A DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF MILLIMETER-WAVE MICROSTRIP ANTENNA WITH MONOLITHIC MICROWAVE INTEGRATED-CIRCUITS

This paper describes a design method in the millimeter-wave frequency region for an aperture-coupled microstrip antenna which unifies a feed network consisting of a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) which affects the antenna characteristics at millimeter-wave frequencies, the shift of the location of the radiating element which is important in actual configuration in the millimeter-wave region, and the effect of the adhesives. Based on this design, an antenna was fabricated. A quartz substrate was used for the radiating element, while a GaAs substrate was used for the feed network. A high radiating efficiency of 87.1 percent and a wide-band characteristic of 3.1 percent with VSWR < 2 were attained. As an application of this structure, a test fabrication is reported on the aperture coupled microstrip antenna in the 40-GHz band in which an MMIC frequency converter is integrated.