Wideband High-Gain 60-GHz LTCC L-Probe Patch Antenna Array With a Soft Surface

A 4 x 4 L-probe patch antenna array using multilayer low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology is presented for 60-GHz band applications. The proposed antenna array is designed with a high gain in the impedance bandwidth by introducing a novel soft-surface structure. The soft-surface structure comprised of metal strips and via fences reduces the losses caused by severe surface waves and mutual coupling between adjacent elements to improve the radiation performance. The proposed antenna array is convenient for integrated applications. The fabricated antenna array excluding the measurement transition has dimension of 14.4 x 14.4 x 1 mm(3). The simulated and measured impedance and radiation performance are studied and compared. Good agreement is achieved between simulation and measurement. The proposed antenna array shows a wide simulated impedance of 29% from 53 GHz to 71 GHz for vertical bar S-11 vertical bar < -10 dB, measured broadband 3-dB gain bandwidth of 18.3% from 54.5 GHz to 65.5 GHz and the gain up to 17.5 dBi at 60 GHz, respectively.