Electrical design and characterization of elevated antennas at PCB-level

In this work, elevated microstrip patch antennas are designed and characterized at quasi millimeter-wave frequencies. Radiation efficiencies of up to 83% are reported at 24 GHz. The designed circular and rectangular patch antennas are fed through impedance controlled microstrip lines by means of proximity coupling. The elevated patches are supported by conventional vias. The proposed layer build-up comprises a low cost board substrate, a low loss 100 mum-thick prepreg layer and an elevated copper layer. The fabrication of the antennas is particularly favourable because the structures are manufactured with typical PCB manufacturing processes like copper plating, etching, resist lamination and laser drilling. This allows the manufacturing of many structures on large area panels.