Millimeter-wave corrugated tapered-slot antennas

A method for improving the radiation pattern of end-fire tapered slot antennas (TSA) on thick substrate is presented. It is based on the reduction of the effective dielectric constant /spl epsi//sub eff/ by corrugating the taper contour by a series of short-circuited slotline stubs. The method has been applied to both 70-GHz TSA on low dielectric constant substrate (/spl epsi/ = 2.2), and a 150-GHz TSA on quartz substrate. The antenna design has been performed following an analytical model and verified by commercial software. Experimental radiation patterns showed slight agreement to simulation results.