Theory of a Traveling Wave Feed for a Planar Slot Array Antenna

Planar arrays of waveguide-fed slots have been employed in many radar and remote sensing applications. Such arrays are designed in the standing wave configuration because of high efficiency. Traveling wave arrays can produce greater bandwidth at the expense of efficiency due to power loss in the load or loads. Traveling wave planar slot arrays may be designed with a long feed waveguide consisting of centered-inclined coupling slots. The feed waveguide is terminated in a matched load, and the element spacing in the feed waveguide is chosen to produce a beam squinted from the broadside.