EC-CPW fed elevated patch antenna

This paper presents a novel G-band (140GHz – 220GHz) integrated antenna. The antenna incorporates a newly proposed elevated center coplanar waveguide (EC-CPW) fed elevated patch antenna on a high dielectric substrate (GaAs). The proposed antenna consists of an (EC-CPW) feed line, λ/4 transformer used for matching, supporting posts, and a 5.5µm height elevated radiating patch. The antenna topology effectively creates a low-substrate dielectric constant and hence eliminates undesired substrate effects, since the antenna substrate is essentially air, the lowest possible dielectric constant. This increases the radiation efficiency, gain, and the radiation bandwidth. Close agreement between simulated and measured data have shown a good match of −20dB at 172GHz and bandwidth of 7.9GHz from 169.2GHz to 177.1GHz (return loss <−10 dB). Furthermore, the presented antenna exhibits an excellent constant broadside radiation pattern which makes it ideal for array antennas applications where directionality is an important factor avoiding pixels interferences. In addition the proposed antenna fabrication process is compatible with III-V MMICs process technology. This makes it ideal for fully integrated millimeter wave focal plane arrays applications.