Characterization and De-Embedding of Wafer Probe Radiation for Integrated Antenna Measurements

A wafer probe is an essential feed for an integrated antenna during a measurement. The wafer probe radiates from its unshielded tips, which limits the minimum measurable gain of an antenna under test (AUT). Hence, the wafer probe radiation should be characterized, which, however, still remains to be attempted. This study aims to characterize it with the novel radiation standard structure (RSS) kit and by the radiation addition principle (RAP). More importantly, the characterized wafer probe is used to determine the radiation pattern of an integrated antenna. The errors in the radiation pattern due to the radiation and reflection from the wafer probe are removed by the radiation subtraction principle (RSP) and with the mathematical absorber reflection suppression (MARS) algorithm, respectively. The approaches are validated by simulations and experiments with an ACP65-A-GSG-500 wafer probe at 28 GHz.