Alexandros Margomenos

Micromachined W-band plastic slot array antenna with self-aligned and integrated flange

A W-band slot array antenna using a plastic substrate with micromachining techniques and injection molding processes has been demonstrated. A unique design feature by integrating the input flange directly with the waveguide structure using a one-shot molding process is presented which greatly improves the robustness of the fabrication process. Measurement results show that a prototype 8-slot antenna in good agreement with simulation prediction with reflection loss (s11) of −26.3dB at 76.8GHz, 10dB bandwidth of 9.3GHz, gain and side lobe level (SLL) of 9.6dB and 13.5dB, respectively. As such, this waveguide-based plastic slot array antenna might find potential applications in low-cost mm-wave systems, including automobile radars.

Wideband mm-wave compensated 90° bends for Grounded Coplanar Waveguide and microstrip Transmission Lines on flexible LCP substrates

The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach for creating the first truly wideband (10–90 GHz), high performance, compensated 90° bends for planar Transmission Lines fabricated on Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) for use with mm-wave applications. These bends are very critical components for the miniaturization of high performance packages used for integrated multi-layer millimeter-wave front-ends on low-cost, organic, flexible substrates. In this paper we describe a method for creating ultrawideband, low-cost, high performance bends for Microstrip and Grounded Coplanar Waveguide (CPWG) lines. The simulated S-parameters demonstrated a Return Loss below −30 dB from 10 GHz-90 GHz for the Microstrip line bends and below −22 dB for the CPWG bends. These bends are capable of operating for applications ranging from X to W-bands.