3D Printed 60-GHz High-Gain Horn Antenna Arrays with 40% Bandwidth

Bandwidth enhancement of the millimeter-wave high-gain antenna arrays with air-filled waveguide feed networks is investigated in this paper. A novel wideband full-corporate feed network topology composed of X-shaped power dividers arranged in multi-layers is proposed. By combining the feed network with the wideband waveguide-feed horn antenna elements, two arrays with sizes of 8 x 8 and 16 x 16 are implemented in the V-band. With the help of the commercial metallic three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, the array geometries can be realized conveniently in a whole piece. Excellent operating performance, including a wide impedance bandwidth of 43% for vertical bar S-11 vertical bar < -10 dB, a gain of up to 33.9 dBi, and stable and symmetrical radiation patterns are obtained by the 16 x 16 array. This work offers a new means to enhance the bandwidth of the millimeter-wave antenna array with a large size to more than 40% and proves the feasibility of the metallic 3D printing in 60-GHz antenna array design as well. Benefitted from good performance and ease of realization, the arrays would be a good candidate for future applications in millimeter-wave wideband communication systems.