In this article, a number of guiding structures are proposed which take advantage of higher symmetries to vastly reduce the dispersion. These higher symmetries are obtained by executing additional geometrical operations to introduce more than one period into the unit cell of a periodic structure. The specific symmetry operations employed here are a combination of p-fold twist and polar glide. Our dispersion analysis shows that a mode in a structure possessing higher symmetries is less dispersive than in a conventional structure. It is also demonstrated that, similar to the previously studied Cartesian glide-symmetric structures, polar glide-symmetric structures also exhibit a frequency independent response. Promising applications of these structures are leaky-wave antennas which utilize the low frequency dependence.

In this work, two novel efficient leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) with stable radiation patterns operating in the 60-GHz band are proposed. The LWAs are implemented in groove-gap waveguide (GGW) technology. To mitigate the beam squint due to the dispersive nature of LWAs, complementary-dispersive prisms are coupled to the LWA radiation aperture. The antennas are implemented in fully-metallic purely holey periodic structures, resulting in a more cost-effective and robust manufacturing process compared to previously reported pin-based structures. Two prisms are proposed, one with mirror symmetry and one with glide symmetry. When the prism possesses a glide symmetry, much fewer holes are required while maintaining a similar performance, which even further decreases the fabrication costs. The complex propagation constant is optimized for low side lobe levels (SLLs) with tailored hole diameters and waveguide dimensions, thus for the first time demonstrating the capability of using glide-symmetric holes to control the leakage rate. Two prototypes with mirror-and glide-symmetric prisms are theoretically synthesized and validated by simulated and experimental results. A frequency bandwidth of 11% is achieved for both prototypes with the beam squint within ±0.9° (mirror) and ±1.7° (glide), SLLs below -15 dB (mirror) and -13 dB (glide), total efficiency almost 90%, and realized gain of 17 ± 0.5 dB at a fixed observing angle. The developed antennas are intended for mm-wave point-to-point communications.

A fully metallic glide-symmetric waveguide filter with transmission in $Ka$ -band and attenuation at its second harmonic is proposed. The filter is low-loss and cost-effective for high frequencies, and it can be easily integrated with an antenna. Glide symmetry and the possibility of breaking this symmetry provide an additional degree of freedom for passband and stopband control. A new kind of 2-D glide symmetry, referred to as braided glide symmetry, is presented, showing an increased attenuation per unit cell.

In this article, we present two efficient leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) with stable radiation pattern, operating at 60 GHz. Both antennas exhibit attractive properties such as significantly reduced beam-squint, low loss, low sidelobes, high directivity, and simple manufacturing. The beam-squint of conventional LWAs is reduced by refracting the leaked waves in a dispersive lens and the low sidelobe levels are achieved by tapering the leakage rate along the aperture. Since the antennas are implemented in groove gap waveguide technology, the losses are low. The two antennas are different in terms of their asymmetric/symmetric leakage tapering with respect to the broadside direction. Both designs are optimized for low sidelobes, but since symmetry is enforced in one, the resulting performance in terms of sidelobes is suboptimal. However, in the symmetric design, multiple stable beams can be obtained, simultaneously or independently. Twenty percent bandwidth is obtained with less than +/- 0.5 degrees beam-squint. In this frequency range, the gain is stable at 17 and 15 dBi for the asymmetric and symmetric designs, respectively. The designs are intended for point-to-point links in mmWave communication networks where low losses, directive beams, and low sidelobes are expected to be key features.

In this letter, we present the experimental validation of a $K_{a}$ -band Luneburg lens antenna based on a novel cost-effective metasurface. The metasurface is composed of a parallel plate waveguide (PPW) loaded with quasi-periodic inclusions in both conductors. The inclusions are square holes printed on a substrate, with vias placed around the holes. The vias connect the printed layer of the substrate to the ground. This configuration is named substrate-integrated hole (SIH). It is demonstrated that the SIH metasurface can obtain a higher effective refractive index, compared to the conventional holey metasurface. To further increase the effective refractive index, the SIHs in the two conductors of the PPW are glide-symmetrically arranged. The refractive index distribution of the Luneburg lens is realized by locally tuning the dimensions of the SIHs. The lens is fed with 11 waveguide feeds with an angular separation of 10 $^{\circ }$ . Thus, the antenna can steer its radiation in a 100° angular range. A flare is integrated with the PPW to match the antenna to the free-space impedance. Since the wave propagates mainly in the PPW air gap, the dielectric losses are low. The measured radiation efficiency of the antenna is roughly 80%.

Antennas for future communication systems are required to be highly directive and steerable to compensate for the high path loss in the millimeter-wave band. In this work, we propose a linear array of modulated geodesic Luneburg lens (the so-called water drop lens) antennas operating at 56-62 GHz. The lens array antenna features two-dimensional beam scanning with low structural complexity. The lenses are fully metallic and implemented in parallel plate waveguides, meaning that they are highly efficient. Each lens is fed with 13 rectangular waveguides surrounded by glide-symmetric holes to suppress leakage. The lenses provide 110 degree beam coverage in the H-plane with scan losses below 1 dB. In order to scan in the E-plane, we use a feeding network based on a 1:4 power divider and three phase shifters. In this configuration, the array can scan 60 degrees in the E-plane, albeit with higher scanning losses than in the H-plane. The lens array is manufactured and a good agreement between simulated and experimental results is obtained.