Low profile cavity backed antennas (CBA) based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology presented in published papers have been reviewed in this paper. Their operating mechanisms have been discussed and methods for improving the performance, such as bandwidth enhancement, size reduction, and gain improvement, have been presented. These novel antennas retain the advantage of conventional metallic cavity backed antenna, including high gain, high front-to-back ratio, and low cross polarization level, and also keep the advantages of planar antenna including low profile, light weight, low fabrication cost, and easy integration with planar circuit.