W-Band LTCC Circularly Polarized Antenna Array With Mixed U-Type Substrate Integrated Waveguide and Ridge Gap Waveguide Feeding Networks

Abstract

In this letter, a low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) substrate integrated 8 × 8 circularly polarized (CP) antenna array is proposed for the wideband and high-gain W-band antenna-in-package application. By introducing the planar L-probe together with the original coupling probe, the E-fields in the substrate-integrated-waveguide (SIW) cavity are changed, and additional E-field components with a 90° phase difference are produced. Then, a CP antenna array is obtained. To reduce the losses in the feeding network, the gap waveguide technology is utilized with the SIW technology, as a mixed feeding network. To validate the proposed CP antenna array design, an 8 × 8 CP antenna array is fabricated by the LTCC technology and measured. Measured results show that the LTCC CP antenna array obtains a gain of 22.3 dBi, and its axial-ratio (AR) bandwidth is from 89 to 98.5 GHz for AR <; 3 dB. Besides, good agreements of the radiation patterns between the simulations and measurements are achieved within the operational frequency range.