1522 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

15, 2016

60-GHz 2 × 2 LTCC Patch Antenna Array With an

Integrated EBG Structure for Gain Enhancement
William E. McKinzie III, Senior Member, IEEE, Deepukumar M. Nair, Member, IEEE, Bradley A. Thrasher,
Michael A. Smith, Elizabeth D. Hughes, and James M. Parisi

Abstract—This letter presents a 60-GHz 2 × 2 low temperature surfaces are anisotropic structures that become hard surfaces for
co-fired ceramic (LTCC) aperture-coupled patch antenna array waves propagating along the length of the strips. Hard surfaces
with an integrated Sievenpiper electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) support wave propagation. Therefore, it is not recommended
structure used to suppress TM-mode surface waves. The merit
of this EBG structure is to yield a predicted 4-dB enhancement to form a soft strip surface along an edge of a ground plane
in broadside directivity and gain, and an 8-dB improvement in where strong tangential currents are anticipated. In contrast, the
sidelobe level. The novelty of this antenna lies in the combina- Sievenpiper EBG structure is an anisotropic structure capable of
tion of a relatively new LTCC material system (DuPont Greentape suppressing surface currents in all directions, and it can be used
9K7) along with laser ablation processing for fine line and fine next to any ground plane edge. These features of a very small
slot definition (50-μm gaps with +/ − 6 μm tolerance) allow-
ing the first successful integration of a Sievenpiper EBG structure subwavelength unit cell size and anisotropic suppression allow
with a millimeter-wave LTCC patch array. A measured broad- the integration of a Sievenpiper EBG structure and antenna ele-
side gain/directivity of 11.5/14 dBi at 60 GHz is achieved with ments into an area small enough to fit onto a chip-scale package
an aperture footprint of only 350 × 410 mil2 (1.78λ × 2.08λ) as a lid.
including the EBG structure. This thin (27 mil) LTCC array is well The 2 × 2 patch array provides higher gain, narrower
suited for chip-scale package applications.
beamwidth, and lower sidelobes than a single-element antenna,
Index Terms—Aperture-coupled patch antenna, electromag- which means greater range for communications and less inter-
netic band-gap structure, low temperature co-fired ceramic, ference from multiple users. For higher gain, this array may be
surface wave suppression.
used as a feed for a reflector- or lens-based system. Applications
include WPAN, WLAN, and radar sensors.
I. I NTRODUCTION

L OW TEMPERATURE co-fired ceramic (LTCC) is a mul-

tilayer packaging technology ideally suited for the inte-
gration of millimeter-wave antennas with chip-scale packages.
II. A NTENNA D ESIGN
Fig. 1 shows a photograph of the prototype antenna array.
Fig. 2 shows orthogonal views and overall dimensions. Package
LTCC and other medium-permittivity substrates (4 < εr < 10)
dimensions are 350 × 510 × 27 mil3 . The aperture area includ-
are subject to transverse magnetic (TM)-mode surface waves
ing EBG structure is 350 × 410 mil2 , or 1.78λ × 2.08λ at
excited by circuit and antenna elements. These parasitic sur-
60 GHz. Radiating patches have an interelement spacing
face waves diffract at edges of ground planes to cause antenna
of 120 mil, or 0.61λ. The LTCC material used is DuPont
pattern distortion. A known solution is to use a Sievenpiper
Greentape 9K7 [9] (εr 7.0 at 60 GHz), in a 5-mil tape thickness.
(mushroom-type) electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure
This LTCC antenna has six tape layers and five Au metal layers.
[1]–[3], which may be integrated into the substrate as a perime-
Salient features include a broadband 50-Ω coplanar waveguide
ter treatment around the antenna array [4]. The Sievenpiper
(CPW)-to-stripline transition [10] fabricated into the shelf of
EBG structure was selected because its unit cell is considerably
the LTCC package, a shielded stripline corporate feed network,
smaller than other types of EBG structures [5], [6]. Although
I-shaped coupling slots, and a 5-row Sievenpiper EBG struc-
soft surfaces have been shown to be effective at suppressing
ture designed to suppress TM modes in the E-plane (yz-plane).
TM modes propagating normal to their strip axis [7], [8], soft
Since this is a linearly polarized antenna, the EBG structure is
Manuscript received March 03, 2015; revised December 29, 2015; accepted not needed in H-plane (xz-plane), which is essentially free of
January 07, 2016. Date of publication January 12, 2016; date of current version TM-mode surface waves.
May 12, 2016. Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of the interior conductors
W. E. McKinzie III is with WEMTEC, Inc., Fulton, MD 20759 USA (e-mail:
willmck@mckintek.com). for the corporate stripline feed network. It has three reactive
D. M. Nair is with Qorvo, Apopka, FL 32703 USA. tee networks designed to provide equal power division to the
B. A. Thrasher, M. A. Smith, and J. M. Parisi are with DuPont coupling slots. The length and width of these tee junctions are
Microcircuit Materials, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA
optimized for best return loss at 60 GHz. The stripline center
(e-mail: Brad.A.Thrasher@dupont.com; Michael.A.Smith@dupont.com;
James.M.Parisi@dupont.com). conductor is located between tape layers 2 and 3 counting from
E. D. Hughes is with ATI Industrial Automation, Apex, NC 27539 USA the bottom as tape layer 1. The characteristic impedance has
(e-mail: beth27613@gmail.com). been transformed to a nominal value of 40 Ω as opposed to the
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
nominal 50 Ω to reduce transmission line loss and to provide a
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2016.2517141 more manufacturable, or wider (3.4 mil), center conductor. The

1536-1225 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
MCKINZIE et al.: 60-GHZ 2 × 2 LTCC PATCH ANTENNA ARRAY WITH INTEGRATED EBG STRUCTURE 1523

Fig. 3. 3-D perspective view of the stripline feed network.

Fig. 1. Prototype 60-GHz antenna array with an integrated EBG structure.

Fig. 4. Photograph of the EBG patch layer as a green sheet (pre-fired).

The four exterior patches and CPW are formed precisely with
a post-fired laser ablation process. This leaves an exterior trench
around each patch element as visible in Fig. 1. Interior stripline
and coupling slots are also formed using laser ablation of dried
conductor blocks on green sheets (pre-fired tape).
Fig. 2. Orthogonal wire frame views of the 2 × 2 patch array. The EBG structure consists of the three uppermost LTCC
tape layers, the Au ground plane below these layers, five rows
of Au patches as shown in Fig. 2, and Au vias that span two
entire network is shielded by a row of grounding vias required of the three interior tape layers above the ground plane. The
to suppress radiation from the stripline. The 12-mil longitudinal period for each unit cell is 15 mil (381 μm), and the nom-
spacing between ground vias reduces the ground plane current inal 5-mil vias have a post-fired diameter of about 116 μm.
density outside of the via fence to a level at least 50 dB below Au patches are fabricated using ultraviolet laser ablation of a
the current density on the stripline center conductor. metallized green sheet. As shown in Fig. 4, this manufacturing
Coupling slots for the antenna elements (shown in Fig. 2) process yields clean and uniform 55 + / − 6 μm wide slots,
are centered above the step junctions where the matching trans- a feat that is not achievable with conventional microelectron-
formers meet the tuning stubs. Since the central power divider ics conductor screen printing processes. Post-fired slot width is
is offset from the origin one-quarter of a guide wavelength at about 50 μm or 2 mil. As a large array, this LTCC EBG structure
60 GHz along the negative y-axis, the two left patches in Fig. 2 has a measured TM-mode cutoff frequency near 53 GHz [11],
are fed 180◦ out of phase with respect to the two right patches. and a measured TE-mode cutoff frequency near 69 GHz [12].
However, the direction from which the stripline excites the left Therefore, the inherent surface wave stopband extends over 53–
patches is opposite to the direction from which the stripline 69 GHz. This stopband can be predicted using effective media
excites the right patches. This means that all four patch ele- models and transverse resonance techniques [13]. One of the
ments are fed with equal phase and equal amplitude excitations, novelties of this antenna is that the EBG patches are buried or
thus forming a broadside beam at 60 GHz. This four-element sandwiched between two tape layers. This increases the edge
feed network employs the shortest possible length of stripline capacitance, resulting in a reduced-size unit cell area of only
to minimize losses. (381 μm)2 compared to an EBG structure with exterior patches
1524 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 15, 2016

Fig. 5. Reflection coefficient for the prototype antenna array of Figs. 1 and 2
assuming a 50-Ω reference impedance.
Fig. 7. Simulated and measured E-plane gain at 60 GHz.

respects including package size except for the lack of the

integrated EBG structure. Both current distributions have the
same 60-dB dynamic range, and they are both normalized with
respect to their maximum current, which is found on the central
stripline. The upper plot in Fig. 6 shows that, without the EBG
structure, standing waves of current are found along all ground
plane edges with peak magnitudes in the −45 dB range. The
lower plot shows much lower edge currents, mostly −50 dB
and less, with only two nodes of standing waves. Note that the
inside edges of the rows of EBG unit cells have a level of ground
plane current on the order of −35 dB, and this current decays
rapidly to −60 dB or lower at the outside edges of the EBG
structure. Five rows of unit cells are found to be optimum for
this antenna design. Clearly this EBG structure rapidly attenu-
ates the TM surface wave mode at 60 GHz. Fig. 6 is graphic
evidence that the EBG structure can significantly reduce edge
currents and confine the domain of high ground plane currents.
Fig. 6. Simulated RMS ground plane currents at 60 GHz for the baseline Broadside gain is enhanced by limiting the propagation of sur-
antenna (upper plot) and the prototype antenna of Figs. 1 and 2 (lower plot).
face waves such that diffraction into nonbroadside directions is
reduced.
where its unit cell area is (475 μm)2 . The combination of the To quantify the difference in principal plane patterns with
relatively high 9K7 LTCC permittivity (εr = 7) and the ability and without the EBG structure, Fig. 7 shows the comparison of
to form uniform 50-μm gaps between EBG patches is an advan- E-plane gain. The addition of the EBG structure to the LTCC
tage over other printed wiring board technologies for unit cell package is predicted to improve the boresight gain by 4 dBi,
miniaturization and hence integration. and to improve the sidelobe level from about −5 to −13 dB
where the sidelobe level is referenced to the peak of the main
beam. Fig. 8 shows the comparison of H-plane gain patterns.
III. A NTENNA R ESULTS
The enhancement of 4 dBi in boresight gain when using the
The reflection coefficient is shown in Fig. 5, where the ref- EBG structure is a factor of 2.5 in radiated power, or effective
erence plane is located at the end of the CPW. Simulation [14] isotropic radiated power (EIRP), assuming the same antenna
predicts 6.3 GHz of −10-dB bandwidth, Measured reflection efficiency. Predicted front-to-back ratio is improved by more
coefficient is actually degraded to about −5 dB in-band. This than 10 dB with the integrated EBG structure.
will be improved in subsequent builds by adjustment of fabri- The prototype antenna of Fig. 1 was measured in a μLab
cated transmission line and coupling slot dimensions. Results chamber [15], and the E-plane gain data is plotted in Fig. 7.
shown in this letter are from the initial build. The null in mea- The measurement is performed with a spherical near-field scan-
sured data near 60 GHz is believed to be due to a mismatch at ning probe that is physically blocked by the micro-probe and its
the CPW-to-stripline transition. positioner over the angular range of −135◦ to −40◦ . Hence, the
It is instructive to visualize the difference in RMS cur- measured gain in Fig. 7 is far below −30 dB over these angles.
rent density with versus without the integrated EBG structure. Undesired scattering from the micro-probe distorts the mea-
Fig. 6 shows simulated 3-D views of the current density on the sured E-plane gain, but the sidelobe level still remains about
top side of the ground plane for the prototype and baseline −14 dB, which is close to simulation. Fig. 8 shows the mea-
antennas. Note that the baseline antenna is identical in all sured H-plane gain pattern where the sidelobe level is less than
MCKINZIE et al.: 60-GHZ 2 × 2 LTCC PATCH ANTENNA ARRAY WITH INTEGRATED EBG STRUCTURE 1525

gain enhancement and 8 dB of improvement in sidelobe level.

The antenna has simulated and measured peak directivity near
14 dBi despite a substrate relative permittivity as high as 7.
The novelty of this antenna lies in its manufacturing process.
Fabrication of 2-mil conductor gaps is achieved using laser
ablation of green sheets (pre-fired). This letter is believed to
show the first demonstration of a Sievenpiper EBG structure
used in a millimeter-wave LTCC antenna array. This com-
pact antenna array of size 350 × 510 × 27 mil3 has an aperture
area of only 1.78λ × 2.08λ including the area occupied by
its integrated EBG structure. The antenna’s small size and
extremely low mass (< 0.25 g) makes it well suited for mobile
applications.

Fig. 8. Simulated and measured H-plane gain at 60 GHz.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge E. Lee with Orbit/FR for
providing antenna measurements from a μLab chamber [15],
and L. Sherer with www.HighImpactPhoto.com for Fig. 1.

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