Theory and analysis of leaky coaxial cables with periodic slots

Frequency band and coupling loss are the two important parameters of leaky coaxial cables with periodic slots. The frequency band can be predicted by analyzing the arrangement of the slots on the outer shield of the cable, but the coupling loss is not so easy to determine by classical methods. In this paper, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is used to calculate the electric field distribution in the slot cut in the outer conductor of the coaxial cable. The dyadic Green's function is then used to calculate the radiation field of the equivalent surface magnetic current densities. By these two methods, the coupling losses of the leaky coaxial cables with different periods, sizes and shapes of the slots can be accurately obtained. Some results in this paper were verified by the experimental results of leaky coaxial cables designed for railway mobile communications with a frequency band of 100-500 MHz.