A Low-Cost Antenna-in-Package (AiP) for D-Band Application

The uniformity of the relative permittivity caused by fibers and resins in a low-cost BT-based substrate is a large challenge and concern for antennas operating at beyond 100 GHz. This paper demonstrates a 4 x 4 magnetoelectric (ME) antenna-in-package (AiP) using the low-lost BT-based substrate technology in D-band (110-170 GHz). Prior to the antenna design, the wideband material property of the dielectric constant (Dk) and the dissipation factor (Df) is extracted using the microstrip line delta length method. Then, the performance of the unit antenna with the shielding ring is presented, and which exhibits a better gain than that without the shielding ring. Furthermore, a 4 x 4 array antenna is designed and verified in a millimeter wave (mmW) probing chamber. The feeding network for the array antenna comprises the four-way substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) slot coupling power dividers and the two-way SIW power dividers. The array antenna shows a 20 GHz measured bandwidth with a 16.8 dBi peak gain covering from 135 GHz to 155 GHz while a 23 GHz simulated bandwidth is seen. The radiation patterns also show a good agreement between the simulated and measured results. This paper demonstrates that the BT-based substrate technology is a candidate to satisfy the D-band AiP applications.