(ii) In the Ka-band (26.440GHz), a gain of 24.58dB is required at pression of the parasitic slotline mode of the CPW [5].

e CPW [5]. The pro-

34GHz. The feeding waveguide inner dimensions are a =
0.7cm, b = 0.4cm.
By using eqns. 8 - 17, the design parameters, in centimetres,
are a, = 6.5628, b, = 5.2686, 1, = 15.9487, lh = 16.5985. The
gain of the designed horn, as calculated following [6], is
24.604dB. This value agrees quite well with the designated
gain.
Conclusions: Explicit analytical formulas have been presented for
the accurate design of standard gain horn antennas. These formu-
las, apart from ensuring design accuracy, are easy to use and
require less time than conventional methods. They would facilitate
easier and quicker estimation of tolerances required in horn fabri-
cation, as no iterations are involved in solving the design equation.
Acknowledpent: S. Selvan is thanked for showing a keen interest
in the work and checking the equations.
0 IEE 1999 20 November 1998
Electronics Letters Online No: 19990240
DOI: 10.I049/el:I 9990240
K.T. Selvan (SAMEER - Centre for Electromagnetics, 2nd Cross, CIT
Campus, Taramani, Madras - 600 113. India)
E-mail: scem@giasmdOl.vsnl.net.in
References
1 LOVE, A.W. in JOHNSON, R.C. (Ed.): ‘Antenna engineering handbook’
(McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993), 3rd edn., Chap. 15
2 BALANIS, C.A.: ‘Antenna theory - analysis and design’ (Harper &
Row, New York, 1982), Chap. 12
3 HAWKINS, D.c.: ‘Improvements to synthesis of waveguide horns’,
Electron. Lett., 1992, 28, (9), pp. 879-881
4 SCHELKUNOFF, s.A.: ‘Electromagnetic waves’ (Van Nostrand
Rheinhold, New York, 1943), p. 364
5 ABRAMOWITZ, M., and STEGUN, LA. (Eds.): ‘Handbook of
mathematical functions with formulas, graphs and mathematical
tables’ (Dover, New York), 9th edn., pp. 17-18
6 MAYBELL, M.J., and SIMON, P.s.: ‘Pyramidal horn gain calculation
with improved accuracy’, IEEE Trans., 1993, AP-41, (7), pp. 884-
889
posed antenna is realised and treated both theoretically and
experimentally. The obtained results are presented and discussed
in the following.
Antenna design: Fig. 1 shows the design of the proposed antenna.
The antenna is realised on an alumina substrate, E, = 9.9, with
500p1-1thickness. A l o p thick film of BCB, E, = 2.7, is deposited
on the substrate. This layer serves as an intermediate layer which
carries the metal bridge on top of it. Via holes are drilled through
the thin film to connect the bridge to the required locations on the
CPW, see Fig. 1 . This technology is called MCM-D technology
and offers a cost effective and mechanically stable way for sup-
pressing the slotline mode of the CPW [5]. This suppression is
essential for asymmetric structures with respect to the CPW, as in
our case, because it eliminates the power leakage to the unwanted
mode. The two slots of the CPW are split just after the thin film
bridge and connected to the aperture antenna. The electric path
difference between the two slotlines is kJ4, where 1, is the guided
wavelength of the slotline mode at the resonance frequency. This
feeding mechanism excites the two orthogonal modes of the aper-
ture antenna with 90” phase shift, which results in the required cir-
cular polarisation operation. Since the feeding CPW is barred
under the thin BCB film, contact pads are deposited on the top of
the BCB and connected to the CPW through via holes, see Fig. 1.
Thin metal films, 2 p thick, of copper and titanium, Ti/CwTi, are
used to realise the antenna. An on-wafer probe of 200p1-1 pitch is
used to feed the antenna. A printed taper is placed between the
contact pads and the CPW in order to accommodate the probe
pitch to the CPW pitch. This taper is de-embedded from the meas-
urement results using appropriate calibration standards.

Circularly polarised aperture antenna fed by

CPW and built in MCM-D technology via hole, / bridge
E.A. Soliman, S. Brebels, E. Beyne and
G.A.E. Vandenbosch
A new design for a circularly polarised aperture type antenna fed
by a coplanar waveguide, is introduced. The antenna has been
built in MCM-D technology which offers an easy way to reduce
the leakage to the slotline mode of the CPW. The proposed section A - A‘
antenna has been studied both theoretically and experimentally. m
The results show that the antenna has both a high impedance and Fig. 1 Geometry of proposed antenna
high circular polarisation bandwidths. It is designed to operate
around 25.5GHz. Retum loss, axial ratio, and radiation patterns 0
are presented and briefly discussed. t
Introduction: Planar antennas are interesting candidates for a vari-
ety of applications owing to their low mass, the simplicity of their
manufacture, and conformity to the supporting structures. Several
transmitting or receiving systems are required to operate with cir-
cular polarisation. Obtaining a circular polarisation depends
mainly on exciting two orthogonal modes with equal magnitude
and 90” phase shift. This could be achieved using either a single
feed [l, 21 or dual feed [3]. The single feed is easier to manufac-
ture, while it shows smaller axial ratio bandwidth. Unlike micros-
trip type antennas, aperture type antennas provide higher --
impedance bandwidth [4]. In this Letter, an aperture type antenna 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
fed by coplanar waveguide, CPW, is introduced for the first time. frequency,GHz
The single CPW feed is split into two slotlines which are used to :6D9RI
dual-feed the aperture. The proposed antenna is built in the Fig. 2 Return loss and axial ratio against frequency
MCM-D technology which has been demonstrated to be suitable 0, ~ simulation
for coplanar technology as it provides an easy method for the sup- _ _ - _ measurements

250 ELECTRONICS LETTERS 18th February 7999 Vol. 35 No. 4

Results and discussions: The proposed antenna is analysed both
theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical analysis is carried
out using HP-Momentum which is a full wave electromagnetic
software suitable for modelling planar structures. Fig. 2 shows the
measured and calculated return loss of the antenna against fre-
quency. The Figure shows good agreement between theory and
measurements. The measured resonance frequency is 25.44GHz
and the impedance bandwidth, for SWR < 2, is 10%. The calcu-
lated axial ratio, in the boresight direction, against frequency is
also shown in Fig. 2. A right-hand CP of axial ratio less than 3dB
can be achieved over 9.9% bandwidth. The calculated resonance
frequency defined as the minimum axial ratio is very close to both
the calculated and the measured resonance frequency of minimum
reflection, see Fig. 2. The presented results show that the proposed
antenna enjoys both high impedance and axial ratio bandwidths.
0
0 tracking. The radiation pattern and gain and return loss of the
Fig. 3 Radiation patterns at f = 25.44 GHz
Upper half: plane normal to CPW, and lower half: plane parallel to
CPW
simulation
~~~~
measurements
The measured and calculated radiation patterns are shown in
Fig. 3. The upper half represents the radiation pattern in the plane
normal to the feeding CPW, while the lower half represents the
plane parallel to the feeding CPW. Both planes are measured from
the back side, the dielectric side, of the wafer. The front to back
-
ratio at the resonance frequency is 0.7 (-3dB). The measured
radiation patterns suffer from interference with the diffracted
waves at the edge of the substrate. As a result, the measured pat-
tern winds itself around the calculated pattern which assumes an
infinite metal and layer structure. This behaviour was expected as
the electrical distance between the antenna and the edge of the
-
truncated ground plane is 0.65h0, where h, is the free space
wavelength. Both simulation and measurements show an isolation
of less than -17dB between the required RHCP, right-hand circu-
lar polarisation, mode and the parasitic LHCP, left-hand circular
polarisation, mode in both principal planes.
Conclusions: A new design for a circular polarisation planar
antenna in MCM-D technology and fed by CPW has been intro-
duced. The antenna has been analysed both theoretically and
experimentally. Based on the agreement between theory and meas-
urements it is possible to conclude that the proposed antenna
enjoys several advantages such as high impedance bandwidth, high
axial ratio bandwidth, and good isolation between the RHCP and
LHCP modes. Owing to its single CPW feed, it is easy to integrate
this antenna in a sequential rotation array, SRA, for applications
which require better isolation between the RHCP and LHCP
modes.
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank R. Van Hoof
(IMEC) and K. Verhemeldonck (IMEC) for the processing of sev-
eral samples from the antenna, and P. Delmotte (ESAT) for his
assistance during the far field measurements.
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 18th February 1999 Vol. 35
0 IEE 1999 22 December 1998
Electronics Letters Online No: 19990200
D 01: 10.1049/ekI9990200
E.A. Soliman, S. Brebels and E. Beyne (IMEC, Kapledreef 75, B-3001
Leuven, Belgium)
G.A.E. Vandenbosch (K. U. Leuven, ESAT, B-3001 Leuven. Belgium)
References
1 WONG, K-L., and LIN, Y-F.: ‘Circularly polarized microstrip antenna
with a tuning stub’, Electron. Lett., 1998, 34,pp. 831-832
2 HANEISHI, M., NAMBARA, T., and YOSHIDA, s.: ‘Study on ellipticity
properties of single-feed-type circularly polarized microstrip
antennas’, Electron. Lett., 1982, 18, pp. 191-193
3 HOWELL, J.Q.: ‘Microstrip antennas’, IEEE Trans., 1975, AP-23, pp.
pp.90-93
4 SOLIMAN, E.A., BREBELS, s., BEYNE, E., and VANDENBOSCH, G.: ‘Dual
frequency wide band cusp antenna fed by coplanar waveguide’.
Proc. 28th European Microwave Conf., 1998, Vol. 2, pp. 7-11
5 SOLIMAN, E.A., PIETERS, P., and BEYNE, E.: ‘Thin film tunnels versus
airbridges in coplanar waveguide discontinuities’. IEEE MTT-S
Symp. Dig., 1998, Vol. 2, pp. 1039-1042
Coaxial multi-slot antenna for mobile
terminals in LEO-MSAT
K.N. Yung, Y.F. Han, Z.M. Xie and R.S. Chen
A novel coaxial slot antenna is proposed for satellite mobile
communications.It uses five circumferential slots with optimised
positions to achieve an upward-skewed main-beam for satellite
slot antenna are discussed. The antenna has the advantages of
high gain, high efficiency, low-cost and ease of fabrication.
Introduction: In the preceding decade, the rapidly expanding devel-
opment of cellular-mobile telephones has revolutionised the tele-
communications industry. It is foreseen that both suburban areas
and countryside will be covered by low-earth-orbit mobile satel-
lites (LEO-MSATs). In contrast to a DBS antenna, the antenna
for a LEO-MSAT mobile terminal must have an upward-skewed
main-beam for tracking the satellite position. Moreover, it must be
low cost, have high gain, be highly efficient, and be small. Hence,
a reflector antenna is not applicable because of its large size. Both
dipole arrays and microstrip arrays have high gain and the desired
beam, but they suffer from low efficiency due to Ohmic losses and
bulky feeding networks.
Circumferential slots in infinite coaxial lines have been investi-
gated in detail [l, 21. In this Letter, an attempt is made to employ
circumferential slots in a finite-length coaxial line to realise an
antenna for LEO-MSAT applications. These slots can be strategi-
cally positioned so that the radiation pattern of the antenna forms
the desired upwardskewed donut shape [3]. Because the antenna
radiates through apertures and has a very simple configuration,
avoiding complicated feeding networks, it is expected to be of high
efficiency. A prototype of the antenna has been designed and
measured to demonstrate its strong potential for wireless applica-
tions.
Antenna design and implementation: The antenna comprises a seg-
ment of slotted coaxial line vertically protruding from a ground
plane. Five circumferential slots are cut on the outer surface of the
coaxial line as shown in Fig. 1. The antenna is shorted at the top
end and is fed at the other end beneath the ground plane. Because
of strong coupling between the slots, it is difficult to regard the
antenna as a simple leaky slot array. Therefore the moment
method is employed to precisely evaluate the current distribution,
input impedance and radiation pattern of the antenna.
The experimental antenna is designed to have a centre fre-
quency of 2GHz, according to LEO-MSAT applications. For
practical simplicity, a 50Q RG214/U semi-grid coaxial cable is
applied to construct the slot antenna. The radii of the inner con-
ductor and the outer conductor are 0.49” and 1.79” respec-
tively. The filled dielectric in the coaxial line is made from Teflon
No. 4 251