Compensation for Waveguide Losses in the Design of Slot Arrays

There is a growing tendency to construct slotted waveguide arrays using lightweight, nonmetallic materials. For high-frequency applications, small dimensions make the implementation of slot arrays in substrate-integrated waveguide with etched slots a viable option. In both these cases, the waveguides exhibit inherent losses. If these losses are not compensated for, some slots will be underilluminated and the overall performance of the antenna will be affected. In this paper, we present an amended design procedure which compensates for wave attenuation in order to maintain uniform phase and the desired amplitude for each array element.