Enhancement of transmission characteristics for the antenna system printed on silicon wafer substrate by using FSS‐based coplanar parallel reflector

Abstract

Here, a silicon-substrate-based four element antenna system is investigated by using a coplanar frequency selective surface (FSS) as a novel parallel reflector to improve radiation and transmission characteristics of the antennas. The four antennas are arranged around the square FSS, and one of the antennas is used as the transmitting element, while the other three as the receiving ones. It is found that, owing to the stopband filtering and the linearly changing reflection phase of the designed coplanar FSS, the gain and directivity of the transmitting antenna have been greatly improved, and that the antenna system transmission coefficients, including S 21, S 31 and S 41, have been significantly increased. Two types of the antenna systems have been designed and fabricated on a P-type silicon wafer substrate for the cases with and without a coplanar FSS reflector. The measured S-parameters are essentially consistent with those simulated. In comparison with the case without the FSS, the transmission coefficients of S 21, S 31 and S 41 for the system with the FSS have been increased about 6.42, 5.97 and 5.89 dB at the center frequency of 5.42 GHz, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed coplanar FSS exhibits distinct advantage of low-profile compared to the conventional vertical FSS reflector.