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.2014.2330743, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
Broadband Substrate Integrated Waveguide
Cavity Backed Bow-Tie Slot Antenna
Soumava Mukherjee, Animesh Biswas, Senior Member, IEEE and Kumar Vaibhav Srivastava, Senior
Member, IEEE
 unidirectional radiation characteristics with high gain while
Abstract—A novel design technique for broadband substrate
integrated waveguide cavity backed slot antenna is demonstrated
in this paper. Instead of using conventional narrow rectangular
slot, bow-tie shaped slot is implemented to get broader
bandwidth performance. The modification of the slot shape helps
to induce strong loading effect in the cavity and generates two
closely spaced hybrid modes which help to get a broadband
response. The slot antenna incorporates thin cavity backing
(height < 0.03λ0) in a single substrate and thus retains low-profile
planar configuration while showing unidirectional radiation
characteristics with moderate gain. A fabricated prototype is
also presented which shows a bandwidth of 1.03 GHz (9.4 %), a
gain of 3.7 dBi over the bandwidth, 15 dB front-to-back ratio and
cross-polarization level below -18 dB.
Index Terms—Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW), cavity
backed antenna, hybrid modes, bow-tie, slot antenna, broadband
antenna
I. INTRODUCTION
O VER the years, slot antennas have been a popular choice
among the researchers due to its various attractive
features e.g. low profile, conformability, good isolation from
feeding network, easy integration to other planar circuits etc
[1]. However the slot antennas exhibit bidirectional radiation
characteristics which limits its performance in some
applications. The backside radiation can be removed by
placing a metallic reflector or cavity behind the slot at an
optimum distance of one quarter of guided wavelength. But
the system becomes bulky due to integration of non-planar
metallic cavity behind the slot [2], [3], [4].
In recent times a relatively new technology has emerged
known as Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) which
incorporates non-planar waveguide structures in planar
substrate by the use of rows of metallic vias which implement
the sidewall of the waveguide based circuits in planar
substrates [5]. Substrate integrated waveguide cavity was first
proposed by Cassivi et. al. where four rows of metallic vias
were used to implement the cavity in a planar substrate [6].
The technology was incorporated in cavity backed antenna by
Luo. et. al. in which the non-planar metallic cavity is replaced
by SIW cavity structure [7]. The proposed antenna presents
Manuscript submitted 12 December , 2013;
The authors are with Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute
of Technology Kanpur (IITK), Kanpur - 208016, U. P., India (e-mail:
soumavam@gmail.com, abiswas@iitk.ac.in, kvs@iitk.ac.in).
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maintaining its low profile planar configuration. However, due
to the loading effect of the high Q cavity, the antenna shows
narrowband performance. Several techniques to improve the
bandwidth of SIW cavity backed slot antenna are reported in
recent years. In [8], a via-hole is placed above the slot to
modify its electrical length and thus to add a second resonance
to improve the bandwidth. Another method of enhancing
bandwidth and efficiency is proposed in [9], where the
dielectric substrate is removed under the slot to change the
effective Q and to increase the bandwidth. However, all these
techniques leads to a fractional bandwidth up to 2.16 % which
is still narrowband. Finally in [10], a rectangular slot of much
higher length is used in a rectangular shaped cavity to generate
hybrid modes which helps to increase the operational
bandwidth of the antenna up to 6.3 %.
Bow-tie shaped slot antenna is investigated as a promising
candidate for broadband application over the past few years
[11]. Studies on this type of antenna reveals that it has
potential to exhibit 20-36 % bandwidth with proper design of
feeding network.
In this paper, a study on bow tie shaped slot backed by SIW
cavity is presented. The proposed antenna exhibits a
broadband response of 9.4% bandwidth with a moderate gain
and an unidirectional radiation pattern. The placement of bow-
tie shaped slot helps to resonate two hybrid modes in the
cavity close enough to get a wider bandwidth response. The
technique also replaces complex feeding mechanism for bow-
tie slot antenna with grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW)
type feeding technique to simplify the design. The fabricated
antenna shows uniform gain over the operating bandwidth
while maintaining its planar form.
II. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
The geometry of the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1.
The bow-tie shaped slot is etched at top metallic plate and
placed at a distance of 'ds' from one sidewall of the cavity. The
SIW cavity is constructed in a single substrate by four rows of
metallic vias implementing four sidewalls of the cavity. The
diameter (d) and pitch (s) of the via holes can be adjusted
while maintaining the conditions d/s ≥ 0.5 and d/λ0 ≤ 0.1 to
ensure minimum leakage of energy [12].
The cavity dimensions have been optimized to get its
dominant TE110 mode at 9.2 GHz. The modified bow-tie
shaped slot disturbs the current path of the higher order TE 120
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.2014.2330743, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

(a)

Fig. 2. Real and imaginary Z11 plot of the cavity without and with slot
loading

(b)
Fig. 1. Geometry of the Proposed Design (a) 3D view; (b) Bottom view. (a) (b)
(L = 17.8 mm, W = 16 mm, d = 1 mm, s = 1.6 mm, Lslot = 14.1 mm, Wslot =
0.4 mm, Wbow = 5 mm, ds = 6.8 mm, lin =11 mm, lm = 12 mm, wm =2.4 mm,
ws = 1.2 mm, h =0.787 mm )
mode resulting in a strong loading effect to the cavity and as a
result, the higher order TE120 mode shifts towards the lower
frequency end and interact with dominant TE110 mode to
generate two hybrid modes resonating in a close frequency
range. The loading effect of bow-tie slot is evident from the (c) (d)
Fig. 3. Surface current density vector at top metallic plate without slot (a) at
Z11 plot as shown in Fig. 2 where the dominant TE110 mode 9.2 GHz (TE110 mode); (b) at 14.7 GHz (TE120 mode) and with slot loading
(9.2 GHz) is not affected by the slot whereas the higher order (c) at 9.2 GHz; (d) at 10.52 GHz.
TE120 mode shifts from 14.7 GHz to 10.52 GHz. This can be
better understood from the current distribution on the top
metallic plate of the cavity as shown in Fig. 3. The surface
current corresponding to the two modes as shown in Fig. 3(a)
and (b) interfere with each other after placement of the slot
and generates two hybrid mode distributions as shown in Fig
3(c) and (d). The current distribution in the lower frequency is
dominant in the right side of the cavity whereas in case of
higher frequency the dominant field distribution exists in the
left side of the cavity. In both cases the magnitude and phase
of the electric fields are different at opposite sides of the slot
which helps it to radiate. These two hybrid modes behavior are
very similar to that of the SIW cavity backed slot antenna
excited by hybrid modes as described by Luo et. al. [10]. Fig. 4. Variation of reflection coefficient and radiation efficiency with
The input impedance and bandwidth of the bow-tie shaped change in amount of flaring (Wbow) of the slot
slot antenna strongly depends on the amount of flaring optimum bandwidth is achieved for flare angle of 20° [11].
(Wbow). Variation of impedance matching and operating The variation of radiation efficiency with Wbow is also plotted
bandwidth with the change in Wbow is shown in Fig. 4. The in Fig. 4. The simulated results using Ansoft HFSS show that
second resonant frequency shifts to the higher end with the radiation efficiency above 92% can be obtained in the
increasing Wbow and as a result more bandwidth can be operating frequency band making the antenna suitable for
achieved by optimizing the flaring of the slot. The optimum most practical applications.
flare value is chosen as Wbow = 5 mm which is quite similar The length (Lslot) of the bow-tie slot is much higher than
to the case of simple cpw fed bow-tie slot antenna where half wavelength resonant length of conventional slot antenna.

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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.2014.2330743, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

line of same width is used to feed the antenna. The feed line
excites corresponding modes in the cavity which create the
necessary variation in the field distribution at opposite sides of
slot. As a result the slot starts to radiate into free space. The
inset of the feeding line lin is optimized to excite two necessary
modes TE110 and TE120 of the cavity and hence to get a
broadband impedance matching. The optimum dimensions of
the design is given in Fig. 1.

III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The proposed design is fabricated on Rogers RT Duroid
5880 with the substrate thickness of 0.787 mm which is less
than 0.03λ0. The slot is etched at the upper metallic plate and
Fig. 5. Variation of reflection coefficient with change in length of slot
(Lslot). vias are fabricated by standard PCB technology. The
photograph of the fabricated prototype is shown in Fig. 6. The
antenna is fed by a coaxial SMA connector and its
performance is measured in Agilent VNA E5071C. The
measured reflection coefficient response is shown in Fig 7
which matches very well with the simulated result. The
measured first and second resonances are at 9.98 GHz and
10.6 GHz respectively which are very close to the simulated
values of 9.96 GHz and 10.56 GHz. The measured bandwidth
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. Fabricated prototype (a) Top view; (b) Bottom view. of the of the proposed antenna is 1.03 GHz (9.43 %) which is
much higher than that achieved by conventional SIW cavity
backed slot antenna [7].

Fig. 7. Comparative study between simulated and measured reflection

coefficient and gain of the antenna.

The effect on antenna performance with variation of Lslot is

(a)
shown in Fig. 5. The optimum length to excite both hybrid
modes and hence to get maximum bandwidth is dependent on
the flaring of slot (Wbow). As it can be seen from the figure,
the generation of lower frequency hybrid mode is strongly
dependent on the length of the slot. As the slot length
increases the lower frequency hybrid mode becomes more and
more prominent which improves the impedance matching
performance over the operating bandwidth. The length of the
bow-tie slot in the current design is chosen to be 14.1 mm to
get maximum bandwidth of 1.03 GHz.
The feeding to conventional bow-tie slot antenna requires
complex impedance matching network due to its high input
impedance [13], [14]. However, for SIW cavity backed bow-
tie slot antenna, a simple feeding technique similar to
conventional SIW cavity backed slot antenna can be used
without much difficulty to get impedance matching. As shown (b)
in Fig 1, a 50 Ω GCPW line followed by a 50 Ω microstrip Fig. 8. Radiation pattern at 9.98 GHz (a) E plane; (b) H plane.

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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.2014.2330743, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
(a)
(b)
Fig. 9. Radiation pattern at 10.6 GHz (a) E plane; (b) H plane.
The comparison between measured and simulated gain is
also shown in Fig. 7. The variation of simulated gain of the
antenna is almost uniform throughout the operating bandwidth
within the range of 3.12 - 3.86 dBi. The measured gain of the
antenna at 9.98 GHz and 10.6 GHz are 3.53 dBi and 5.4 dBi
respectively. However, there is some deviation in measured
gain plot with the simulated one which may be due to
imperfections in fabrication process.
The measured radiation pattern of the antenna at two
resonances matches very well with the simulated one as shown
in Fig. 8 and 9. As we can see from Fig 8 and 9, the patterns
are much wider compared to that of the conventional narrow
rectangular slot backed by SIW cavity. As a result, the
directivity of the antenna decreases and the gain of the antenna
is limited to 3-4 dBi instead of 5.3 dBi in case of conventional
slot antenna [7]. However, the radiation pattern at both
resonances are almost similar which is due to similar type of
field distribution across the slot at both resonances. Therefore
we can conclude that the antenna maintains its radiation
properties and gain throughout the operating bandwidth with
very small deviation which makes it suitable for broadband
applications.
The cross-polarization in H plane is below -20 dB at both
frequencies. The wider opening at both end of bow-tie shaped
slot disturbs the field distribution in the slot which results a
higher cross-polarization in E plane pattern. However, the
cross-polarization level is -26 dB and -40 dB below in the
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broadside direction at first and second resonance respectively.
The measured front-to-back ratio (FTBR) of the antenna is
about 15 dB and 20 dB respectively at 9.98 GHz and 10.6
GHz.
IV. CONCLUSION
A broadband substrate integrated cavity backed bow-tie slot
antenna is implemented in this paper. The proposed antenna
replaces conventional narrow rectangular slot with bow-tie
shaped slot and is excited by simple GCPW feeding technique.
The loading effect due to placement of bow-tie shaped slot on
the top of the cavity can be adjusted by optimizing the
dimensions of the slot to generate two closely spaced hybrid
modes. This two resonances lead to broadband response of 9.4
% which is much higher than that of the conventional SIW
cavity backed slot antenna (1.7 %). The proposed antenna is
fabricated in a single substrate using standard PCB
technologies and thus maintains its low profile while retaining
the advantages of unidirectional radiation pattern of
conventional cavity backed antenna. The proposed antenna
shows an uniform gain vs frequency characteristics within the
range of 3-4 dBi and an unidirectional radiation pattern over
the operating bandwidth which makes it suitable for many
broadband practical applications.
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