Highly miniaturized vertical end-fire antenna array for mmWave wireless communication

This paper demonstrates a novel end-fire antenna array solution applicable for millimeter (mmWave) wireless communications. Previously existing antenna solutions are either confined to broadside radiation or require a bulky ground fill cut space underneath the antenna which commonly limits the feasibility of end-fire antennas. In contrast, the salient feature of the devised antenna array is in fact that end-fire radiation is retained despite being in very close proximity to the ground plane. The proposed shorted monopole antenna array consists of a series of vias, alleviating the fabrication complexity and form factor. The antenna lamination consists of 10-layered Printed Circuit boards (PCB) with a total thickness of 622um. Simulation results indicate the featured 6dB S11 bandwidth to range from 77.6 – 82.2 GHz with peak gain of 4.45 dBi at 80 GHz. |S21| between identical antenna arrays separated along the horizontal plane by 10mm is determined to be −32 dB at 80 GHz.