A Compact and Wideband MMIC to Ridge Gap Waveguide Contactless Transition for Phased Array Antenna Front-Ends
Journal article, 2024

A concept of a contactless in-line transition between a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) and a ridge gap waveguide (RGW) is proposed and investigated at W-band. The transition employs an E-plane waveguide bifurcation obtained by mounting a GaAs MMIC on a supporting PCB in the opening of an RGW top metal lid. Designed this way, multiple contactless transitions can be placed in a row with an electrically small spacing that makes the transition idea suitable for array antenna front-ends. A transition equivalent circuit is constructed employing a single-mode transmission line model, which is verified through a full-wave simulation. An (85–105) GHz transition design is then developed and experimentally investigated in the back-to-back configuration indicating a (0.5–0.75) dB transition insertion loss. Finally, the performance of a 1-bit phase shifter MMIC, integrated into the RGW using two proposed transitions, is demonstrated.

MMIC

array antennas

Contactless transition

gap waveguide

Author

Artem Vilenskiy

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Yingqi Zhang

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

1536-1225 (ISSN) 15485757 (eISSN)

Vol. 23 3 990-994

Antenna technologies for beyond 5G Wireless Communication

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) (STP19-0043), 2020-07-01 -- 2025-05-31.

EUREKA EURIPIDES2 InnoStar - Innovative Systems and Automated Design for 5G/6G Connectivity and Radar Applications

VINNOVA (2021-04055), 2021-12-01 -- 2025-03-31.

Subject Categories

Telecommunications

Communication Systems

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1109/LAWP.2023.3340876

More information

Latest update

3/21/2024