60 GHz Dual-Polarized High-Gain Planar Aperture Antenna Array Based on LTCC

Abstract

Novel designs of planar aperture antenna (PAA) arrays are proposed in this article, which achieve dual-polarized and high-gain performances in the 60 GHz unlicensed band. In order to achieve high gain, the original PAA is expanded to its two-dimensional array form, and the two linear polarizations share the same apertures. The two polarizations are realized by using orthogonal coupling slots excited by substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) power dividers below. Two array prototypes with $8 \times 8$ and $16 \times 16$ radiation cells are designed and manufactured based on low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology for ease of integration. The simulated results show that the two antennas have −10 dB impedance bandwidth and 3 dB gain bandwidth of 57.5–65 and 57–64 GHz, respectively, with stable, no-squint, and symmetrical beams in band, which is verified by measurements. Compared with other reported high-gain and dual-polarized millimeter-wave antennas, the proposed antennas feature a low-profile, simple structure while keeping high aperture efficiency. The proposed antennas are very suitable for integration and are promising in 60 GHz short-range communication applications.