IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

5, 2006 111

Analysis and Design of Waveguide Slot Antenna

Array Integrated With Electromagnetic
Band-Gap Structures
Long Li, Member, IEEE, Xiao-Jie Dang, Bin Li, and Chang-Hong Liang, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Utilization of electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) struc-

tures becomes more attractive in the electromagnetic and antenna
community. This letter investigates the performance of a wave-
guide slot antenna array integrated with mushroom-like EBG
structures. Some novel and efficient EBG array configurations are
proposed, and a waveguide broadside resonant slot array of 5 5
elements was designed, built and tested. The tradeoffs and design
considerations of EBG structures are discussed to obtain optimum
performance.
Index Terms—Mushroom-like electromagnetic band-gap (EBG)
structures, tradeoffs, waveguide slot antenna array.

I. INTRODUCTION

M USHROOM-LIKE electromagnetic band-gap (EBG)

structures [1] exhibit unique electromagnetic properties
that have led to a wide range of applications for the antenna and
propagation fields. Compared to other EBG structures such as
dielectric rods and holes, this structure has a winning feature of
compactness [1], [2], which is important in communication an-
tennas and array applications. Its band-gap features are revealed
in two ways: The suppression of surface waves propagation,
and the in-phase reflection coefficient. These features have
been proven to effectively improve the performance of a single
antenna element and microstrip antenna array [3]–[8]. How-
ever, little research has been done in utilizing EBG structures as
ground plane for slot antenna array. A waveguide slot antenna
array has found wide applications in radar and communication
systems. Because the antenna array of waveguide-fed slot
elements has a very large conducting plane, surface current can
form standing wave and contribute to multipath interference
and back radiation. These effects will degrade the performance
of the waveguide slot antenna array.
In this letter, a novel waveguide slot antenna array integrated
with EBG structures is analyzed and designed. Based on an im-
provement of a single slot antenna with EBG ground, a wave-
guide broadside resonant slot array of 5 5 elements was de-
signed, built and tested. The effect of EBG materials on slots is
revealed from the measured VSWR, radiation gain pattern, and
Manuscript received November 15, 2005; revised January 12, 2006. This
work was supported by the State Key Development Program for Basic Research
of China under Grant 00300113.
L. Li, X.-J. Dang, B. Li, and C.-H. Liang are with the National Laboratory
of Antennas and Microwave Technology, School of Electronic Engineering, Xi-
dian University, Xi’an 710071, China (e-mail: Lilong@mail. xidian.edu.cn).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2006.872438
1536-1225/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
Fig. 1. Geometry of a mushroom-like EBG structure.
aperture field distribution. The tradeoffs and design consider-
ations of EBG structures configuration are discussed to obtain
optimum performance.
II. EBG DESIGN
The basic EBG element is a mushroom-like EBG described
in [2] and shown in Fig. 1. The unit cell consists of metal pro-
trusions on a flat metal sheet connected to the solid lower con-
ducting surface by metal plated vias (or metal posts). The op-
erational frequency band of the waveguide slot antenna array
presented by this paper is from 7.25 to 7.75 GHz with the center
frequency 7.5 GHz. To adjust this optimal design to the required
center frequency, the size of the squared EBG unit cell is de-
signed as follows:
(1)
Fig. 2(a) shows the numerically simulated dispersion
diagram of the surface modes propagating in the EBG structure,
which was conducted using finite element method full-wave
analysis [9]. The first (dominant) surface wave mode is
which has no cutoff frequency, and the second surface wave
mode is . One can observe a complete stopband between the
first mode and the second mode within the frequency
band 7.08–9.11 GHz. In this figure, , and stand for sym-
metric points in the irreducible Brillouin zone. The branch
112
Fig. 2. Measurement and simulation of surface wave bandgap of the designed
EBG structure. (a) Simulated surface wave band structure. (b) Measured TM
and TE surface waves transmission coefficient for the EBG structure. The size
2 2
of the tested EBG sample is 20 20 cells (98 98 mm).
represents with . The branch represents
with and branch represents
with . Calculation inside this special Brillouin zone
will provide sufficient knowledge of the surface wave bandgap
information. Fig. 2(b) shows the frequency response of trans-
mission coefficient S21 with both TM and TE surface waves
measured by a pair of small monopole antennas oriented nor-
mally (TM mode) and parallel (TE mode) to the EBG surface
[2]. It can be seen that the simulated surface wave bandgap is in
good agreement with the measurement result. The operational
frequency band of the waveguide slot antenna array is within the
surface wave bandgap of the designed EBG structure.
III. SINGLE SLOT ANTENNA WITH EBG STRUCTURES
A single waveguide-fed slot antenna, with a rectangular slot
approximately long cut in the broadside of a waveguide, is
shown in Fig. 3(a). The waveguide size is ,
, and . The slot size is , We know that the coupling characteristics [10]–[12] of
, and an offset from the center line of waveguide
is . The metal ground size is 54 69 mm. The
radiation patterns of the slot antenna in a metal ground fed by
a rectangular waveguide are shown in Fig. 4. The frequency of
the simulation is 7.5 GHz. The important features of the antenna
pattern are the ripples that appear in the forward direction, and
the large amount of wasted power in the backward direction.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 5, 2006
Fig. 3. Single slot antenna with and without EBG structures. (a) Surface
waves radiating of a slot antenna at metal ground plane edges. (b) Surface wave
suppression on an EBG ground plane.
These features are due to surface waves that propagate away
from the slot and radiate from the ground plane edges.
If the metal ground plane is replaced with the EBG ground
plane, as shown in Fig. 3(b), the surface waves are suppressed.
While driven currents can exist on any reflective surface, they do
not propagate on the EBG ground plane. Any induced currents
are restricted to a localized region around slot antenna, and never
reach the edges of the ground plane. The absence of multipath
interference results in a smoother radiation pattern, with less
wasted power in the backward hemisphere, and the forward gain
of the slot antenna with EBG ground plane increases by about 3
dB compared to that of the slot antenna with the metal ground
plane, as shown in Fig. 4. One can observe that the performance
improvement in the E-plane radiation pattern of the EBG slot
antenna is greater than that in the H-plane. This result can be
primarily attributed to reduction of surface waves excited in the
H-plane. Moreover, this conclusion stimulated the idea to use
EBG elements only in the E-plane in an array configuration.
IV. WAVEGUIDE BROADSIDE SLOT ANTENNA ARRAYS WITH
EBG STRUCTURES
a waveguide slot antenna array are: 1) the external mutual
coupling exits among all slots and the upper aperture field
suffers from the coupling of TM surface wave, 2) the internal
mutual coupling is limited to slots in the same waveguide, and
3) the coupling between slots in the E-plane is much higher
compared to that in the H-plane, as shown in Fig. 5. Based
on the performance of a metal waveguide broadside slot array
LI et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF WAVEGUIDE SLOT ANTENNA ARRAY 113

Fig. 5. (a) External and internal mutual coupling characteristics of a

Fig. 4. Comparison of radiation patterns of a slot antenna in a metal ground waveguide broadside slot array. (b) Simulation results of the coupling
plane and an EBG ground plane. (a) E-plane pattern. (b) H-plane pattern. coefficient S21 between two waveguide-fed slots in both E and H planes.

and the electromagnetic characteristics of mushroom-like EBG

structures, some tradeoffs and design considerations of EBG
structures which help to obtain optimum performance can be
discussed as follows.
1) An optimum distance between the radiating slot and
the EBG elements should be designed in order to have
a minimal effect on the resonant frequency of slots.
2) To avoid destroying the upper and lower apertures
fields of slots, the EBG materials are unsuitable to be
embedded between slots in the same waveguide. In
addition, because the coupling between slots in the E
plane is much higher compared to that in the H plane,
it is decided to use EBG array configurations only in
the E plane.
3) EBG structures can be embedded in the interior of the
slot array to reduce the surface waves coupling, and
in the exterior of the slot array to suppress the surface
waves radiating at the ground plane edge.
4) It has shown that two is the minimum number of cells
required to achieve the surface wave suppression phe-
nomenon of the EBG.
Fig. 6. Experimental research of a waveguide broadside slot antenna array
integrated with different EBG configurations. (a) Original waveguide slot array.
A practical longitudinal waveguide slot resonant array with (b) First EBG configuration slot array M1. (c) Second EBG configuration slot
5 5 slot elements in uniform distribution is shown in Fig. 6(a), array M2. (d) Third EBG configuration slot array M3.
114
Fig. 7. Measured return loss (jS j) and VSWR characteristics of
conventional waveguide slot array and EBG slot arrays with different
configurations. (a) Return loss. (b) VSWR.
which is designed by using nonstandard waveguides: all the
waveguides are the same size which is ,
, and . The size of bulletheaded slots is
, , and an offset from the center
line of waveguide is . The size of the whole an-
tenna array is 249 249 mm. The center operational frequency
is 7.5 GHz, and the separation distance between near two slots
is half a guide wavelength of the center frequency.
In this letter, three kinds of EBG array configurations inte-
grated with the waveguide slot array are proposed, as shown in
Fig. 6(b)–(d). The first configuration (M1) is that the EBG struc-
tures are embedded simultaneously in the interior and exterior
fringe of the waveguide slot array [see Fig. 6(b)]. The second
configuration (M2) replaces the EBG structures of three periods
by a metal sheet in the interior of array shown in Fig. 6(c), in
order to research the coupling effect of EBG materials on slots.
The third configuration (M3) is that the EBG structures are em-
bedded only in the exterior fringe of the waveguide slot array,
as shown in Fig. 6(d). The return loss, radiation patterns, and
the aperture electric fields of the slot array antennas with metal
and different EBG structure configurations were measured in an
anechoic chamber, respectively.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 5, 2006
Fig. 8. Comparison of the measured radiation patterns of four slot antenna
arrays. (a) E-plane pattern. (b) H-plane pattern.
Fig. 7 shows the measured return loss and VSWR of
the waveguide slot array with and without EBG structures, in-
cluding three different EBG configurations. It can be seen that
the return loss of the third EBG configuration array (M3) is the
almost same as the original metal array, that is, the exterior inte-
gration of EBG materials does not affect the reflection character-
istics of the original slot array. It is helpful for the original metal
array to keep the optimum slot design and we need not consider
the coupling effect of EBG elements on the slot elements. The
M1 and M2 configurations have some effects on the resonant
frequency of the slot array. Especially, the strong interaction of
EBG structures with slot elements results in a deterioration of
return loss and VSWR at the low frequencies in the slot array
with M1 EBG configuration.
Fig. 8 shows the comparison of the measured radiation pat-
terns of four different slot arrays at the center frequency where
they have the same return loss . It can be
seen that the EBG structures have a significant effect on the
E-plane radiation pattern of the waveguide slot antenna array
LI et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF WAVEGUIDE SLOT ANTENNA ARRAY 115

features of the waveguide slot antenna array and the electro-

magnetic characteristics of mushroom-like EBG structures,
we discuss some tradeoffs and design considerations of EBG
structures to obtain optimum performance.
A waveguide broadside resonant slot array of 5 5 ele-
ments integrated with different EBG array configurations was
designed, built and tested. The experimental results show that
the EBG materials embedded in the exterior fringe of the slot
array can effectively suppress the side and backward radiations
and increase the gain of the slots antenna array. Moreover,
these EBG materials have a little effect on the aperture fields
and resonant frequency of slots, which is helpful for the orig-
inal metal array to keep the optimum design. When the EBG
structures are properly used in the interior of the slot array, the
performance of the waveguide slot array can also be improved.
More importantly, a reduction in mutual coupling between slot
elements can provide a possible solution to the blind spots
problem in phased array applications with slot elements.

Fig. 9. Comparison of the measured aperture electric fields of the metal slot
array and different EBG configuration slot arrays. (a) Original metal array. (b)
M1 EBG slot array. (c) M2 EBG slot array. (d) M3 EBG slot array.
compared to H-plane, which is primarily due to reduction of sur-
face waves excited in the H-plane and the EBG materials used
only in the E-plane.
The experimental results show that the M2 and M3 EBG slot
arrays improve the performance of the original metal array. In
M3 configuration, the forward gain increases by 1.63 dB and
the back lobe decreases by 13.5 dB. But the performance of the
M1 EBG slot array is degraded, which is attributed to that the
aperture electric fields of uniform distribution are broken and the
fringe E-field is stronger than that of the original metal array, as
shown in Fig. 9(a) and (b). It can be observed from Fig. 9(d)
that the EBG materials embedded in the external fringe of the
slot array hardly affect the aperture fields, and weaken the edge
fields due to the suppression of surface waves. Therefore, the
side and back radiations decrease and the forward gain can be
increased. The M2 EBG slot array is in the intermediate level,
as shown in Fig. 9(c). In this case, the forward gain increases by
1.04 dB and the back lobe decreases by 5.46 dB.
V. CONCLUSION
This letter investigates the application of mushroom-like
EBG structures to a waveguide slot antenna array. It is expected
to improve the performance of the conventional waveguide
slot antenna array by utilizing the surface waves suppression
characteristics of EBG structures. According to the coupling
REFERENCES
[1] D. Sievenpiper, L. Zhang, R. F. J. Broas, N. G. Alexopolus, and E.
Yablonovitch, “High-impedance electromagnetic surfaces with a for-
bidden frequency band,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Technol., vol.
47, no. 11, pp. 2059–2074, Nov. 1999.
[2] D. Sievenpiper, “High-impedance electromagnetic surfaces,” Ph.D. dis-
sertation, Dep. Elect. Eng., Univ. California, Los Angeles, CA, 1999.
[3] F. R. Yang, K. P. Ma, Y. Qian, and T. Itoh, “A uniplanar compact pho-
tonic-bandgap (UC-PBG) structure and its applications for microwave
circuit,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Technol., vol. 47, no. 8, pp.
1509–1514, Aug. 1999.
[4] A. S. Barlevy and Y. Rahmat-Samii, “Characterization of electro-
magnetic band-gaps composed of multiple periodic tripods with
interconnecting vias: Concept, analysis, and design,” IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propagat., vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 243–353, Mar. 2001.
[5] F. Yang and Y. Rahmat-Samii, “Microstrip antennas integrated with elec-
tromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structures: A low mutual coupling design
for array applications,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 51, no. 10,
pp. 2939–2949, Oct. 2003.
[6] R. Gonzalo, P. Maaget, and M. Sorolla, “Enhanced patch-antenna per-
formance by suppressing surface waves using photonic-bandgap sub-
strates,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Technol., vol. 47, no. 11, pp.
2131–2138, Nov. 1999.
[7] G. H. Zhang and N. C. Yuan, “Radiation characteristics improvement
in waveguide-fed slot antenna with a high-impedance ground plane
(HIGP),” Microwave Optical Technol. Lett., vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 176–179,
Apr. 2005.
[8] N. Llombart, A. Neto, G. Gerini, and P. de Maagt, “Planar circularly
symmetric EBG structures for reducing surface waves in printed
antennas,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 53, no. 10, pp.
3210–3218, Oct. 2005.
[9] R. Remski, “Analysis of PBG surfaces using ansoft HFSS,” Microwave
J., vol. 43, no. 9, pp. 190–198, Sep. 2000.
[10] R. W. Lyon and A. J. Sangstar, “Efficient moment method analysis of
radiating slots in a thick-walled rectangular waveguid,” Proc. Inst. Elect.
Eng. Microw. Antennas Propag., vol. 128, pp. 197–205, 1981.
[11] H. Y. Yee, “The design of large waveguide arrays of shunt slots,” IEEE
Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 775–781, Sep. 1992.
[12] L. Li, Y. Zhang, J. Y. Li, and C. H. Liang, “Analysis and design of large
waveguide longitudinal slot arrays,” Chinese J. Microwave, vol. 18, pp.
11–14, Mar. 2002.