Compact low‐cost W‐band large‐scale high‐gain circular‐aperture slot array antenna

Abstract

Based on substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) antenna technology, a compact high-gain slot array is proposed in this paper. The proposed antenna is suitable for designing circular aperture and large-scale array in W-band. A method of dividing the array into multiple sections is proposed, which provides a solution for widening the bandwidth of large-scale SIW slot arrays. The proposed antenna is composed of the backside waveguide feeding network and the upper SIW array. A novel method of loading biased metal vias on SIW is proposed to realize unequal power distribution. And it makes the antenna array to be compact, low-cost, and easy to manufacture. An antenna prototype is fabricated and measured. The measured bandwidth of the antenna array is 92.2-96.2 GHz within |S 11 |<−10 dB, and the measured maximum gain is 31.8 dBi at 94 GHz, which correspond to the radiation efficiency and aperture efficiency of 27.5% and 15.7%, respectively. The proposed antenna is an excellent candidate for millimetre-wave radar applications.