A Wide-Angle Scanning Switched-Beam Antenna System in LTCC Technology With High Beam Crossing Levels for V-Band Communications

Wide-angle coverage, fine angular resolution, and low-power consumption are the key characteristics of millimeter-wave short-range wireless systems, such as access points in fifth-generation cellular networks and automotive radars. In this paper, we present a 60 GHz switched-beam antenna system addressing all these requirements. It consists of two identical parallel-fed arrays of eight slots, each fed by a passive pillbox beamformer. A switch network comprising four single-pole-multiple-throw switches excites one of the two arrays at a time and selects the radiated beam. The whole system is fully integrated into a multilayer low-temperature cofired ceramic module. The antenna covers a scan range of about ±39° in one plane using 11 beams between 57 and 66 GHz. The proposed architecture enables the simultaneous achievement of continuous coverage (beam crossover levels of about -3 dB) and of low sidelobe levels. Dedicated numerical tools are used for a preliminary design of the antenna. The design procedure, the technological development, and the experimental results are discussed in detail.