A wideband mmWave antenna element with an unbalanced feed

Abstract

In this article an ultra-wideband (UWB), millimeter wave (mmWave) fragmented antenna with a single feed point is presented. The conductor region of the antenna aperture is approximately 0.5 mm by 2.0 mm or 0.07 λ × 0.25 λ at the shortest wavelength of operation. The antenna was fabricated on a 1.97 mm thick Rogers 5880LZ substrate using standard etching processes. Prior to fabrication, the antenna design was simulated across two different full-wave electromagnetic (EM) solvers, HFSS and GTRI's in-house finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) code; the two codes were in close agreement. The antenna prototype was characterized for reflection coefficient, realized gain, and principle plane patterns. These measurements closely agree with EM predictions.