Design and analysis of integrated array antennas for millimeter-wave applications

• Main Author: Zhang, Bing
• Other Authors: Zhang Yue Ping
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/54821
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The increasing demand for high bit rate wireless communication prompted people resort to the millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, in which the free licensed 60-GHz band is of great application prospect. A single chip radio becomes possible for the small wavelength of millimeter electromagnetic (EM) waves. The antenna plays an important role because its independent properties can affect the radio as a whole. Nowadays, antenna designs are shifting from the design of a conventional discrete device to antenna-on-chip (AoC) and antenna-in-package (AiP). The AoC usually has low radiation efficiency because of the substrate’s high conductivity, while the AiP features good performance since it is an independently designed device from the integrated circuit (IC) and it also has a wide selection of antenna prototypes and substrate materials. Various antennas can be utilized in mmWave AiPs, among which the grid array antenna (GAA) is a capable candidate because of its high gain, broad impedance bandwidth and simple structure. Materials of capabilities to realize multilayer structures are suitable for AiP applications like the liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC). The latter is used as the antenna substrates and packaging materials in this thesis. The thesis is devoted to provide a physical insight into the characteristics of mmWave GAAs, develop a synthesis method for mmWave GAA design, and provide solutions for mmWave AiP applications using GAA as the antenna prototype. There are four aspects of the work: analysis, synthesis, design and packaging. An introduction is given on the background of 60 GHz radios, the development of research work on GAAs and the LTCC process. A review of fundamentals of planar array antennas follows the introduction. An extensive analysis of microstrip GAAs with different number of radiating elements on a variety of substrates is conducted. A set of closed-form formula is developed for the synthesis of GAA design. A particular design example verifies the effectiveness of the synthesis method. A linearly-polarized (LP) GAA for 60-GHz AiP application is designed and packaged, which can be easily converted into either single balanced or dual balanced antennas. A circularly-polarized (CP) GAA is also designed and packaged, in which sub grid arrays are sequentially rotated and excited with 90o phase increment to radiate CP electromagnetic (EM) waves.