In this paper, a new explanation on the radiation mechanisms of slow and fast traveling waves is presented. The effective radiation sections that give rise to the far-field radiation of the traveling-wave structure are found and studied for the cases of slow and fast waves, respectively. A composite right/left-handed transmission line that can support both of the slow and fast waves in left-and righthanded regions is employed as an example. Based on the uniform linesource assumption, an ideal model of traveling-wave current with the same dispersion behavior as that of the CRLH structure is proposed and used to demonstrate the radiations of slow and fast waves in physical sense. This new understanding of the radiation mechanism of traveling-wave structures is useful to the applications of travelingwave antennas.

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