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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/LAWP.2014.2387015, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

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Gain Enhanced SIW Cavity backed Slot

Antenna with Arbitrary Levels of Inclined
Polarization

R. Bayderkhani, K. Forooraghi, Member,IEEE, and B. Abbasi-Arand, Member,IEEE

 performance, such as resonant frequency, impedance

Abstract—This article describes a gain enhancement method
for a dual polarized SIW cavity backed slot antenna by using a
high order cavity resonance to generate arbitrary levels of
inclined linear polarization (LP). To do so, the metal posts are
embedded in a main cavity to excite TM 220 mode of the cavity and
control the amount of coupling to generate adjustable inclined
linear polarization. To validate the simulated results, an antenna
is designed, manufactured and tested. The proposed antenna
exhibits high front-to-back ratio (F/B) of over 20dB in broadside
direction and relatively gain of 6.9dBi at the resonant frequency.
The antenna can also provide an adjustable inclined LP with an
aspect ratio of Exmax/Eymax ranging from 0.23 to 4.The proposed
method can also be utilized to achieve even higher gain by
exciting higher order mode cavity resonances such as TM 440 and
TM660.The proposed antenna exhibits the advantages of simple
feed network and more compact size in comparison with SIW
cavity backed slot antenna/array that has the same gain with
inclined polarization.
Index Terms— cavity-backed antenna, dual polarization, SIW,
Slot antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
I N the past few decades, cavity backed slot antennas based
on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology have
been attracting increasing attention in applications where their
low profile, low cost, high quality-factor, and ease of
manufacturing and integrating with planar microwave circuits
with self-consistent electrical shielding have been of
promising importance [1]. There are many instances in
literature describing SIW technology, most notably in [2].
Publications describing SIW cavity backed slot antennas are
discussed in [3]-[7]. In [3], a low profile, linearly polarized,
cavity backed slot antenna is proposed in which a GCPW
(grounded co-planar waveguide) feed network is used to
excite the TE120 mode of the cavity. In order to achieve the
smallest possible cavity and lower power loss, in [4] another
similar SIW cavity backed slot antenna is presented in which a
rectangular slot radiator has been replaced by a meandered slot
line to excite the TE 101 mode of the cavity. However, the
meandered line parameters greatly affect the overall antenna
The corresponding author is Keyvan Forooraghi (phone: +98-21-
88283365; e-mail: keyvan_f@ modares.ac.ir).
R. Bayedrkhani , K. Forooraghi and B. Abbasi-Arand are with the
Electrical Engineering Department, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
bandwidth, and radiation properties leading to a complicated
design procedure with an exact optimization. In [5], a SIW
cavity backed crossed slot antenna is presented, which has
dual frequency operation and produces dual linear and circular
polarizations. In [6] another cavity backed slot antenna is
proposed, in which a diagonal GCPW line is used to excite
high order cavity resonance in a large SIW cavity, which
generations the radiation. More recently, a gain enhancement
method based on higher order cavity resonances has been
proposed in [7].It is worth mentioning that most of the
previous research on cavity backed slot antennas is for linear
polarizations. However, many wireless systems require dual
polarizations or slant polarizations. There have been papers
that describe inclined linear polarization antennas [8]-[10];
however, none of them utilize cavity backed slot antennas.
In this paper, a new gain enhancement method of an
inclined polarized SIW cavity backed slot antenna (IP-CSA) is
proposed. Metallic via-holes are utilized to excite the TM220
mode in the enclosed space. In addition, by adjusting the
position of metallic vias in the main cavity, the amount of
coupling from feeding slot to radiating slots is controlled and
arbitrary levels of inclined LP are achieved. Using a high
order resonance such as TM220 in the SIW backed cavity
instead of the TE120 or TE210, lead the radiating fields
generated by the four slots superposition in phase in the far-
field, resulting in high gain. In contrast with the other high
gain antenna arrays which have a complicated feed network,
the proposed antenna has a very simple feed network which
contributes to a compact size.A theoretical model combined
with a numerical analysis of the antenna, using Ansoft's
HFSS, is presented. The simulated and measured results are
shown and talked over.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND S TRUCTURE
The proposed inclined polarized SIW cavity backed slot
antenna is shown in Fig.1. The structure consists of two main
building blocks as the following: the feeding system and
radiating system. The feeding and radiating systems are
implemented in two different substrate layers. The vertical
walls of structure are realized by rows of metalized posts
embedded in a dielectric substrate (RO4003 TM) with a relative
permittivity of 3.55, a loss tangent of 0.0027 and a thickness

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/LAWP.2014.2387015, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
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Fig.1. Representation of the entire antenna including the transition.
Fig.2. A schematic view of proposed antenna (a) upper substrate including
cavity and radiating slots (b) lower substrate including feeding waveguide and
coupling aperture. The optimum physically dimensions are: Lsub=13.8mm;
Wsub=11mm; Lr=10.024mm; Wr=0.88mm; Lcs=8.68mm; Wcs=0.42mm;
dSC=9.77mm;aSIW=14.41mm;X off=1.34mm;d=1mm;p=1.3mm;X=3.5mm;
dsub=0.8mm; Lta=6.55mm;Wta=4.8mm; Ltb=6.75mm; Wtb=3.75mm ;
of 32mil.The radiating system includes a main cavity, where
the radiating slots are etched on the top side metal. This is
shown in Fig.1. The cavity is divided into four sub-sections
with a radiating slot on the top wall of each sub-section.
Likewise, a feeding short circuited SIW waveguide on the
rearward position of the cavity excites the cavity by a coupling
longitudinal slot. To connect the different layers a transition
between SIW at different layers should be designed. In this
paper a coupling longitudinal slot transition located in
common face of two SIW blocks is used as shown in Fig.1.
For the metal posts that emulate a vertical wall, the post
diameter, "d", and separation, "p", are chosen 0.033λ0 and
0.044λ0, respectively, where λ0 denotes free space wavelength.
When the conditions of d p  0.5 and d  0.10 are satisfied,
the leakage from clearance between two neighboring vias can
be neglected [3].The antenna parameters and corresponding
values are shown in Fig.2. Radiating slot is a tuning element
of the proposed antenna. The impedance bandwidth can be
slightly improved by increasing the radiating slot width Wr.
Nevertheless, its effect on impedance bandwidth is far less
than that of substrate thickness h. Radiating slot length L r has
significant effects on radiation efficiency.Fig.3 gives the
radiation efficiency of the antenna with various radiating slot’s
lengths, L r. From Fig.3 it can be found that maximum
radiation efficiency is obtained when the slot is in resonance.
Radiating slot length is chosen to be the half wavelength at the
required frequency in which cavity mode generates to obtain
high radiation performance including radiation efficiency and
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2
Fig.3. The impact of slot length, Lr, on efficiency of the proposed antenna.
gain. The operating frequency of the proposed antenna is
mainly determined by cavity size; yet, it can be tuned slightly
by radiating slot length. By increasing the radiating slot
length, L r, from 8.82mm to 12mm, the resonant frequency of
the proposed antenna is shifted down from 10.16 GHz to
10.06 GHz, i.e. 1%. As an initial value, L sub as well as Wsub is
chosen equal to aSIW. However, a tuning is needed to excite the
cavity TM220 mode at the required frequency. Once the
radiating system parameters are determined, the input
impedance can be adjusted by tuning the feeding system
parameters to a certain degree. The coupling aperture
parameters, L cs, Wcs and Xoff, and the short-circuit distance,
dsc, should be optimized in order to efficiently couple the
energy from the SIW feeding waveguide to radiating element.
Wcs can be used to slightly improve the impedance bandwidth,
but its effect is not significant. As an initial value, d sc is
chosen to be λ g/4 to ensure maximum standing wave field
intensity. Still a little tuning is needed to reach a better input
matching. The simulated results show that by increasing the
coupling slot’s length, Lcs, from 8.82mm to 12mm, the
resonant frequency of the proposed antenna is shifted down
from 10.38 GHz to 10.08 GHz, i.e. 2.96%.The simulated
results show that an optimal input impedance matching is
achievable when the Xoff is increased to a certain value, i.e.
1.34mm. Large or small Xoff would lead to matching
impedance bandwidth decrease.
III. SIW CAVITY BACKED SLOT ANTENNA
As shown in Fig.2, the cavity is divided into four
subsections through the use of the metal vias. For this reason,
the field distribution as well as the excitation mode of the
cavity is altered due to perturbations resulting from the metal
vias/dividing walls. The metal vias allow the cavity to
resonate in the TM220 mode and also control the amount of
coupling in order to generate arbitrary levels of inclined linear
polarization. The field distribution of the proposed cavity in
resonant frequency is shown in Fig.4. As evident from
simulated results only the z component of the electric field
vector as well as x and y components of the magnetic field
vector of the proposed cavity at resonant frequency have none
zero values, indicating TM to z mode.This mode, as shown in
Fig.4, has a maximum E-filed in each sub-section, indicating
TM220 mode. Even though the presented antenna/cavity is
more complicated than the antenna presented in [6], the
simulated results show that both of modified cavities are
excited in high resonance mode due to perturbations made by
the dividing vias. The method presented in [6] is only suitable
for linear polarization, but the method proposed in this paper
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Fig.4. Field distribution of the proposed cavity: (a) Magnitude of E-field

distribution (top view) (b) Magnetic field distribution (c) Vector components
of E-field distribution (side view).
Table 1: The effect of A H/AV on the polarisation ratio, Exmax/Eymax.
AH 0.32 0.8 1 1.21 1.8 2.5
AV
Exmax
Eymax
0.23 0.48 0.77 1 1.22 3.4
is applicable for generating various polarizations from linear
[7] to slant with arbitrary levels.In addition, in recently
published paper by the present authors [7], a comprehensive
modal study was performed on the modified cavity to fully
understand the effects of the dividing vias on the cavity's field
distribution. The cavity that was investigated in [7] is a
conventional rectangular boundary SIW cavity with the
dividing metallic posts in the middle of each edge of the main
cavity. It was shown in [7] by proper selecting the modified
cavity dimensions and adjusting the dividing via parameters,
the high order resonance of cavity can be obtained.This mode,
as shown in Fig.4, has a maximum E-filed in each sub-section.
This feature makes it suitable to etch a slot radiator at each
sub-section. As mentioned earlier, one of the advantages of the
proposed antenna is ability to produce arbitrary levels of
inclined LP. Due to the presence of two orthogonal pairs of
radiating slots in the proposed SIW cavity backed slot
antenna, a dual polarization property is achievable, Fig.2. By
adjusting AH and AV, the input conductance of each pair of
cavity backed slots is altered, and thus the amount of energy
which is coupled to each pair of linear polarized slot antennas
will also be changed. Consequently, an antenna with arbitrary
levels of inclined LP is achieved.Table.1 summarized the
effect of AH/AV on the Exmax /Eymax, in which Exmax and Eymax
corresponding to the far-field x and y components of the
maximum of electric field of the proposed antenna,
respectively. The simulated results show that the maximum
range of Exmax/Eymax which can be obtained by adjusting the
AH/AV is from 0.23 to 4. However, it should be noted that in
practice the slant polarization is more applicable than other
polarization ratios. Therefore, in this paper the 45 o inclined
polarized antenna has been considered. In order to achieve a
good directional 45 o inclined radiation pattern, the radiating
slots should be excited in uniform distribution i.e. they should
have the specification that the slot voltage distribution be equi-
phase and equi-magnitude. Based on the feeding scheme that
is used in the proposed antenna, as depicted in Fig.2, by
adjusting AH and AV to a certain value, the sub-cavities can be
which are placed in the opposite side excited to near equi-
magnitude; however, the sub-cavities of reference plane yy’
(center line of main cavity, Fig.1) will be excited anti-phase.
Fig.5. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna.
3.7 To overcome this and achieve uniform distribution, the
radiating slot offsets (X), which are placed opposite to the
4 reference plane yy’, should be mirrored with respect to the
centerline of each sub-cavity. This condition should be
satisfied in all aspect ratios to achieve a good directional
pattern.In addition, if higher gain is desirable, the proposed
method can also be extended to achieve even higher gain by
exciting the higher order mode cavity resonances such as TM440,
TM660 and etc. The simulated results show that the antenna
with 8 radiating slots can provide 9dBi of gain. This method
can also be applied by enlarging the cavity and exploiting the
higher order modes of the cavity, without adding complexity
to the feed network. Compared with the cavity backed slot
antenna/array which has the same gain, the proposed antenna
can provide the 45 o inclined polarization along with compact
size and simpler feed network.
IV. S IMULATED AND MEASURED RESULTS
In order to validate the simulation results, the antenna
design was fabricated and tested. The proposed antenna is
constructed by using the SIW technique on a double-layer low
cost PCB (printed circuit board) substrate. As shown in Fig.5,
the screws are used to connect the layers of fabricated antenna.
In order to reduce the undesirable effects of tolerances in
assembly using screws on the antenna performance, the
electrically conductive silver paint should be used to fill the
gap between the layers in the fabricated device. Assembling
the layers without using the electrically conductive silver
paint, resulting that the leakage loss from the gap between
layers is increased and thus, the efficiency of the fabricated
antenna will be dramatically deteriorated. Fig.5 gives the
simulated as well as empirical reflection coefficients for the
proposed antenna, showing that a bandwidth of 1% is
achievable. The results show that the antenna is highly
narrowband and maybe only applicable to systems which
require high fidelity interference rejection [3]. The simulated
and measured radiation patterns in the two orthogonal planes
are shown in Fig.6. Note that in the fabricated prototype
antenna, the parameters AH and AV assumed to be 2.9mm and
2.4mm, thus, the x-polarized and y-polarized radiation patterns
of the antenna are almost the same. This condition guarantees
the 45o inclined polarization is achievable. In order to prove
45o inclined LP, measured cross polarization discrimination
factor is also shown in Fig.7. From Fig.7 it can be found that
the proposed antenna can provide slant polarization over the

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
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Fig.7. the measured cross polarization discrimination (XPD) factor.

Table 2: Comparison between proposed antenna and the state-of-art works

polarization gain Efficiency size F/B
(dBi) (%) (dB)
This paper Slant 6.9 86(Sim) 0.8λ0 ×0.8λ0 19
Ref. [3] Linear 5.4 86(Sim) 0.8λ0 ×0.7λ0 16.1
Ref. [5] Linear/CP 6.2 ---- 0.7λ 0 ×0.7λ0 20.8
Ref. [6] Linear 8.1 85(Sim) 0.8λ0 ×0.8λ0 22
Array of Ref. [3] Slant 4.7 75(Sim) 2λ0 ×2λ 0 15.2

is a simple slot etched on a SIW waveguide other than a

Fig.6. Simulated and Measured radiation patterns of the proposed antenna in
(a) x-z plane and (b) y-z plane.
wide range angle, running from -75 to 75 degrees for
|XPD|<2dB.The main beam of the antenna has a maximum co-
polarization gain of 4dBi for horizontal polarization and 4.105
dBi for vertically polarized and consequently, 6.9 dBi for slant
polarization. Also, the measured result shows that the antenna
has 83% efficiency. Compared with the antennas presented in
[3] and [5] more than 1.5 dB and 0.7 dB improvement in gain
is obtained. Table.2 summarizes the comparison between the
proposed antenna and published works. It is worth mentioning
that the antennas proposed in [3]-[7] can provide a linear
polarization. In order to produce a dual polarization pattern
from those antennas, a proper array configuration with an
appropriate feed network is needed. The proposed antenna
occupies a size of 0.9λ0×0.9λ0, which is far less than that of
the 2-element antenna array (the size of two cavities with its
power splitting circuit is more than 2λ 0×2λ 0). Also, the
proposed antenna has almost more than 19 dB F/B level, make
it suitable to use in application where minimum backward
radiation is desirable.
V. CONCLUSION
A gain enhancement method for an inclined polarized SIW
cavity backed slot antenna by using higher order resonance to
produce arbitrary levels of inclined linear polarization (LP) is
introduced. Likewise, it is proven that if higher gain is
desirable, the proposed method can also be expanded to even
higher order resonances. The measured results show that the
antenna has a good directional radiation pattern with almost
gain of 6.9 dBi, and high F/B of almost >19 dB at broadside.
Furthermore, the proposed antenna exhibits the advantages of
simple feed network and more compact size in comparison
with an antenna array which holds the same gain with inclined
polarization. It is because the proposed antenna's feed network
complicated power splitting circuit. Also, the antenna
proposed in this paper has the advantages in terms of: simple
design, low power loss, low profile, high F/B and ease of use
as an antenna element, in array configuration.
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