Compact integrated slot array antennas for the 79 GHz automotive band

This paper presents two compact slot array antennas for the 79 GHz automotive band integrated into a 28 um thick benzocyclobutene (BCB) substrate attached to a 325 um thick 5-20 Ωcm bulk resistivity silicon wafer. The two antennas are a transmit (TX) 1 × 8 slot array antenna with a size of 1 × 23 mm and a receive (RX) 8 × 8 slot array antenna with a size of 15 × 23 mm. Promising performance has been measured with the TX and RX sub-array antennas (gain >4 dBi) with good matching to 50 Ω (RL>10 dB) in the frequency range 70-90 GHz. By using a metal cavity, mounted on the back of the antenna, parallel plate modes could be reduced and the gain could also be increased by 2 dB. The measured and the simulated results are consistent.