A GapWaveguide-Fed Wideband Patch Antenna Array for 60-GHz Applications

This communication presents a wideband aperture-coupled patch antenna array based on ridge gap waveguide feed layer for 60-GHz applications. The novelty of this antenna lies in the combination of relatively new gap waveguide technology along with conventional patch antenna arrays allowing to achieve a wideband patch antenna array with high gain and high radiation efficiency. An 8 x 8-element array antenna is designed, fabricated, and tested. Experimental results show that the bandwidth of VSWR < 2 is up to 15.5% (57.5-67.2 GHz). More than 75% efficiency and higher than 21.5-dBi gain are achieved over the operational bandwidth. The results are valuable for the design and evaluation of wideband planar antenna arrays at millimeter-wave frequencies