Silicon Carbide (SiC) Antennas for High-Temperature and High-Power Applications

The main objective of this letter is to evaluate semi-insulating silicon carbide (SiC) material as a candidate for dielectric substrate for patch antennas, with a long-term potential for monolithic antenna integration on a SiC semiconductor chip, operation in extreme environments, and other applications. First, computer-aided design of microstrip patch antennas operating at 10 GHz was conducted. The antenna designs were implemented using semi-insulating SiC substrates and gold ground planes and patches. A good agreement between the experimental results and simulation was obtained at the band of operation. Return loss and radiation patterns were investigated. As future work, a possibility of utilizing highly conductive (heavily doped) SiC epitaxial layers as the ground planes and radiating patches were investigated using computer simulations.