Design of a printed log-periodic dipole array antenna with high gain for millimeter-wave applications

Abstract

In this article, a V-band printed log-periodic dipole array (PLPDA) antenna with high gain is proposed. The antenna prototype is designed, simulated, fabricated, and tested. Simulation results show that this antenna can operate from 42 to 82 GHz with a fractional impedance bandwidth of 64.5% covering the whole V-band (50–75 GHz). The antenna has a measured impedance matching bandwidth that starts from 42 to beyond 65 GHz with good agreement between the experimental and simulated results. At 50 and 65 GHz, the antenna has a measured gain of 10.45 and 10.28 dBi, respectively, with a gain variation of 2.6 dBi across the measured frequency range. The antenna prototype exhibits also stable radiation patterns over the operating band. It achieves side-lobe suppression better than 17.26 dB in the H-plane and better than 8.95 dB in the E-plane, respectively. In addition, the cross-polarization component is 18.5 dB lower than the copolarization with front-to-back ratio lower than 24.1 dB in both E- and H-planes across the desired frequency range. Based on a comparison of performance among the reported work in the literature, we can say that the proposed PLPDA antenna is a proper candidate to be used in many applications at V-band frequency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:185–193, 2015.