Millimetre-wave stacked patch antenna design on a folded LCP substrate

We describe a microstrip-fed stacked patch antenna suitable for generating radiation in the end-fire direction parallel to the plane of the transceiver substrate. The antenna exploits the flexible nature of a Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) substrate, which is folded at an angle of 90° to meet the radiation requirement. Performance of a linearly polarized single stacked patch antenna and an eight-element array are presented. The proposed antenna can be fabricated using low-cost thick-film technology and therefore is a good candidate for E-band millimeter-wave phased array applications.