60 GHz Substrate Integrated Waveguide-Fed Monolithic Grid Dielectric Resonator Antenna Arrays

Artificial grid dielectric resonator antenna (GDRA) arrays integrated with longitudinal slot-fed substrate integrated waveguide networks are demonstrated at V-band for wideband and high-gain applications. The effective permittivity of a 500 μm thick, low-permittivity polymethyl methacrylate substrate is locally increased by a factor of 22.4 by embedding groups of micro-sized rectangular metal inclusions, each group functioning as antenna elements and collectively functioning as an antenna array. The monolithic GDRA array mitigates the problem of individual element misalignment over the feed slots while providing precise interelement spacing. GDRA prototypes with 4 × 4 and 8 × 8 array elements fabricated and tested at 60 GHz demonstrate a -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 10.4% and 12.0% with broadside peak realized gain of 15.2 and 19.4 dBi.