Radiation Characteristics of Mushroom-Like PPW LWAs: Analysis and Experimental Verification

The radiation characteristics of mushroom-like parallel-plate waveguide composite right/left-handed leaky-wave antennas (PPW CRLH LWAs) are presented, analyzed, mathematically modeled, and experimentally verified. For this purpose, a frequency-dependent formulation, based on a dispersive circuital model of the antenna, is proposed. The formulation inherently takes into account the mutual coupling between the slots, radiation losses, reactive fields, and the fluctuations of the radiated power with frequency. Very good agreement in the 1-D and 2-D radiation patterns obtained by the proposed formulation and the measured results from a PPW CRLH LWA prototype is found, validating both the antenna radiating properties and the proposed theory.