Novel balanced antipodal surface-wave assisted printed endfire antenna with reduced cross-polariztion

We present a surface-wave assisted printed antenna using a balanced antipodal configuration in order to achieve lower cross-pol radiation than other antennas of this type. Using the generation of TE/sub 0/ surface-wave as the primary source of free space radiation, we are able to achieve unidirectional endfire radiation by relying on the truncated microstrip ground plane as a surface-wave reflector element. Measurement of input VSWR reveals two operating bands with VSWR<2 corresponding to a 29% and 17% bandwidth respectively. Cross-pol radiation was measured to be less than -19 dB across both operating bands.