Array of Low-Profile Horn Antennas in Groove Gap Waveguide Technology Implemented With Glide-Symmetrical Holes

This communication presents the design of planar arrays in groove gap waveguide (GGWG) technology using glide-symmetric holes. The motivation behind this work is to develop cost-effective and robust antennas with minimal losses. The proposed design is flexible with respect to the number of elements in the array; as a demonstrative example, a $6\times 6$ array operating at 38 GHz is implemented. Low-profile horn antennas with high aperture efficiency are employed as radiating elements. To enhance bandwidth, reflection-canceling posts are incorporated in a second version of the design. The resulting array achieves an overall aperture efficiency exceeding 89%, delivering a gain of 30 dBi. Experimental measurements show very good agreement with simulations. The proposed array is entirely metallic and mechanically robust, avoiding the use of very small or fragile components, which also facilitates frequency scaling compared to pin-based designs.