Bow-tie antennas on high dielectric substrates for MMIC and OEIC applications at millimetre-wave frequencies

D. Mirsliekar-Syahkal and D. Wake

rnm

Indexing terms: MMIC, Antennas, Microstrip antennas

ground plane
A two-element bow-tie dipole antenna and a singleelement bow-

tie slot antenna fabricated on a high dielectricconstant (&, = 10.2) substrate are introduced for applications at rmllunetre-wave frequencies. The former antenna provides 2GHz bandwidth at 35GHz and the latter 1.3GHz at 32.7GHz. With a broadband match, these antennas would yield significantly higher bandwidths.
ground plane

Introduction; Recent interest in the development of radio-fibre systems at millimetre-wave frequencies [11 has prompted the study of

planar antennas on GaAs and InP. In particular, the latter substrate provides an opportunity for the fabrication of full optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC). Owing to the high dielectric constant (E, = 12.5) and small thickness (100 - 500pn) of GaAs and InP, microstrip antennas fabricated on these substrates have extremely narrow bandwidth and exhibit unacceptable losses at millimetre-wave frequencies [2]. Possible alternatives are the printed dipole antenna [3] and its dual form the slot antenna. The theoretical performance of the former antenna has been investigated extensively and reported in [3 - 61. A different category of antennas which can offer large bandwidths is the biconical antenna [6]. A flat version of the biconical dipole antenna is the triangular sheet antenna or the bow-tie (dipole) antenna [7]. The length and the flare angle are the main factors that govern the bandwidth of these antennas. Although these antennas are not as broadband as the original conical ones, an appropriate design can produce bandwidths greater than those of the dipole antennas. Furthermore, owing to their planar shapes, bow-tie antennas can be etched on substrates. This is an advantage when developing MICs and monolithic MICs for radio applications. Bow-tie slot antennas are believed to provide the same features as bow-tie dipole antennas, and they are both expected to exhibit less conductor losses than the microstrip antenna. The latter benefit stems from reduced current densities on the antennas and on their back (ground) planes. There are, however, surfacewave losses associated with the bow-tie dipole antennas [4, 5 1 and parallel plate waveguide mode losses with the conductor backed bow-tie slot antennas. In the former case, the losses can be made negligible by observing the optimum substrate thickness given by [41
hopt

1062111

Fig. I Structures of two-element antennas a Bow-tie dipole b Thin dipole c Single-element bow-tie slot Length l is 'Iq of wavelength at operating frequency This length may be trimmed for good performance

between the two strips. This is important, since using a small slot was found to give rise to a small coupling between the feed and the coplanar strip line and hence to a low power transfer from the microstrip line to the antenna. The total antenna length including the gap is -4mm. Considering an effective dielectric constant of 5.6 ( E = ~ (10.2 ~ + 1)/2), this length is equivalent to a resonant frequency of 32GHz for a fdlwavelength antenna. To operate at the same frequency, the halfwavelength antenna has a smaller length and hence an increased conductor loss. In the E-plane, the full-wavelength bow-tie dipole is expected to exhibit a narrower beamwidth as compared with its half-wavelength counterpart. The two layers of the dielectric in Fig. l a provide 500pm thickness, or -0.17 hd at 32GHz. This means that the surface wave losses are within the permitted range set by eqn. 1.

0
-10

I4
~

A0

(1)

For a dipole antenna with a ground plane at a position of h 2 LA4 = &/4&, or less, eqn. 1 is satisfied automatically. In this work, two bow-tie antennas developed on a hgh dielectric constant substrate (q = 10.2) for operation at millimetre-wave frequencies are introduced. One of these structures is a two-element bow-tie dipole antenna and the second structure is a singleelement bow-tie slot antenna. Both antennas are fed by the microstrip line and have a backplane in order to direct radiation into a half-space. The experimental return losses of these antennas are presented and discussed.
Two-element bow-tie dipole: In Fig. l a the structure of a two-element bow-tie dipole antenna is shown. The antenna consists of two 250 pm Duroid substrates of E, = 10.2. The thickness and the dielectric constant of the substrates are purposely chosen close to those of GaAs/lnP substrates. The bottom substrate with the conductor backing supports a microstrip line which feeds the antenna. This line can be part of an MMIC or OEIC. On the top substrate, the antenna elements are laid. Each element has a 60" flare angle and an approximate input impedance of 150Q [7]. The metallisation is -17pm in thickness. The two elements are connected through a coplanar strip transmission line of 75Q which can be designed using data in [8]. The dimensions of this line were chosen so that a large slot was formed

-20

-30

; -10
--20

a -30
b 30
L O

50

0
-1 0

-20 -30 C1962121 30

frequency,GHz 40 50

Fig. 2 Return losses for two-element antennas a Bow-tie dipole, marker 1 35 I GHz point 52 b Thin dipole, marker 1 30 8GHz point 9 c Single-element bow-tie slot, marker 1 32 7GHz point 28

The expenmental results (S,,) for the two-element bow-tie

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dipole antenna are shown in Fig. 2a. They are recorded using a calibrated 50GHz HP8510C network analyser. As seen in the Figure, the centre frequency is -35GHz, which is -9% higher than the predicted frequency. This discrepancy is obviously due to the approximate nature of calculation for finding the resonant frequency. The -1Odb bandwidth is -2GHz, corresponding to 6%. For comparison, the return loss (S,,)of a two-element thin dipole antenna, Fig. lb, of the same structure as that of the two-element bow-tie antenna in Fig. l a is given in Fig. 2b. In this case, the bandwidth is -1%0, which is much lower than that of the bow-tie antenna. It should be said that no attempt was made to refine the performance of the bow-tie antenna, and it is believed that the bandwidth can be made much larger, especially if the substrate thickness is chosen slightly thicker than the optimum thickness. In this case, the bandwidth increases substantially at the expense of efficiency [4]. A further increase in the bandwidth can be achieved using thicker metallisation for the antenna and providing a broadband matching transition between the feed and the antenna. It is interesting to note that there is an increase in the losses in the antenna system beyond 45GHz. This is mainly caused by radiation into surface waves. The approximate radiation pattern of the two-element bow-tie antenna in Fig. la can be obtained by considering that it can be replaced by four antennas where two of them are the image of the other two in the ground plane. The radiation pattern of each element may be approximated by that of a dipole. Single-element bow-tie slot antenna: In Fig. IC, the structure of a single-element bow-tie slot antenna fed by a microstrip line is shown. In this antenna, the flare angle is 60, the slot length is 2mm and the slot opening at the antenna centre is - 4 0 0 ~ .The rest of the specifications are the same as those given for the previous antennas. Considering that E~~ = 5.6, the half-wavelength resonant frequency of the antenna should be -32GHz. The measured return loss, Fig. 2c, indicates that the resonant frequency is -32.7GHz and the -10dB bandwidth -1.3GHz, corresponding to 4%. From the shape of the return loss around the resonant frequency, it can be deduced that this antenna is capable of providing a much larger bandwidth if a broadband match is provided between the antenna and the feed line. In fact it was observed experimentally that a slight change in the antenna position with respect to the feed causes the resonant frequency to shift, indicating the availability of some extra bandwidth. An increase in the slot flare angle and metallisation thickness would also increase the bandwidth, but they are yet to be investigated. The radiation pattern of the antenna is similar to a slot antenna with a conductive backplane. Apart from the resonant frequency of the antenna, a few other resonances are seen in the return loss shown in Fig. 2c. These were found to be caused by the finite size (length and width) of the dielectrics involved in the antenna structure. The parallel plate mode and any other excited modes radiate at the dielectric boundaries. By a proper matching, energy coupled to these modes can be reduced and hence the antenna efficiency can be increased.
Conclusion: Two bow-tie antennas developed on a high dielectric constant substrate (E! = 10.2) for operation at millimetre-wave frequencies have been introduced. One of these structures is a twoelement bow-tie dipole antenna and the second structure is a single-element bow-tie slot antenna. Both antennas are fed by the microstrip line and have a backplane. The bow-tie dipole antenna exhibited 6% bandwidth at 35GHz and the single-element bow-tie slot had 4% bandwidth at 32.7GHz.With a broadband match, these antennas would yield significantly higher bandwidths. These antennas are suitable for MMICS and OEICS transmitter and receiver units and can be scaled for use at -65GHz where future mobile and radio-fibre systems are to operate.
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References
and SMITH, 1.C.: Zero-bias edge-coupled InGaAs photodiodes in mm-wave radio-fibre systems, Electron. Lett., 1993, 29, pp. 1879-1881 ROBERTSON, I.D.: A monolithic 35GHz back-face patch antenna using multi-layer techniques. Proc. 23rd European Microwave Conf., 1993, pp. 348-350 RANA, I.E., and ALEXOPOULOS, N.G.: Current distribution and input impedance of printed dipoles, ZEEE Trans., 1981, AP-29, pp. 99105 ALEXOPOULOS, N.G , KATEHI, P.B., and RUTLEDGE, D.B.: Substrate optimisation for integrated circuit antennas, IEEE Trans., 1983, MTT-31, pp. 550-557 KATEHI, P.B., and ALEXOPOULOS, N.G.: On the effect of substrate thickness and permittivity on printed-circuit dipole properties, IEEE Trans., 1983, AP-31, pp. 3&39 LO, Y.T., and LEE, s.w.: Antenna handbook (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1988), Chap. 17 BALANIS, CA.: Antenna theory, analysis and design (Harper & Row, New York, 1982) HOFFMANN, R.K.: Handbook of microwave integrated circuits (Artech House, Norwood, 1987)
WAKE, D., WALKER, N.C.,

Planar dipole arrays with equal element input impedances

W. Chen, L. Jen and S.M. Zhang
Indexing terms: Antenna arrays, Antennas, Dipole antennas

Planar antenna arrays of unequal dipoles in which all the input impedances of the elements are the same are proposed to simplify the matching networks or to improve the matching condition for broadside arrays. A method to design this type of array is described. The array produces a given radiation pattern. The elements are of different lengths and different radii.
Introduction: It is a c o i ~ ~ n oexpectation ii in the design of antenna

arrays that the elements show similar electrical properties to ease the design of the matching network. In a normal planar array of antennas of the same configuration the input impedances of the elements are not the same. Furthermore they are quite different near edges, especially arround corners. Therefore a precise matching network must be designed for every single antenna when high performances are required. If the input impedances of the elements can be designed to be the same, the matching will be much simpler than is usually the case. We have found that by modifying the sizes of the elements of an array their electrical properties could be adjusted and the Hplane radiation pattern of the array could be maintained [l, 21. We have designed a linear array of parallel unequal dipoles in which the input powers into elements are in a given distribution [l]. In a previous Letter we found it possible to design a linear low sidelobe array in which all the input impedances were the same and were pure real [2]. In this Letter we extend that idea to planar arrays. An 8 x 12 planar array is designed as an example. An array which radiates a low sidelobe pattern is initially synthesised. After modifying the lengths and the radii of the dipole elements, we finally obtain an array which maintains its low sidelobe pattern and in which all the input impedances are equal to 75Q and which is quite suitable to be matched with ordinary cable.
Method: Consider an N x M planar array in free space. The elements are parallel dipoles of different lengths and radii lying in a plane on a rectangular lattice. There are N rows in the array and M parallel dipoles in each row. It is assumed that the array would produce a low sidelobe radiation pattern with its main beam at the broadside of the plane. Pocklingtons integral equation for the currents and the driving voltages of the elements is applied as

October 1995

Electronics Letters Online No: 19951426 D. Mirshekar-Syahkal (Department o f Electronic Systems Engineering, University o f Essex, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom) D. Wake (BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich IP5 7RE, United Kingdom)

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