Low-Cost and High-Efficiency Antenna for Millimeter-Wave Frequency-Scanning Applications

This letter presents the design, optimization, fabrication, and measurements of a new dielectric grating antenna for millimeter-wave frequency-scanning applications. The proposed antenna is made of high-resistivity silicon, and the structure is essentially a dielectric image guide with the rectangular grating on its sides. This simplifies the fabrication process and introduces flexibility in the grating profile. The radiation mechanism is extensively studied using two different commercial full-wave solvers as well as the measured data from the fabricated samples. The optimized antenna achieves a radiation efficiency of 84% and a gain of 18 dB at 100 GHz. It provides a frequency-scanning capability up to 20° covering the frequency range between 97-103 GHz. The antenna return loss is better than - 10 dB in this range. The measured return loss and radiation pattern show a good agreement with the simulation results.