High-gain, high-efficiency integrated cavity-backed dipole antenna at Ka-band

The design and measured performance of an integrated dielectric-filled cavity-backed dipole antenna are presented. For structures integrated into high-epsilon(r) substrates, antennas of this type exhibit decreased surface wave loss and increased air-side directive gain relative to planar antennas. A single-lobe beam with high gain was achieved by designing the backing cavity to excite predominantly TE10 aperture fields. The antennas are suitable for direct integration on dielectric package surfaces for system-in-a-package (SiP) implementations, and can be fabricated using single-side processing. Prototype cavity-backed dipole antennas were measured at Ka band and demonstrated 10 dB boresight directivity and 92% peak radiation efficiency. The impact of cavity design parameters and scalability to MMIC applications are evaluated numerically using three-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic simulations.