Dual-Function Dielectric Layer Enabling Compact Wideband End-Fire Millimeter-Wave Antenna

A design methodology to accomplish compact and wideband end-fire millimeter-wave antenna is presented. A dielectric-loaded cavity-backed slot antenna is utilized to achieve the compact design. In addition, a dielectric matching layer is employed to enable the wideband operation. The antenna achieves a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of 2.1 from 27.4 GHz to 40.8 GHz with an antenna realized gain in the end-fire direction ranging from 4 dBi to 5.5 dBi. A compact design of 2.2 × 2 × 5 mm
³
, which is 0.2 × 0.18 × 0.45 λ
³
max where λ
max
is the free space wavelength at the lowest operating frequency. Moreover, the antenna is fed by the microstrip line feed, which is an advantage when the connection to RFIC is considered