State-of-the-Art mmWave Antenna Packaging Methodologies

Low-Temperature-cofired ceramics (LTCC) antenna packages have been extensively researched and utilized in recent years due to its excellent electrical properties and ease of implementing dense package integration topologies. This paper introduces some of the key research and development activities using LTCC packaging solutions for 60 GHz antennas at Samsung Electronics [1]. The LTCC 60 GHz antenna element topology is presented and its measured results are illustrated. However, despite its excellent performance, the high cost issues incurred with LTCC at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies for antenna packages remains one of the key impediments to mass market commercialization of mmWave antennas. To address this matter, for the first time to the author's best knowledge this paper alleviates the high cost of mmWave antenna packaging by devising a novel, broadband antenna package that is wholly based on low-cost, high volume FR4 Printed Circuit Board (PCB). The electrical properties of the FR4 substrate are first characterized to examine its feasibility at 60 GHz. Afterwards a compact multi-layer antenna package which exhibits more than 9 GHz measured bandwidth ($S_{11}{\leq}-10$ dB) from 57~66 GHz is devised. The measured normalized far-field radiation patterns and radiation efficiency are also presented and discussed.