Microstrip Spoof Surface Plasmon Polariton Based Leaky Wave Antenna

In this paper, a frequency scanning antenna based on microstrip spoof surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) transmission line (TL) is proposed. The proposed microstrip SSPP TL has triangular corrugations on both side of metallic strip conductor. Circular patches are loaded periodically on both sides of the microstrip SSPP TL alternately to convert the SSPP mode to the spatial mode. The antenna operates in the frequency range of 6.8-13.5 GHz having fractional bandwidth of 70% with continuous scanning range of -58.4° to 32°. The average gain of 14 dBi with maximum radiation efficiency of 90% is obtained. The proposed antenna can be integrated with planar wireless communication systems due to the presence of an unbroken ground plane.