A Wideband Compact Magnetoelectric Dipole Antenna Fed by SICL for Millimeter Wave Applications

A wideband compact magnetoelectric (ME) dipole antenna is investigated for millimeter-wave applications. First, an aperture coupled ME dipole is proposed with wideband and low profile. Next, transverse slots are added to miniaturize the antenna. The radiation performance of the higher-order mode is also improved. The antenna is finally miniaturized to 2.5 x 3.3 mm(2) (0.27 lambda(0) x 0.35 lambda(0), where lambda(0) is the wavelength in free space at center frequency) when it is used in the array environment. A bandwidth of 48.8% (24.3-40 GHz) for SWR < 2 can be achieved, with unidirectional radiation performance over the operating band. By combining the proposed compact antenna with an eight-way substrate integrated coaxial line (SICL) feed network, a 1 x 8 linear array is designed, fabricated, and measured. Good beam scanning capability is also verified by active simulation. With the advantages of wide bandwidth, compact size, promising radiation pattern and wide-angle beam scanning potential, the proposed antenna would be attractive for millimeter-wave devices and antenna in package (AiP) applications.