Design of Aperture Coupled Ka-Band Phased Array Antenna Using Cavity PCB Process

This paper presents a design of the Ka-band 4x4 phased array antenna. The proposed antenna includes four beamforming ICs, and space for embedding the beamforming IC in the printed circuit board (PCB) is secured through the cavity process. As the beamforming IC is embedded in the PCB, the height of the surface of the beamforming IC and the PCB surface becomes the same, so that the length of wire bonding is shortened. Therefore, the loss generated when the beamforming IC and the antenna are connected is reduced. The antenna is implemented and its performance is verified through measurement.