Miniaturized Laminated Resonator Antenna Array Loaded With Periodic Irises in LTCC

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation 2024-02, Vol.72 (2), p.1449-1458
• Main Authors: Zhao, Binshan, Tang, Min, Wang, Xiaocheng, Wang, Meini, Zhang, Yue-Ping, Mao, Junfa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antenna arrays; Antennas; Apertures; Bandwidth; Bandwidths; Dispersion; Iris; Laminated resonator antenna (LRA); Low temperature; miniaturization; periodic irises; Resonators; scanning array; slow-wave property; Substrates; Waveguide discontinuities; Waveguides
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2023.3343879

A miniaturized laminated resonator antenna (LRA) array with periodic irises is proposed in this article. By means of the distinguished slow wave property of the periodic iris-loaded waveguide (IWG), a compact LRA element with a dimension of only 0.36\lambda _{0} \times 0.26\lambda _{0} \times 0.08\lambda _{0} is designed, where \lambda _{0} is the wavelength in the free space at 60 GHz. The small transverse size makes it possible to construct an antenna array with the element spacing of less than 0.5\lambda _{0} , which is rather beneficial to the scanning arrays and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. For demonstration, a series-fed 1\times6 antenna array in the E-plane with the element spacing of 0.38\lambda _{0} is designed and fabricated with the low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) process. The measured relative impedance bandwidth is 9.2% (from 56.3 to 61.8 GHz). The measured peak gain and 3-dB gain bandwidth are 10.6 dBi and 5.3 GHz, respectively. Furthermore, the scanning arrays are fabricated to demonstrate the scanning performance, with an element spacing of 0.45\lambda _{0} in the H-plane. They support a measured maximum scanning angle of 43° while the gain drop is within 2.5 dB.