except in
beamwidth of the designed antenna at different frequencies. the vicinity of the broadside radiation where it reaches to
The discrete form of the plot is due to the limited precision of a maximum value of −8.5 dB. This figure also compares
angle measurement in both the simulation and measurement the S parameters for the structure with and without screws

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advantages of SIW-based antennas are the easier integration

with other system components as well as the high precision in
the PCB fabrication (+/− 0.01 mm). Furthermore, due to the
increased flexibility in the design and fabrication process of
substrate-based leaky-wave antennas, they can be designed
with higher order modes and operating at more than one
bands [21]. However, they suffer from a substantial dielectric
loss at high frequencies which does not allow for extending
their length for applications that require a narrow beamwidth
and long electrical length. This is why a considerable dif-
ference can be seen between the electrical lengths of the
antennas in the two categories in the table. For leaky-wave
antennas, in order to have an acceptable radiation efficiency,
the attenuation factor of the field inside the waveguide needs
to be mostly due to the field leakage for radiation compared
to the loss in the waveguide. Increasing the radiating length
requires decreasing the leakage of the wave for radiation.
This results in the dielectric loss mechanism to dominate
the attenuation factor at much smaller electrical lengths in
substrate-based leaky-wave antennas and results in a substan-
tial decrease in their radiation efficiency. Therefore, in gen-
eral, SIW leaky-wave antennas are not suitable for length
extension. However, SIW antennas have a smaller width than
half-wavelength in vacuum due to the higher substrate per-
mittivity. This allows placing them side-by-side to narrow the
FIGURE 21. The measured a. S11 and b. S21 of the fabricated antenna
with and without the fastening screws. beam or perform beam-steering in the non-scanning plane.
The antennas in [22], [23] are implemented using a micro-
machining technique. As they do not use any substrates,
fastening the upper and lower parts after assembly. There are they can be designed and fabricated with a large electrical
33 screws located on each side of the waveguide junction length and a relatively high radiation efficiency. However,
in order to minimize the gap between the two parts. The due to their large width, they cannot be placed side-by-
slight change observed shows that the fabricated antenna can side to narrow the beam or perform beam-steering in the
operate very well even without any screws which is due to the non-scanning plane. For example in [22], Sarabandi et al.
current confinement in the middle of the waveguide as shown have demonstrated the design and implementation of a
in Fig. 3. frequency-scanned serpentine waveguide. In order to nar-
Considering Fig. 18 and Fig. 21, one can derive the row the beamwidth in the non-scanning plane, they have
detailed power budget of the proposed antenna. According placed a patch array along each meandered branch. Using this
to Fig. 21.a, less than 10% of the input power is lost through method, they have considerably decreased the beamwidth in
reflections at the input port, except in the vicinity of broadside the non-scanning plane. However, this method is limited by
radiation where the return loss accounts for less than 13% the length of the meandered branches which is fixed by the
of the input power. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 21.b, less designed dispersion relation of the waveguide. Furthermore,
than 10% of the input power is dissipated at the matched one cannot perform any beam-steering in this plane using this
load at the end of the antenna. Finally, according to Fig. 18, approach.
the power dissipated in the form of Ohmic loss varies by In [23] a gold-plated micro-machined antenna is pro-
changing the frequency. The Ohmic loss in the proposed posed. The antenna is composed of a parallel-plate waveguide
antenna ranges from 10% up to 45% of the available power loaded with periodic slots forming a LWA. This antenna can
for radiation. As mentioned before, the higher Ohmic loss achieve a high radiation efficiency using modified thin-film
at lower frequencies is due to the proximity to the cut-off fabrication techniques that can reduce the tolerances. Never-
frequency where the Ohmic loss is increased. theless, the achieved high radiation efficiency is also partially
due to the gold metalization used in this work. The gold
VII. COMPARISON AND DISCUSSION conductivity is 4.52 × 107 S/m while that of the 6061 alu-
Table 3 compares the characteristics of some of the relevant minum alloy used for the fabrication of the proposed antenna
frequency-scanned antennas with the proposed fabricated is 2.86 × 107 S/m which is about 40% less. Moreover, the
antenna. The antennas in [15], [18], [19], and [20] are imple- antenna cannot scan through broadside which results in an
mented using substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) technol- increase in the HPBW as the beam is scanned close to the
ogy while [22], [23], and [10] are metallic waveguides. The grazing angles.

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TABLE 3. Comparison with other frequency scanning antenna arrays.

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[16] J. M. Bustillo, R. T. Howe, and R. S. Müller, ‘‘Surface micromachin- GEORGE V. ELEFTHERIADES (Fellow, IEEE)
ing for microelectromechanical systems,’’ Proc. IEEE, vol. 86, no. 8, received the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electri-
pp. 1552–1574, Aug. 1998. cal engineering from the University of Michigan,
[17] V. Desmaris, D. Meledin, A. Pavolotsky, R. Monje, and V. Belitsky, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, in 1989 and 1993, respec-
‘‘All-metal micromachining for the fabrication of sub-millimetre and THz tively.
waveguide components and circuits,’’ J. Micromech. Microeng., vol. 18, From 1994 to 1997, he was with the Swiss Fed-
no. 9, Jul. 2008, Art. no. 095004. eral Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzer-
[18] D. K. Karmokar, Y. J. Guo, P.-Y. Qin, S.-L. Chen, and T. S. Bird, ‘‘Sub-
land. Currently, he is a Professor with the Depart-
strate integrated waveguide-based periodic backward-to-forward scanning
ment of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
leaky-wave antenna with low cross-polarization,’’ IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propag., vol. 66, no. 8, pp. 3846–3856, Aug. 2018. University of Toronto, ON, Canada, where he
[19] D. Zheng, Y.-L. Lyu, and K. Wu, ‘‘Transversely slotted SIW leaky-wave holds the Canada Research/Velma M. Rogers Graham Chair in Nanoand
antenna featuring rapid beam-scanning for millimeter-wave applications,’’ Micro-Structured Electromagnetic Materials. He is a recognized inter-
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 4172–4185, Jun. 2020. national authority and pioneer in the area of metamaterials. These are
[20] A. Sarkar and S. Lim, ‘‘60 GHz compact larger beam scanning range PCB man-made materials which have electromagnetic properties not found in
leaky-wave antenna using HMSIW for millimeter-wave applications,’’ nature. He introduced a method for synthesizing metamaterials using loaded
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 68, no. 8, pp. 5816–5826, Aug. 2020. transmission lines. Together with his graduate students, he provided the
[21] A. Sarkar, A. H. Naqvi, and S. Lim, ‘‘(40 to 65) GHz higher order mode first experimental evidence of imaging beyond the diffraction limit and
microstrip-based dual band dual beam tunable leaky-wave antenna for pioneered several novel antennas and microwave components using these
millimeter wave applications,’’ IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 68, transmission-line based metamaterials. His research has impacted the field
no. 11, pp. 7255–7265, Nov. 2020. by demonstrating the unique electromagnetic properties of metamaterials;
[22] K. Sarabandi, A. Jam, M. Vahidpour, and J. East, ‘‘A novel frequency used in lenses, antennas, and other microwave and optical components to
beam-steering antenna array for submillimeter-wave applications,’’ IEEE drive innovation in fields such as wireless and satellite communications,
Trans. Terahertz Sci. Technol., vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 654–665, Nov. 2018.
defense, medical imaging, microscopy, and automotive radar. Presently,
[23] A. Gomez-Torrent, M. Garcia-Vigueras, L. Le Coq, A. Mahmoud,
he is leading a group of graduate students and researchers in the areas of
M. Ettorre, R. Sauleau, and J. Oberhammer, ‘‘A low-profile and high-gain
frequency beam steering subterahertz antenna enabled by silicon micro- electromagnetic and optical metamaterials, and metasurfaces, antennas, and
machining,’’ IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 672–682, components for broadband wireless communications, novel antenna beam-
Feb. 2020. steering techniques, far-field superresolution imaging, radars, plasmonic and
nanoscale optical components, and fundamental electromagnetic theory.
Prof. Eleftheriades’s papers, which he coauthored, have received numer-
ous awards such as the 2009 Best Paper Award from the IEEE MICROWAVE
AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, twice the R. W. P. King Best Paper
Award from IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION (2008 and
2012), and the 2014 Piergiorgio Uslenghi Best Paper Award from the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION LETTERS. He received the Ontario
Premier’s Research Excellence Award and the University of Toronto’s Gor-
don Slemon Award, both in 2001. In 2004, he received an E.W.R. Steacie
AMIRMASOUD OHADI (Graduate Student Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Member, IEEE) received the B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. Canada. In 2009, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
degrees in electrical engineering from the Univer- and received the 2018 Research Leadership Award from the University of
sity of Tehran and Cornell University, respectively. Toronto. He is the recipient of the 2008 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Technical
He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in elec- Field Award, the 2015 IEEE John Kraus Antenna Award, and the 2019 IEEE
trical engineering with the University of Toronto. AP-S Distinguished Achievement Award. He served as a member of the IEEE
His current research interests include electroni- AP-Society Administrative Committee (AdCom), from 2007 to 2012, and
cally beam-steerable antenna design, microwave was an IEEE AP-S Distinguished Lecturer, from 2004 to 2009. He served as
networks, RF systems, and periodic structures. the General Chair of the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas
He was selected as an ECE Fellow at Cornell and Propagation held in Toronto. He also served as an Associate Editor for
University in the 2014–2015 academic year, and he received the Spork the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION.
Analog Design Fellowship from Cornell University, in spring 2016.

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