Unusual tapering of leaky-wave radiators and their applications

A summary of the latest progress in the analysis, design and applications of unusual tapered leaky-wave antennas (TLWAs) is shown in this contribution. Particularly, it will be illustrated how these atypical TLWAs are able to synthesize a variety of custom made far-field and near-field patterns, including high-directive beam-scanned low side-lobe radiation diagrams, broad-beam far-feed patterns with high-rejection out from the prescribed man beam, scanned beams with wide nulls in prescribed angular regions, highly efficient focused near-feed power distributions, and high-gain conformal antenna designs. Emphasis will be made on the fact that, similar radiation performance can only be achieved nowadays with phased-arrays, which present important drawbacks when compared to TLWAs. The analysis and design procedures, and some applications of TLWA in different technologies, will be described during the oral presentation.