Bandwidth-Enhanced Circularly Polarized mm-Wave Antenna With On-Chip Ground Plane

This article presents a design methodology and a realization of an antenna radiating circular polarization (CP) for Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar at mm-wave frequencies on-chip, which combines antennas of different resonance frequencies to increase the operation bandwidth and allow for high-resolution radar. The antenna consists of four dipoles with an on-chip ground plane operating at two resonance frequencies combined with a matching and feeding network, which enables both frequency selectivity in advantage for the resonant antenna and radiation of circular polarization. The dipole arms are based on shorted ${\lambda }{/4}$ resonators, which are enhanced with series capacitances for increased radiation efficiency. A method for the broadband characterization of CP antennas and the measurement results of the designed CP antenna are presented. It is shown that the antenna covers a bandwidth between 220 and 260 GHz, indicating the feasibility of both the measurement method and the antenna concept.