Accurate Ray-Tracing Modeling of Radiation from Leaky-Wave Antennas

In this work, we propose the use of a radial ray-tracing approach to accurately model the radiation from leaky-wave antennas (LWA). The technique involves the launching of several sets of rays that emanate radially from different source points along the LWA aperture. The trajectory of the emitted rays is determined and applied to accurately evaluate the impact of every source point on the radiation pattern of the LWA, with particular attention to complex setups incorporating dielectric lenses. Each source point's contribution is superimposed, weighted by a complex factor related to the LWA's leaky mode. The method demonstrates both efficiency and accuracy in modeling radiation patterns for different taperings of the leaky mode used to generate shaped beams, leading to a significant reduction in computation time compared to commercial full-wave solvers.