CPW-fed stacked microstrip antennas

This paper presents a systematic parameter study of aperture-coupled stacked patch antennas fed by coplanar waveguide. These antennas are to be used at millimeter-wave frequencies in the 30-GHz range. The influence of the most important design parameters, such as patch dimensions, aperture dimensions, and substrate thicknesses, was studied extensively. It has been found that these antennas can easily be impedance-matched by tuning the dimensions of the excitation slot and adding a small tuning stub. In this way, an antenna element with a -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 36.8% has been designed. Furthermore, the results of this parameter study have allowed to formulate some general guidelines concerning the design of this type of antenna element.