LTCC-based ultra-wideband linearly tapered slot antenna design guidelines

In this paper, the design of antipodal non-planar Linearly Tapered Slot Antenna (LTSA) designed in LTCC technology with wide bandwidth operation for ultra-wideband applications and a practical design guideline of LTCC-based ultra wideband LTSA is presented. The LTCC-based ultra wideband LTSA characteristics are investigated and then compared to a compact antipodal LTCC-based Vivaldi design. Using microstrip feeding technique, the antenna return loss S11 stays below -10dB from 9GHz to 10.5GHz. From simulation results, the LTCC-based ultra wideband LTSA design, optimized using HFSS, it is found that the LTCC-based LTSA antenna has a broad bandwidth of about 1.5Ghz which satisfies the ultra-wideband bandwidth requirement. The LTCC-based ultra wideband LTSA has an efficient end fire radiation pattern of more than 5dB peak gain and a total chip area of 50x25mm2. Therefore this antenna can be used for a variety of ultra-wide band applications