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24/06/14 meb. Publisher version Ok to add

Abstract-Reducing the profile, footprint and weight of antennas embarked on aircrafts, drones or satellites has been a long pursued objective. Here we tackle this issue by developing a millimeter-wave 96 GHz elliptical Bull's-Eye antenna with offaxis radiation at 16.5º that has been fabricated by low cost 3D printing stereolithography, followed by metal coating. The theoretical basis for optimum off-axis operations is explained. Measurement results show an overall good agreement with simulations, displaying a gain of 17 dB and a 3.5º beamwidth (Eplane) at the operational frequency. The off-axis beaming enlarges the potential applicability of this technology with respect to the broadside beam solution.

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A thorough experimental study of the frequency and beaming angle response of a metallic leaky wave Bull's-Eye antenna working at 77 GHz with a sinusoidally corrugated profile is presented. The beam scanning property of these antennas as frequency is varied is experimentally demonstrated and corroborated through theoretical and numerical results. From the experimental results the dispersion diagram of the n = 1 and n = 2 space harmonics is extracted, and the operation at different frequency regimes is identified and discussed. In order to show the contribution of each half of the antenna, numerical examples of the near-field behavior are also displayed. Overall, experimental results are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with theoretical and numerical calculations. Finally, an analysis of the beamwidth as a function of frequency is performed, showing that it can achieve values below 1.5 deg in a fractional bandwidth of 4% around the operation frequency, which is an interesting frequency-stable broadside radiation.