Design and measurement of substrate-integrated planar millimeter wave antenna arrays at 60–325 GHz

Antenna development at mmW bands has many unique challenges from design, fabrication to measurement. The designs usually suffer from high losses and difficulty in integrating into circuits. The fabrication is often associated with critical tolerance as one of the toughest issues because of expensive testing setup, critic requirements for reliable connection between antenna under test and feeding system, customized calibration setup and procedures. Using substrate-integration technology, the antennas will be fabricated onto substrate to reduce cost, size, transmission loss, and enhance integration into circuits. This talk will brief the design challenges in mmW antenna design and substrate-integration technology first. After that, recently developed substrate-integrated high-gain antenna arrays for 60-270 GHz applications are exemplified with the introduction of the latest built measurement system up to 325 GHz. Last, the comments on the development of the substrate-integration technology in antenna design at mmW and submmW bands are provided.