Miniaturized Folded Antenna with Improved Matching Characteristic for mm-wave Detections

This work reports on the design and analysis of a folded antenna operating at mm-wave frequencies. Prior to this, several folded antennas operating at 7, 9 and 10GHz frequencies were used to validate the simulation procedure performed. A mm-wave folded antenna with a resonant frequency of 39GHz was then simulated. A relatively small antenna geometry was achieved without sacrificing its gain and other crucial characteristics. A 3.5dB gain and 4.6dBi directivity were obtained with a frequency bandwidth reaching 780MHz. The main and secondary arm widths of the folded antenna are key in determining the real and imaginary parts of the antenna impedance, providing a degree of freedom for the designer to get the antenna well-matched with the subsequent integrated circuit. This provides useful features including the capability of reducing the overall antenna dimensions and avoiding matching circuits.