A Novel Frequency Beam-Steering Antenna Array for Submillimeter-Wave Applications

This paper describes design and development of a novel frequency beam-scanning array antenna operating at Y-band (220-325 GHz). The proposed antenna is a traveling-wave antenna, with a meandered rectangular waveguide structure as the propagating medium. The array generates a very narrow beamwidth of about 2.5° with ±25° beam steering capability as the frequency sweeps from 230 to 245 GHz. The antenna beam in elevation is about 10°, which is generated with a slot-coupled cavity-backed patch array antenna along the elevation direction. The proposed antenna provides an overall gain of over 29 dBi and exhibits a radiation efficiency of more than 55% over the entire frequency range of operation. The antenna topology is designed to present a very low-profile structure to meet a very low volume and low mass requirements. The antenna consists of over 600 patch elements and is confined within a volume of 45 mm × 8.5 mm × 1.25 mm and weighs less than 4.5 g. A prototype of the antenna is fabricated using silicon micromachining with a high level of accuracy and is characterized using a special near-field measurement setup. The antenna exhibits a measured scanning range of over 48° with a gain of over 28.5 dBi, all of which are in close agreements with simulation results.