A W-Band Corporate-Fed Hollow-Waveguide Slot Array Antenna by Glass Micromachining

This paper proposes a W-band 16×16-element corporate-fed air-filled waveguide slot array antenna by glass micromachining technology. This antenna is constructed by laminating five layers of glass wafers. Each layer is innovatively fabricated by through glass via (TGV) technology. It is realized by using a laser-induced deep etching process, and has been applied initially to the advanced packaging field. According to the wet-etching process, a taper angle of 10° is taken into account during the design of glass wafers. In addition to the antenna's electromagnetic analysis, its mechanical and thermal characteristics are also simulated and analyzed to ensure the success of glass wafer bonding. As the experimental results, the antenna gain of 30.3 dBi at the center frequency 94 GHz, and the bandwidth of 13.3% for the antenna gain higher than 30 dBi are achieved in the W-band.