Planar single- and dual-polarized aperture coupled E-band antennas on GaAs using SiN/sub x/-membranes

Planar aperture coupled microstrip antennas have been successfully designed, fabricated, and tested for operation at E-band frequencies. Single antenna patches have been realized as well as 3/spl times/1 arrays with single and dual polarization capability. The antennas are suspended on thin SiN/sub x/ membranes fabricated on GaAs substrate by using a novel process step. To design the antenna patches the method of moments in the spectral domain is applied. The feeding networks are simulated and optimized with HP-MDS. The antenna far-field patterns have been measured in an anechoic chamber. The triple patch antenna on a SiN/sub x/ membrane radiates at 77.6 GHz showing very symmetrical patterns with a 3 dB mainbeam width of 22/spl deg/. The sidelobe suppression is -14 dB, the co-to-cross polarization isolation is better than -30 dB at 0/spl deg/.