Novel W -Band LTCC Transition From Microstrip Line to Ridge Gap Waveguide and its Application in 77/79 GHz Antenna Array

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 67; no. 2; pp. 915 - 924
• Main Authors: Shi, Yongrong, Feng, Wenjie, Wang, Hao, Che, Wenquan, Xue, Quan, Wang, Jicai, Zhang, Junzhi, Qian, Xingcheng, Zhou, Ming, Cao, Baolin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.02.2019
• Subjects: 77 GHz antenna array; <italic xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">W -band transition; Antenna feeds; Antenna measurements; low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC); Microstrip; Microstrip antenna arrays; Microstrip antennas; Prototypes; ridge gap waveguide (GWG)
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2018.2882625

An ultra-wideband transition from microstrip line to ridge gap waveguide (GWG) is proposed for W-band system integration with antenna array and a transceiver. Substrate integrated waveguide bridge is used in the proposed transition for electromagnet wave propagation between microstrip line and ridge GWG, which can realize impedance matching for a wideband frequency range. Back-to-back transition prototypes are fabricated by the low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technique, and the probe measurement results show that the transition can work at W-band. Moreover, the application of the proposed transition in a LTCC slot antenna array with magnetic coupling ridge GWG feeding network operated at 77/79 GHz is studied comprehensively. The antenna performance measurements demonstrate that the proposed transition has a potential massive application in the GWG active antennas.