High-Gain, High-Efficiency Integrated Cavity-Backed Dipole Antenna at Ka-Band

The design and measured performance of an integrated dielectric-filled cavity-backed dipole antenna are presented. For structures integrated into high-epsiv_r substrates, antennas of this type exhibit decreased surface wave loss and increased air-side directive gain relative to planar antennas. A single-lobe beam with high gain was achieved by designing the backing cavity to excite predominantly TE₁₀ aperture fields. The antennas are suitable for direct integration on dielectric package surfaces for system-in-a-package (SiP) implementations, and can be fabricated using single-side processing. Prototype cavity-backed dipole antennas were measured at Ka band and demonstrated 10 dB boresight directivity and 92% peak radiation efficiency. The impact of cavity design parameters and scalability to MMIC applications are evaluated numerically using three-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic simulations