Broadband superstrate aperture antenna for 60GHz applications

Broadband and high-efficient aperture antenna / array covered with a superstrate layer at 60 GHz is investigated. Adding a superstrate layer with a specific size will induce a significant effect on antenna performances. The maximum measured gain of a single aperture antenna with superstrate is 13.1 dBi with a broad 2:1 VSWR bandwidth of 15%, which covers the 60GHz communication range. It is found that the measured gain of a single antenna with superstrate increases nearly 8 dB at 60 GHz over its basic aperture antenna. This superstrate antenna gives a high estimated efficiency of 79%. The radiation patterns are found to be broadside all over the frequency band. Also studied a 2 × 2 aperture antenna array with superstrate. The maximum measured gain for a 2 × 2 array is 16.6 dBi with an efficiency of 74%, for the optimised supertsrate size. The 2:1 measured VSWR bandwidth is 13.3%. The radiation patterns are found to be broadside all over the frequency band. Hence supertstrate aperture antenna technology is a viable candidate for broadband, high efficient applications at 60 GHz.