An Analytic Design Approach for Conformal Leaky Wave Antennas

A fully analytic approach is presented for the design of a sinusoidally shaped conformal Leaky Wave Antenna (LWA). The approach is based on differential geometry formulations of arc-lengths and ray tangents for conformal rays emanating from a central feed pin. A Voronoi patterning technique is used to realize the necessary surface impedance to generate a far-field beam in a desired direction as obtained from the holography approach. Full-wave simulations validate the design. The analytic design approach presented paves the way for conformal LWA designs without the need to incorporate costly full-wave simulations into the design stage.