Patch Antenna and Antenna Array on Multilayer High-Frequency PCB for D-Band

This paper presents the design, manufacturing, and characterization of a wide-band cavity-backed aperture-coupled patch antenna and a 16-element antenna array on multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) targeted for D-band applications. Microstrip line and grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) transmission lines are also designed and tested to investigate line losses at D-band. The test structures are manufactured using printed circuit board technology with semi-additive processing (mSAP) of conductors on a multilayered substrate. The measurement results indicate an insertion loss of 1.9 dB/cm for the microstrip line and 1.8 dB/cm for the coplanar waveguide at 150 GHz. The measured maximum gains for single antenna and 16-element array are respectively 7 dBi and 14 dBi at 143 GHz. The measured antenna input matching bandwidth is 20 GHz. The results show the viability of advanced printed circuit technology for D-band transmission lines, antennas, and antenna arrays.