A Bond Wire Connection Implementation at mm-Wave Active Microstrip Antenna

A bond wire to microstrip line transition, featuring two impedance transformers, is presented for a mm-wave microstrip antenna and power amplifier (PA) integration using conventional bond wires. Simulated return loss bandwidth for the transition is 4 GHz with a minimum insertion loss of 1 dB. Measurement results for the designed active antenna are compared with measurements for a passive antenna and a standalone PA. The maximum gain is 29 dBi, compared with 16.7-dBi passive antenna maximum gain. The half-power gain bandwidth is 7%. The measured active antenna radiation pattern is in good agreement with simulations. The maximum deembedded PA output power is close to 9 dBm.