Connected Antenna Arrays With Beamsteering Capability for On-Package Millimetre-Wave Applications

In this work, on-package, beamsteerable, slot-based connected antenna arrays (CAA), namely a single slot connected antenna array (SSCAA) and a double slot connected antenna array (DSCAA), are designed, fabricated and measured for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) applications. Both structures are designed in a multi-layer stack-up fashion considering the package environment. The proposed SSCAA and DSCAA show 12.3% (centered at 27.55 GHz) and 16.5% (centered at 30.2 GHz) of measured bandwidths (−10 dB return loss) in their respective operating frequency bands. The measured realized gains of the SSCAA and DSCAA are 9.89 dBi and 12.5 dBi at broadside, demonstrating efficiencies of 89% and 78% respectively. The measured beamsteering capabilities show that the beam from both structures can be steered up to ±35°. The proposed SSCAA and DSCAA prototypes are designed having radiator sizes of (
$1.63\lambda \times 0.17\lambda \times 0.1\lambda$
) and (
$1.61\lambda \times 0.48\lambda \times 0.1\lambda$
) respectively
$(\lambda $
centered at 28 GHz). The comparative analysis with the state of the art demonstrates that the proposed SSCAA and DSCAA have excellent bandwidth, high realized gain, and comparable beamsteering performance while presenting a smaller form factor making them suitable for handheld and mobile terminals.