High Performance Millimeter Wave SIW Slotted Array Antenna

Abstract

A high performance substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) slotted array antenna with low sidelobe level and optimum gain at 28 GHz is designed, and experimental results are presented with simulated data. In order to achieve a low sidelobe level, Chebyshev power coefficients in the form of slot displacements are applied to the SIW array antenna. A MATLAB program has been written to find these slot displacements. This work entails investigating and designing the optimum microstrip to SIW transition over the Ka-band, designing a 1 × 8 slotted SIW array antenna, and finally applying the Chebyshev power coefficients to the slots of the 1 × 8 SIW array antenna. The fabricated prototype of a 1 × 8 SIW slotted array antenna is tested, and its performance is studied in terms of gain and half power beam width (HPBW), compared with simulations. The measured results of the 1 × 8 slotted SIW array antenna at 28 GHz have a |S11| of better than −20 dB, a gain of 13 dB, and an HPBW of 17◦. The overall dimensions of the design at 28 GHz are 7.143 mm × 51.8 mm × 0.254 mm (0.667λo × 4.84λo × 0.023λo = 0.0766λ3o mm3).