3D Printed 60-GHz High-Gain Horn Antenna Arrays with 40% Bandwidth

Abstract

Bandwidth enhancement of the millimeter-wave high-gain antenna arrays with air-filled waveguide feed networks is investigated in this paper. A novel wideband full-corporate feed network topology composed of X-shaped power dividers arranged in multi-layers is proposed. By combining the feed network with the wideband waveguide-feed horn antenna elements, two arrays with sizes of $8\times 8$ and $16\times 16$ are implemented in the V-band. With the help of the commercial metallic three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, the array geometries can be realized conveniently in a whole piece. Excellent operating performance, including a wide impedance bandwidth of 43% for $|\mathrm{s}_{11|}< -10dB$, a gain of up to 33.9 dBi, and stable and symmetrical radiation patterns are obtained by the $16\times 16$ array. This work offers a new means to enhance the bandwidth of the millimeter-wave antenna array with a large size to more than 40% and proves the feasibility of the metallic 3D printing in 60-GHz antenna array design as well. Benefitted from good performance and ease of realization, the arrays would be a good candidate for future applications in millimeterwave wideband communication systems.