Leaky-Wave Antenna Techniques and Applications
Summary
Leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) exploit the gradual leakage of a guided wave along a radiating structure to produce highly directive, frequency-dependent beams without mechanical steering. Designs span uniform, periodic and metamaterial-based configurations, realised in microstrip, substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW), Goubau-line and terahertz platforms. By engineering dispersion and impedance characteristics, modern LWAs achieve wide beam-scanning ranges, low sidelobes and stable polarisation, while minimising open-stopband effects at broadside. Recent innovations combine novel materials such as liquid crystal substrates with complementary split-ring resonators, or employ spoof surface plasmon polaritons and varactor diodes for electronic beam control. These advances support applications across 5G/6G mobile networks, satellite communications, point-to-point millimetre-wave links, radar imaging and wireless power transfer, delivering compact, reconfigurable solutions for emerging high-frequency systems.
Research from Nature Portfolio
In the terahertz domain, conformal LWAs mounted on curved surfaces have demonstrated multiple high-gain beams with low bit-error rates, underpinned by simple dispersion models and verified experimentally for Internet-of-Things applications. A Ka-band periodic LWA integrating SIW and microstrip lines on a liquid-crystal substrate achieved fixed-frequency beam scanning between –53° and +60° at 34.7 GHz, with outstanding impedance matching and gains up to 12.6 dB. Earlier work on planar Goubau-line LWAs introduced asymmetric periodic modulations to overcome broadside inefficiencies, enabling continuous steering from backward to forward angles with improved radiation efficiency through both transversal and longitudinal asymmetry.
Leaky-Wave Antenna Techniques and Applications publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in leaky-wave antenna techniques and applications across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Leaky-wave antenna (LWA): A structure that radiates by allowing a guided wave to leak energy progressively along its length, producing a beam whose direction varies with frequency.
Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW): A planar transmission line formed by rows of metalised vias in a dielectric substrate, combining waveguide performance with printed-circuit-board manufacturing.
Composite right/left-handed (CRLH) metamaterial: An engineered transmission line exhibiting both positive and negative phase‐velocity regions, enabling novel dispersion and radiation control.
Goubau line: A single-conductor surface-wave transmission line, where periodic modulations create the additional momentum needed for radiation in LWA implementations.
Varactor diode: A voltage-controlled semiconductor device whose capacitance tuning enables electronic steering of LWA beams at a fixed frequency.
Broadside: The direction perpendicular to the antenna axis, corresponding to zero-degree beam angle and often associated with open-stopband challenges in periodic LWAs.
References
- Conformal leaky-wave antennas for wireless terahertz communications. Communications Engineering (2023).
- Dual-Polarized Multi-Beam Fixed-Frequency Beam Scanning Leaky-Wave Antenna. Sensors (2023).
- A Ka-band one-dimensional beam scanning leaky-wave antenna based on liquid crystal. Scientific Reports (2024).
- High-Isolation Leaky-Wave Array Antenna Based on CRLH-Metamaterial Implemented on SIW with ±30o Frequency Beam-Scanning Capability at Millimetre-Waves. Electronics (2019).
- Continuous Beam Steering Through Broadside Using Asymmetrically Modulated Goubau Line Leaky-Wave Antennas. Scientific Reports (2017).
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