Slot array antenna for wireless LANs with backward excitation

Attention is directed to the slot array antenna that is serially fed by a microstrip line and a method is studied for using this antenna as a constituent element of a planar multisector antenna for wireless LAN. Based on the design ignoring the mutual coupling between the slots, an excitation method for realization of a beam tilt toward the endfire direction is investigated. It is found that backward excitation is effective. The antenna is modeled by the spectral domain moment method and a design is carried out by taking into account the mutual coupling. Further, by test measurement, the validity of the modeling and the effectiveness of the proposed design method are confirmed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 85(9): 59–68, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.1126