Grating Lobe Suppression of Narrow-Wall Slotted Hollow Waveguide Millimeter-Wave Planar Antenna for Arbitrarily Linear Polarization

Abstract

A high-gain and high-efficiency slotted waveguide planar antenna is developed in the millimeter-wave band. Forty-five degree inclined polarization is required for automotive radar systems. In the design of slotted waveguide array for arbitrarily linear polarization, slot spacing is one guide wavelength which is larger than a wavelength in free space. Consequently, grating lobes appear in the radiation pattern. So, we developed a slotted waveguide planar antenna composed of post-loaded narrow-wall slots and a single-layer alternating-phase feeding circuit. A planar antenna with suppressed grating lobes has been fabricated and its RF performance has been measured. The measured gain is 33.2 dBi and antenna efficiency is 56% at 76 GHz. Grating lobe level is -28.6 dB lower than main lobe level. Since the proposed structure remains simple, the antenna is expected to be manufactured by metal injection molding for low cost