Measurement system for Mm-wave integrated and probe-fed antennas

The measurement of the radiation and matching performance of millimeter-wave antennas is a very challenging task. As a single 60 GHz antenna has usually a size of few millimeters, the feeding scheme cannot be as simple as a connector: a microelectronic probe is definitely the preferred feeding technique. The measurement setup we present has been derived from a classical microelectronic probe measurement setup. It has been mechanically modified to set space around the antenna under test almost metal-free. In the presentation, we will present several methods we developed to compute the gain of linearly and circularly-polarized antennas (cut-planes and over a quasi-3D sphere), to extract the axial ratio and compute the total and radiation efficiency from the E-field radiation pattern measurements of the antennas under test. Several examples of on-chip and in-package 60 GHz antenna measurements will be also presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the set-up.