Cost-effective 60-GHz modules with a post-wall planar antenna for gigabit home-link systems

Cost-effective 60 GHz modules were developed for home-link systems which needed the bit rate of several Gbps. The modules are composed of a packaged MMIC mounted on the printed circuit board and a post-wall planar antenna formed on the backside of the board. The antenna gain is 20 dBi. The board with the size of 75×32×1.2 mm³ is inserted into the card-edge connector to feed the IF signal and the DC power. The module can be characterized to have no mm-wave terminals. When the output power of the transmitter module (Tx) was 8 dBm at 61.0 GHz, the IF output power of the receiver module (Rx) P_IFout was -37 dBm at the distance D=10 m between Tx and Rx. This experiment suggests the capability of the transmission with the bandwidth of 2.5 GHz and the C/N of 25 dB in the home-link systems.