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This communication presents a low-profile wideband and high-gain patch antenna array using low-temperature cofired ceramics (LTCCs) fabrication technique for 60 GHz applications. A coupled feeding scheme is adopted so that the antenna achieves wide impedance bandwidth that covers the entire 60 GHz license-free band with a height of only 0.384 mm (four tape layers). The shorting via connecting the upper patch and ground achieves the function of a virtual ac ground plane of differential feeding. This enables the antenna element to achieve good radiation performances, including stable gain (variation less than 1 dB) and a symmetrical beam with low cross-polarization over the entire frequency band. The performances of the antenna element are comparable to that of the differential-driven patch antenna while the complex differential feeding network is not required. Furthermore, the proposed antenna element with simple and easy-to-integrate geometry is successfully extended to a $4 \times 4$ antenna array using a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)-based feeding network. The measured results show that the impedance bandwidth of the array covers the 60 GHz license-free band. The maximum gain can reach 16.7 dBi and the radiation performances are very stable over the operating frequency band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new dual-band dual circularly polarized (CP) high gain patch antenna array for vehicle satellite communications. The array consists of 16 linearly polarized dual-band elements backed with a new frequency-selective-surface (FSS)-integrated polarization rotation ground. The polarization rotation ground is located underneath the array, which not only acts as a reflector to increase the array boresight gain but also enables the array's dual CP radiation. The electromagnetic (EM) waves reflected by the ground retard either 90° or 270° with respect to the EM waves of the array directly radiated to the upper sphere at two frequency bands, leading to the dual-band dual CP radiation. This is totally different from many of the former counterparts which are based on either the perturbation on the stacked patch or external feeding network. Measured results show the −10-dB impedance bandwidth is from 7.8 to more than 8.5-GHz for X-band and from 14 to 15.3-GHz for Ku-band. The 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth is from 8.15 to 8.35-GHz for the lower band (right-hand CP) and from 14.2 to 14.8-GHz for the higher band (left-hand CP), respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new single-ended-fed planar aperture antennas (SPAAs) using low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) process technology. The SPAA element is proposed first, which not only inherits the merits of the aperture antennas including high gain and wide bandwidth but also exhibits advantages of low profile and compact size. The aperture is excited by a cross-shaped patch, and a loop-shaped balun structure placed below the patch is introduced to convert the single-ended signal into differential one to drive the patch. In this way, the energy can propagate on the patch in a traveling waveform and illuminate the aperture with uniform E-field distributions. Therefore, the antenna achieves good electrical and radiation performances, which are comparable to its balanced-fed counterparts, while processing a simplified structure. Measured results demonstrate that the impedance bandwidth of the antenna covers the 60 GHz license-free band (57–64 GHz), and the maximum gain can reach 11.5 dBi with a cavity area of only about 27 mm2. Furthermore, the element is successfully extended to a $4\,\,\times \,\,4$ element array using a substrate-integrated-waveguide based feeding network to further increase the gain up to 20.4 dBi. The measured results show that the impedance bandwidth of the array is from 57.5 to 65.7 GHz and the radiation performances are very stable over the operating frequency band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This communication presents a new kind of substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) slot antenna array with 1-D and 2-D monopulse radiation patterns. First, a new SIW magic-tee is developed, which exhibits a wide phase/amplitude balance bandwidth. Then, the magic-tee is extended to a new comparator which is used to feed the antenna with 2-D monopulse radiation pattern. Based on the proposed magic-tee and the comparator, 1-D and 2-D monopulse slot antenna arrays with $4\times 4$ elements are designed and measured, respectively. The experimental results show that the arrays exhibit good monopulse performance. More importantly, compared with their former counterparts, the monopulse performance of the arrays exhibits merely slight degradation over a much wider bandwidth due to the wide phase/ amplitude balance bandwidth that the comparators achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents a new wideband high-gain circularly polarized (CP) substrate integrated cavity excited antenna array for the 60 GHz applications. First, a 2 × 2-element CP array is proposed with an aperture-coupled two-arm spiral antenna as its radiating element, which can exhibit good CP radiation performance. Instead of the conventional lossy and complicated feed network, a simple but efficient excitation structure based on higher-order-mode (TE340) cavity resonance is used to feed the array. The higher-order-mode cavity feeds all of the radiating elements in the same phase and magnitude, and the resonant mode is excited by a single slot aperture. Then, the proposed 2 × 2-element CP array is used as subarray to implement a sequential-rotationally fed 4 × 4-element CP array. Measured results show that the array has a wide axial-ratio bandwidth of more than 18.8% (53–64 GHz) with a peak gain reaching 20 dBic occurring at 61 GHz. The radiation patterns of the array are generally symmetrical with its main beam fixed at boresight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This communication presents new designs of dual-circularly polarized (CP) planar aperture antenna and array for 60 GHz applications. First, a four-port planar aperture antenna with its feeding network is developed that exhibits wide impedance bandwidth, dual-CP radiation as well as high gain. Then, based on the proposed antenna, a new scheme of building a dual-CP array is proposed. With this new scheme that combines the power splitting network and series feeding method, four sequentially fed antenna elements are successfully combined to form a CP radiation array. The experimental results show that the −10 dB impedance bandwidths of the antenna and the array are more than 18.2% (55–66 GHz). While the 3 dB axial ratio bandwidths are from 54.2 to 64.3 GHz (17.2%) for the antenna and from 54.8 to 65 GHz (17%) for the array. The maximum gains achieved are 13.7 and 17.85 dBic for the antenna and array, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]