A Review of Reconfigurable Leaky-Wave Antennas

A comprehensive survey of the reconfigurable leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) is made in this paper. Beam-steering and unique radiating features of LWA are highlighted particularly. Therefore, the radiation mechanism of different types of LWA, including uniform, quasi-uniform, periodic, and metamaterial LWAs are discussed in detail. The guiding structures for realizing LWAs, namely microstrip, waveguide, substrate integrated waveguide (SIW), and half-mode SIW (HMSIW) are investigated as well. Basic concepts of electronic beam-scanning LWAs are also introduced, and several state-of-the-art reconfigurable LWAs are studied thoroughly. The investigated reconfigurable LWAs are suitable for beam-scanning applications due to their compactness, ease of implementation, reasonably high gain, and relatively wide beam-scanning range, as will be demonstrated through this comprehensive review.

Automated summary

This paper presents a comprehensive survey of reconfigurable leaky-wave antennas (LWAs), focusing on their beam-steering and unique radiating features. Different types of LWAs and their radiation mechanisms are discussed in detail, along with the guiding structures for realizing LWAs. The study also introduces basic concepts of electronic beam-scanning LWAs and investigates state-of-the-art reconfigurable LWAs suitable for beam-scanning applications.