60 GHz membrane antenna array for beam steering applications

A two element antenna array has been designed and manufactured for the 60 GHz frequency band using micromachining technology. The use of micromachining to remove the substrate material under the antenna elements provides high efficiency and good radiation properties compared to a bulk silicon process at millimeter wave frequencies. The antenna array can be used for 60 GHz beam steering applications, which have attracted a lot of attention lately. The array has been designed to have two uncorrelated radiation patterns, which are formed by using a 180° phase shifter. Passive phase shifters using different lengths of transmission lines were used in the manufactured antenna prototypes to demonstrate beam steering. The prototypes include antenna arrays with different phase shift values and single antenna elements. The manufactured antennas fulfil the -10 dB matching criterion and the maximum measured realized gain is 6.0 dBi.