300-GHz Step-Profiled Corrugated Horn Antennas Integrated in LTCC

Abstract

This paper presents 300-GHz step-profiled corrugated horn antennas, aiming at their integration in low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) packages. Using substrate integrated waveguide technology, the cavity inside the multi-layer LTCC substrate and a surrounding via fence are used to form a feeding hollow waveguide and horn structure. Owing to the vertical configuration, we were able to design the corrugations and stepped profile of horn antennas to approximate smooth metallic surface. To verify the design experimentally, the LTCC waveguides and horn antennas were fabricated with an LTCC multi-layer process. The LTCC waveguide exhibits insertion loss of 0.6 dB/mm, and the LTCC horn antenna exhibits 18-dBi peak gain and 100-GHz bandwidth with more than 10-dB return loss. The size of the horn antenna is only , which makes it easy to integrate it in LTCC transceiver modules.Index Terms-Dielectric substrates, horn antennas, low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC), terahertz (THz).

Sub-Millimeter and Terahertz-Wave Packaging for Large Chip-Width MMICs

“…Though concepts based on commercial ceramic technologies for compact and lightweight packaging in practical applications have been reported with promising results [5], [6], the use of metallic split blocks with rectangular waveguides (WGs) for THz signal ports is still considered the most valid approach because of superior loss performance in many applications. In those WG packages at THz frequencies, monolithically integrated electromagnetic probes or couplers have mainly been demonstrated [7]- [9].…”

Enhancement of gain with corrugated Y‐shaped patch antenna for triple‐band applications

“…A hexadecagon shaped circular patch antenna is proposed to enhance the gain for dual‐band operation with DGS. Corrugation is added in horn antenna, integrated in LTCC to enhance the bandwidth and gain . Corrugation changes the current distribution and direction at the edges and results in higher gain …”

Study of D-band LTCC Leaky Wave Antenna Optimized for Broadside Radiation

“…In recent years, a few papers have described LTCC antennas and array antennas operating in the frequency range above 100 GHz [1][2][3][4][5]. However, most of the presented approaches are complicated, especially through the use of many vias, which greatly increase the manufacturing cost.…”

“…In order to decrease the effect of higher VSWR level, an irregular distance between neighboring radiators has been proposed [7], [8]. Also, this antenna consists of only two LTCC layers which is a very low cost solution in comparison to antennas documented in the literature [1][2][3][4][5]. Moreover, in this type of antenna radiating structure, special vias are not required to ensure proper antenna signal excitation.…”