Designs for Leaky-Wave Antennas Using Metamaterial Structures

This paper is devoted to study the effect of Metamaterial supporting cells on the performance of leaky-wave antennas. It presents three designs for leaky-wave antennas supported with different metamaterial cells. First structure is implemented using a rectangular Split Ring Resonator (SRR) structure implanted between the two patches. In the second structure, a mushroom ground structure with copper patches connected through via is implemented, and the third structure uses three complementary rectangular split ring resonators (CSRR). All antennas are made of copper annealed structures and implemented on FR4 substrate with and thickness. The scattering parameters for the three designs are studied with the radiation patterns at several frequencies. The root mean square powers for the three structures are studied with their electromagnetic properties to relate the effect of implanting the metamaterial structures into the antenna design and how it affects the radiation, the gain and the suppression of the surface wave. The equivalent circuits for the first and third designs are derived and the third design is fabricated and its scattering parameters are measured. The antennas can be used in radar sensor applications in production with reasonable size and gain.