Millimeter-wave substrate integrated waveguide antenna and front-end techniques for gigabyte point-to-point wireless services

Substrate integrated circuits (SICs) have been proposed as low-cost and high-efficient integrated planar structures for high-frequency applications. Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW), which is part of the SICs family, has manifested not only the advantages of rectangular waveguide but also other benefits such as low cost, compact size, light weight, and easy fabrication using PCB or other processing techniques. We extend the research of SIW to the proposal and development of various innovative antennas, antenna arrays and millimetre-wave passive components, which are applied to the design and demonstration of integrated antenna arrays and E/W-band front-end sub-systems.;The principal scientific contributions of this work can be summarized: • A 4x4 antenna array is proposed and demonstrated using substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) technology for the design of its feed network. Longitudinal slots etched on the SIW top metallic surface are used to drive the array antenna elements. Dielectric cubes made of low-permittivity material are placed on top of each 1x4 antenna array to increase the gain of circular patch antenna elements. Measured impedance bandwidths of two 4x4 antenna arrays are about 7.5 GHz (94.2--101.8 GHz) with 19 dBi gain. • Design of planar dielectric rod antenna is proposed and studied, which is fed by Substrate Integrated Non-Radiative Dielectric (SINRD) waveguide. This antenna presents numerous interesting features such as broad bandwidth (94--104 GHz), relatively high and stable gain, use of high dielectric constant substrate, and substrate-oriented end-fire radiation. • A compact, uniplanar, circularly polarized coplanar waveguide (CPW) spiral antenna is investigated theoretically and experimentally for wideband applications. The antenna is directly fed by a 50 Ω CPW from the outside edge of the spiral, thus a matching balun is not required. This feeding provides a capability of having an entire uniplanar array of spirals. This spiral antenna is desirable due to its uniplanar structure that offers easy fabrication at millimeter-wave frequency. • W-band integrated pyramidal horn antenna made of low cost multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) process is developed and it shows a broad bandwidth covering 71--76 GHz, 81--86 GHz, and 94.1--97 GHz. The proposed horn antenna also has the advantages of radiation along the broadside to the substrate and it makes use of SIW as its feeder. Transverse slot on the top metallic surface at the end of SIW is deployed to drive the horn antenna. Metalized via holes are used to synthesize the horn walls. • A dielectric loaded antipodal linearly tapered slot antenna (ALTSA) is studied with which the concept of SIW-fed horn is used to design a low-cost, high-gain and efficient planar dielectric-loaded antenna for ultra-wideband gigabyte wireless services at E/W-band (71--97 GHz). Measured gain of single element antenna is 14+/-0.5 dBi while measured radiation efficiency of 84.23% is obtained at 80 GHz. Measured gain of 1x4 array antenna is 19+/-1 dBi, • Broadband transition of SIW designed on high-to-low dielectric constant substrate whose bandwidth covers the entire E/W-band. The transition has a single layer structure that consists of a tapered high dielectric constant substrate connecting two SIWs. It has a self-shielded configuration, and its noise interference is minimum. • A novel high-efficient and high-gain patch antenna array is realized for E-Band gigabyte point-to-point wireless services (81--86 GHz). Simulated and measured bandwidths of the antenna array are 7.2% that covers the desired frequency range of 81--86 GHz. Measured gain of the 4x4 antenna array is 18.5 dBi that is almost constant within the antenna bandwidth of interest. Measured radiation efficiency of 90.3% is obtained. • A substrate integrated receiver system operating over the band of 81--86 GHz with a broadband up to 5.5 GHz is presented for the first time. The proposed front-end sub-system integrates active and passive components within a single package. A substrate with low dielectric constant is used to fabricate the antenna for increasing its bandwidth and gain While actives circuits including LNA, mixer and frequency multipliers are surface-mounted using MHMIC.;Antenna array is a critical part of the E/W-band point to point wireless system demonstrations, because antenna should have several specifications to be suitable for point to point wireless system. The proposed novel antennas are low cost, high efficient, broad band, and also they have high and stable gain, which make them appropriate for this application. Different antenna structures which radiate end fire, or broadside to the substrate are proposed and demonstrated.;The results of this Ph.D. dissertation are already accepted and published as four journal papers in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, two letters in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, one journal paper in IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, and some other journal and conference papers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).