Characterizations of Moisture-Sealed Waveguide-to-Microstrip Transitions for Ka-band Transceivers

New high-performance Ka-band waveguide-to-microstrip transitions for millimeter-wave transceiver applications have been developed and characterized. These transitions are probe-type, but the dielectric material completely covers the whole waveguide aperture, thus providing moisture-barrier and robustness in the probe section. The new probe transitions are also designed to be less sensitive to fabrication tolerances. Further performance enhancements have been obtained by placing vias around the waveguide aperture. Also, the resonance phenomena associated with waveguide wall-penetration have been identified. The developed probe transitions provide insertion loss less than 0.4 dB over entire Ka-band frequencies, but can be optimized for narrowband applications with insertion loss less than 0.2 dB.