A post-wall center-feed waveguide consisting of T-junctions is proposed for reducing the slot-free area of a parallel plate slot array antenna. The width of the slot-free area is reduced from 2.6 λ0 to 2.1 λ0. A sidelobe level in the E-plane is expected to be suppressed lower than that of the conventional center-feed antenna using cross-junctions. The method of moments with solid-wall replacement designs initially the T-junctions and HFSS including the post surfaces modifies only the reflection cancelling post. We have designed and fabricated a 61.25 GHz model antenna with uniform aperture illumination. The sidelobe level in the E-plane is suppressed to -9.5 dB while that of a conventional cross-junction type is -7.8 dB. Also, we suppress it to -13.8 dB by introducing a -8.3 dB amplitude tapered distribution in the array of the radiation slot pairs.

A novel analysis model for post-wall waveguide T-junctions is proposed. Equivalent solid-walls for the post-walls to have equal guided wavelength are corrected in the analysis model so that the wall thickness for the coupling windows is set to the difference in the width between the post-wall and the solid-wall waveguides. The accuracy of the proposed model is confirmed by comparing it to an HFSS analysis for the real structure of the post-wall waveguide T-junction including the post surfaces. 61.25 GHz model antennas are fabricated for experimental verification. The reflection of the antenna designed by the modified analysis model is suppressed to below -15 dB over a 5.6 GHz bandwidth, while that in the antenna designed by the conventional model is larger than -15 dB around the design frequency.

This paper presents the loss factors in the post-wall waveguide-fed parallel-plate slot array antenna in the millimeter-wave band. At first, transmission loss is evaluated per unit length by measuring the losses of post-wall waveguides on various substrates with different thicknesses in different bands. Measured results of the frequency dependence agree with theoretical predictions using the effective conductivity and the complex permittivity obtained by the whispering gallery mode resonator method. Then the authors evaluate the antennas with various sizes at 76.5 GHz. The antenna efficiency is evaluated by taking into account the loss factors related to: the transmission loss both in the feed and the parallel plate waveguides, the aperture efficiency and the insertion loss and the reflection of the transition. Also, the loss due to the locally-perturbed currents by the slot radiation is evaluated. The sum of the losses in the prediction quantitatively agrees with the measurement.