A flexible dielectric leaky-wave antenna at 160 GHz

Flexible antennas provide the opportunity to place them on bent or moving surfaces. For leaky-wave antennas the mechanical flexibility offers a second possibility to modify the beam direction besides the frequency scanning property. This paper presents a leaky-wave antenna with a tapered metalized grating on flexible high density polyethylene in the frequency range from 140 GHz to 175 GHz. The high efficiency antenna was investigated with numerical calculations and a full wave simulation. The fabricated antenna has a scanning range of 20° and the measured gain is between 16.5 dBi and 17.5 dBi. A bend in the antenna structure affects its properties and increases the sidelobe level and the angular width.