Low-cost E-band receiver front-end development for gigabyte point-to-point wireless communications

This paper presents an attractive low cost E-band (81-86 GHz) receiver front-end system with a broad bandwidth (up to 5 GHz) based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. The proposed subsystem is designed for gigabyte point-to-point wireless communication system. Active components are surface-mounted on alumina substrate utilizing miniature hybrid microwave-integrated circuit (MHMIC) technology. To increase gain and bandwidth of the antenna, and also to reduce fabrication cost, antenna and passive components are designed and fabricated on a low cost Rogers 6002 substrate with low dielectric constant. To fabricate the passive components, low cost printed circuit board (PCB) process is used. Then, the two substrates are integrated together by simple wire bonding process. With this design and implementation technique, our E-band front-end receiver subsystem can demonstrate attractive advantages and features such as broad bandwidth, low cost, compact size, light weight, and repayable performance. The minimum detectable power density at the receiver point is 0.41 μW/cm² and the dynamic range is 72 dB.