94-GHz Compact 2-D Multibeam LTCC Antenna Based on Multifolded SIW Beam-Forming Network

Abstract

This communication presents a compact 94-GHz 2-D multibeam antenna using the low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. A good 2-D substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) beam-forming network (BFN) for eight beams is proposed, where four-phase shifters are properly introduced to increase the flexibility of the beams. Benefiting from multilayer LTCC, the BFN is compactly implemented in a completely symmetrical structure by using two multifolded SIW Butler matrixes with 50% reduction of the longitudinal size, and four couplers placed on different layers with interlaced signal routes to avoid overlaps or crossovers. Combined with a $2 \times 4$ SIW slot antenna array, the multibeam antenna can realize eight symmetric scanning beams on 2-D with stable gains for a wide coverage. For demonstration, the two single-port antennas with different pitch-angle beams are fabricated and measured, and good agreements with the expectations are observed. The differences of the beam orientations are less than 5°, while the measured peak gains of the beams are about 8.5 dBi.